Kroger accepts tap to pay, and mobile wallet payments in Houston. HEB? Still doing that corporate speak.
Posted by
Qale
Jun 13 '23, 11:33
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"At H-E-B, we are actively exploring a broad range of technologies to enhance how customers shop and pay for products and we hope to offer these services in the future," H-E-B Houston's senior director of public affairs Lisa Helfman said.
In a move long awaited by grocery customers looking for a quicker check-out, Kroger stores in Houston are now accepting Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, as well as tap-to-pay credit and debit payments.
Kroger introduced the new options June 6 at its 108 Houston-area locations. The transition required Kroger to update its software for credit card readers, said Troy Harding, vice president of the chain's Houston division.
The company in 2020 began testing its use of the payment technologies, which employ near field communication and radio-frequency identification that allow chip-enabled debit and credit cards and mobile phones to communicate with the readers at checkout lines.
More than 90 percent of retailers surveyed in North America accept RFID tap-to-pay cards according to a 2021 report by software engineering services, data and artificial intelligence firm Accenture. The use of payment technology in cards was introduced in 2014. Apple Pay is only slightly less widespread, with more than 85 percent of U.S. retailers accepting Apple Pay, also introduced in 2014, according to Apple's website. In a 2022 report by the National Retail Federation and the consumer research company Forrester, 80 percent of surveyed retailers accept Apple Pay or planned to accept it within the next 18 months, while 65 percent said the same for Google Pay, which is found on Android phones.
Albertsons, which owns the Randalls grocery chain, rolled out Apple Pay to all of its U.S. stores in 2017. H-E-B, on the other hand, does not accept Apple Pay.
The use of digital wallets, built into the software on Apple and Android-based phones, took off in 2020 when some pandemic-related restrictions on in-person shopping were lifted, according to a 2021 report by the Federal Reserve Payments Study. Many consumers got used to using digital wallets during the pandemic, National Retail Federation Chief Administrative Officer and general counsel Stephanie Martz said.
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