Cash Management for Supermarkets & Hypermarkets in Dubai: Notes, Coins & Multi-Till Counting

Supermarkets and hypermarkets run more tills, more shifts, and more total cash than almost any other retail. Even in a card-first market, a busy branch can take a large amount of cash and thousands of coins in a single day, and all of it has to be checked, counted, and reconciled without holding up the close.

That is truer still outside the malls. Branches in industrial and residential areas take most of their money in cash. The same brands run branches across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the Northern Emirates. Here is a real example from one of our clients.

Cash handling built branch by branch for Souq Al Mubarak

Souq Al Mubarak Hypermarkets take a lot of cash every day - roughly AED 100,000 to 200,000 per branch, plus around 3,000 to 10,000 coins. Most branches are in industrial areas, so nearly 90% of customers pay in cash.

We built the setup around each branch’s size. For an early six-checkout branch in Ajman, we put a Cassida 3200 counterfeit detector at every counter so cashiers check notes as they take them. For smaller branches, we supplied a Cassida Xpecto and a Cassida Coinmaster in the cash office. For the larger, higher-volume stores, we installed a Cassida Artemis with a Cassida Coinmax.

This cut human error on counterfeit notes and made the end-of-day much faster - instead of hand-checking and reconciling notes and coins for a long time, the team now processes and verifies the day’s takings quickly and accurately. When they opened a new branch in Abu Dhabi last month, we rolled out the same setup.

Where the time and risk go

Many tills, many counts. Every till and every shift is a counting point and a chance for a discrepancy; a fast, standard process keeps them all comparable.

Coins are a real burden. Thousands of coins a day pile up; a coin counter turns hours of hand-sorting into minutes.

Counterfeit risk at the checkout. High cash volume means more exposure; a detector at each counter stops a fake at the point of sale.

The setup we recommend for a supermarket

Detect at the checkout, and count notes and coins together in the cash office - sized to each branch.

At each checkout - Cassida 3200 counterfeit detector: it checks each note as the cashier takes it, so a fake is caught at the till, not found at the close.

Smaller-branch cash office - Cassida Xpecto with a Cassida Coinmaster: count and check notes, and sort the day’s coins, in one place.

Larger, higher-volume stores - Cassida Artemis with a Cassida Coinmax: a heavy-duty note sorter plus high-volume coin counting for a big daily total.

Practical points

Match the kit to the branch. A six-till store and a large hypermarket do not need the same machines; size the setup to each branch’s cash volume.

Do not let coins eat the shift. A dedicated coin counter is the difference between a quick close and an hour of hand-sorting.

All Cassida machines read the new polymer AED notes. As the Central Bank rolls out polymer AED notes, every Cassida machine reads every version, old and new, so no real note is rejected at the checkout.

Clean the machines often. Supermarket cash is high-volume and dirty; dust and grime build up inside and cause miscounts and jams, so regular cleaning matters - our service center handles it.

Frequently asked questions

Where should a supermarket put counterfeit detection? At every checkout. The till is the only place a cashier can still refuse a fake; by the cash office it is already a loss.

Do we really need a coin counter? If a branch takes thousands of coins a day, yes - it turns the longest part of the close into a few minutes.

Should every branch use the same setup? The same approach, sized to the branch. Smaller stores get a lighter setup; larger, high-volume stores step up to a heavy-duty sorter and high-volume coin counter.

Why supermarkets switch to Cassida

Many stores first buy counters on the open market or from an online marketplace, then have no one to call when a machine fails at the busiest hour. They switch to Cassida because we run the region’s only specialized service center for cash machines, in Al Quoz, Dubai, so a machine is cleaned, fixed, or replaced fast, and every branch stays on the same standard.

About Cassida Middle East

Cassida Middle East is the only branch of Cassida USA in the region. We operate the UAE’s only service center focused exclusively on cash-handling equipment - banknote counters, sorters, and counterfeit detectors - located in Al Quoz, Dubai. We have been here since 2013 and have served more than 4,000 businesses across the country, including grocery and retail names such as Carrefour, Spinneys, and Choithrams. Machines carry a one-year warranty, with a second year added when you order directly from the Cassida website - two years in total - along with training at purchase and on-site or yearly service plans.

Written by Mr. Muhammad Saeed, Service Engineer, Cassida Middle East - 9 years of experience with cash-counting machines.

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