Lucky, Save Mart and FoodMaxx stores are now accepting Apple Pay in all of its 217 stores throughout Northern California and Nevada.
“Expect new things in our stores this year—the first of which is Apple Pay. We are working diligently to transform the shopping experience for our customers and this cutting-edge technology will help to speed them through checkout,” said Nicole Piccinini Pesco, co-president and chief strategy and branding officer. “Accepting Apple Pay provides shoppers a secure and private way to pay for their groceries and we’ve added support for this new mobile payment method solely for their benefit and convenience.”
Apple Pay provides a simple, secure and private way for shoppers to pay for their groceries, according to the grocer.
Apple Pay is easy to set up and users will continue to receive all of the rewards and benefits offered by their credit and debit cards. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch, upon availability.
Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay. When a customer adds a credit or debit card to Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique device account number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the secure element on the customer’s device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code, instead of using the security code from the back of the customer’s card.
Save Mart also now accepts a variety of smartphone digital payments, including Google Wallet and Softcard.
I used it at my local Lucky supermarket. Although it worked, it was still just as clunky as swiping my debit card. After holding my phone to the terminal, it still prompted me: 1) Is this debit or credit, 2) ENTER your PIN, 3) Cash back? 4) Is this amount OK?. When I used it at Petco, it bypassed all those prompts. After successfully reading my phone, I got my receipt in 2 seconds.