Customers on Reddit and Twitter have reported that Kroger began taking Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods this week at some stores in Kentucky and Ohio. This will enable consumers to tap to pay with an iPhone or Apple Watch at the checkout. Other contactless payment methods will also be accepted.
There is a need for clarification regarding the number of Kroger locations already taking Apple Pay, as well as whether or not NFC-based payments will be made available at all of the roughly 1,200 grocery stores operating under the Kroger brand name. We have reached out to a representative from the corporation for comment, and we will revise this article if we become aware of any new information.
Kroger, along with Walmart, The Home Depot, and Lowe’s, was one of the top retailers in the United States that did not accept Apple Pay when the service was first introduced in 2014. During the past few years, Kroger has implemented Apple Pay in several other supermarket chains. These chains include Ralphs in the state of California, QFC in the states of Washington and Oregon, and King Soopers in the states of Colorado and Wyoming.
A spokeswoman for Kroger verified that the retailer Fred Meyer, which Kroger owns, has also just lately started taking Apple Pay at its locations in the Northwest. While this happened, the North Carolina-based Harris Teeter chain tweeted that it is “working towards accepting Apple Pay.”
Apple stated that more than 90 percent of retailers in the United States accept Apple Pay in a press release from the previous year, and Kroger represents a big increase in that number. Kroger Pay, which requires consumers to scan a QR code at checkout to pay with a debit or credit card stored in the Kroger app, is still one of the services the firm provides and will continue to provide in the foreseeable future.
