Situation Sthlm is a monthly magazine about local issues, sold by Stockholm's homeless. The profit from the sale goes directly to the vendor you buy it from.

But in a largely cashless economy, where people carry more cards than loose change, sellers were finding it hard to make the sales to support themselves, hampering the cause and the growth of the magazine.The vendors couldn't carry around credit card readers. But So what do people carry? Since 90% of people never leave home without their mobile (whereas only 80% leave with their wallets), we decided to use a text message payment platform.

A buyer simply sends an SMS with the seller’s unique ID to a short number, and a receipt is sent back to the buyer. It is then shown to the seller and the sale is completed.

A reporting tool tracks all purchases for each individual vendor as well as date and time information, so that upon arriving at Situation Sthlm HQ they can receive their earnings.In the first 3 months, over 4000 purchases had been made via SMS. Showing that a simple yet effective solution helped Stockholmers enjoy a good read and help their city's homeless get back on their feet.SMS is King!