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Kroger-Owned Grocery Store Chain Harris Teeter Begins Accepting Apple Pay
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And I thought Germany was behind the times but even the 'nur bar' country that they are at least have contactless payment at pretty much all grocery stores!
Sure, but there is nothing even now preventing them from turning on the NFC in their payment terminals yet they don’t do it.
This launched two weeks ago, as reported by 9to5Mac and confirmed by me out of curiosity same day. Y’all are a bit behind, which is surprising because you’re usually on it.
Kroger had to do this because they are acquiring Albertsons, who already offer Tap to Pay at all their locations, and the removal of which would have upset enough customers to warrant the change. I imagine the very low percentage of daily shoppers using their own in-house Kroger Pay service made it an easy choice frankly.
I for one am glad they finally did this, as not too long ago I was at a Fred Meyer and realized I’d forgotten my wallet at home and had to apologize to the checkout clerk and then drive over to the closest Albertsons because I knew they accepted tap to pay and I could use my watch at checkout. It’s a small luxury but it spoils you to the point it’s absence becomes a real irritant.
Kroger had to do this because they are acquiring Albertsons, who already offer Tap to Pay at all their locations, and the removal of which would have upset enough customers to warrant the change. I imagine the very low percentage of daily shoppers using their own in-house Kroger Pay service made it an easy choice frankly.
I for one am glad they finally did this, as not too long ago I was at a Fred Meyer and realized I’d forgotten my wallet at home and had to apologize to the checkout clerk and then drive over to the closest Albertsons because I knew they accepted tap to pay and I could use my watch at checkout. It’s a small luxury but it spoils you to the point it’s absence becomes a real irritant.
I fully believe that if things had gone a bit differently, the US would still be using cash for almost everything. Stores very much dislike the card networks for various reasons, but considering there aren't really many better options (that customers are willing to use, anyway), here we are.
BTW high interchange is a big reason why Apple Pay for transit isn't a bigger thing here.
The few times when I have to shop at Walmart and have to use my card instead of Apple Pay, I've noticed that their terminals only ask for a PIN if the transaction is over $50. So anyone could steal a debit or credit card and buy anything at Walmart under $50 and get away with it. Give me Apple Pay any day.
And to to add, they’re also acquiring Safeway, at least here in AZ, who already have ApplePay in place.
The US is so far behind. In Hong Kong, the Octopus card is widely used for payment at all public transit systems, many convenience stores, and some other retailers. It uses NFC technology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card . I think of it as essentially a debit card.
Yee-haw, geewillikers Barney, they be takin' my Apple Pay with that newfangled phone y'all got me.
Kroger-owned grocery store chain Harris Teeter this week announced it now accepts Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods at all of its over 250 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and a few other states.
Apple Pay also started rolling out at some actual Kroger locations in Kentucky and Ohio earlier this month, as the company finally embraces NFC technology. Kroger was one of the largest Apple Pay holdouts in the U.S. since the service launched in 2014, alongside Walmart and The Home Depot, but it now accepts Apple Pay at some or all Kroger, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, QFC, King Soopers, and Harris Teeter locations across the country.
Apple Pay allows customers to tap to pay with an iPhone or Apple Watch at checkout, providing a convenient and secure payment method. Alongside Apple Pay, Kroger continues to offer its own service called Kroger Pay, which requires customers to scan a QR code at checkout to pay with a debit or credit card stored in the Kroger app.
Article Link: Kroger-Owned Grocery Store Chain Harris Teeter Begins Accepting Apple Pay
Oh, there are definitely NFC based transit cards here, but they tend to work only on transit. They also have the benefit (for the agency) of forcing people to load a larger amount of money at a time, hence making CC fees lower as a percentage than they would be if they just let people tap their normal credit or debit cards on the reader.
Anyway, this all makes me wonder if we'd be a lot further along on contactless if the US had EU-style caps on interchange. As it is, it's amazing that 3-4% fees for card use still aren't commonplace ~a decade after allowing them to be imposed.
The companies I mentioned still don't have NFC compliant terminals (for the most part). They'll all switch over to start using NFC terminals, in my opinion, once they can use it for non-contact payments without going through the Apple Pay system.
Target does the same thing with their red card digital wallet, but at least I get a 5% discount in return for Target getting my data and them saving on credit card fees. Plus Apple Pay is still there as a choice. What Walmart is doing is just scummy with no benefits for the consumer.
Some stores do selective acceptance of NFC payments. Harris Teeter has been accepting NFC payments for Samsung Pay for years but have been blocking Apple Pay and Google Pay.
That's because Samsung actually used to send magnetic pulses to the swiper to fake a card swipe at the places that didn't do NFC.
I go to "The Teen" damn near daily and it's been my only beef for a while. I'm very glad to hear this. I was just talking with someone in Food Lion (southern chain) about this just yesterday. Woot Woot!
Kroger-owned grocery store chain Harris Teeter this week announced it now accepts Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods at all of its over 250 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and a few other states.
Apple Pay also started rolling out at some actual Kroger locations in Kentucky and Ohio earlier this month, as the company finally embraces NFC technology. Kroger was one of the largest Apple Pay holdouts in the U.S. since the service launched in 2014, alongside Walmart and The Home Depot, but it now accepts Apple Pay at some or all Kroger, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, QFC, King Soopers, and Harris Teeter locations across the country.
Apple Pay allows customers to tap to pay with an iPhone or Apple Watch at checkout, providing a convenient and secure payment method. Alongside Apple Pay, Kroger continues to offer its own service called Kroger Pay, which requires customers to scan a QR code at checkout to pay with a debit or credit card stored in the Kroger app.
Article Link: Kroger-Owned Grocery Store Chain Harris Teeter Begins Accepting Apple PayI
Ok, then Home Depot. When Aple Pay first came out it "just worked" at Home Depot, for a very short amount of time. HD already had NFC terminals. They disabled Apple Pay within weeks.
My memory of it was that HD's implementation didn't fully work right with certain card types. Even if they weren't anti-contactless out of principle, it probably still would have been a good idea to disable it from a UX perspective.
Apple Pay worked great for me at self-checkout today. No new card readers. Guess they just had to turn it on.
Speaking of ice cream, since I use Kroger Pay, Kroger knows that I buy large quantities of Breyer’s/Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and about twice a month sends me multiple coupons for significant discounts on these brands. Sometimes the discounts amount to about 50% off on each container useable up to 5X in a single transaction — so I can stock my freezer. They also give discounts on Kroger gas using a point system.
I don’t really care that Kroger knows what groceries I buy as long as they provide me these discounts. I suppose once they introduce Apple Pay, I will need to scan their loyalty card to get these benefits — an additional step at the POS. Walgreen does this and it takes a little extra time at the register.
Kroger is big on loyalty programs and in many of their stores you have to scan your loyalty card (or enter phone number) to get any of the sale prices. As a result most people provide their loyalty ID so Kroger gets all of the purchase details anyway. They don’t really need to force people into the app, too.
ApplePay really just presents itself as another NFC credit card. They would have to go out of their way to allow NFC but block ApplePay specifically.
Pfffft….you youngsters and your gimmicks. I prefer the tried and true method. It even works during power outages and solar flares:
