“The Kroger Co. on Friday opened a new front in its battle with Visa Inc. over acceptance costs with an announcement that it will stop accepting Visa credit cards at its Smith’s Food & Drug Stores chain, which operates 134 stores in seven Western states. The ban is set to take effect April 3, Kroger said. The move is the latest salvo by Cincinnati-based Kroger in its long-running feud with the card networks and with Visa specifically. It also steps up the pressure on Visa after the grocery giant last August banned the network’s credit cards from a much smaller chain, Foods Co., which has 21 supermarkets and five gas stations in California. Kroger owns a number of retail brands that altogether embrace some 2,800 stores nationwide.”

“If the department store has a future, it might look like this. The space is a quarter of its original size. New goods hit the racks daily and are displayed on a single floor with an e-commerce warehouse upstairs. The store is closed two days a week and is staffed by full-time employees who know their customers by name and sell auto insurance among other services at the checkout.”

“The Great Recession strengthened merchant resolve to do something about the cost of payments. For the first time, merchants collaborated to bring their arguments to Washington, and they prevailed as a result of the public’s displeasure with banks and the general feeling that something needed to be done to control banks’ excessive market power and greed.”

“Merchant accounts can seem scary, complex and full of indecipherable words at times. Cut through the jargon and confusion with our A-Z Guide to Merchant Accounts. With this handy, alphabetized guide you’ll be a confident, informed merchant account holder before you know it.”

“Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is hoping millennials and Generation Z shoppers like purchasing hoodies and jeans with their Venmo accounts as much as they like buying pizza. Venmo payment optionSource: Abercrombie & Fitch Starting Tuesday, shoppers using the retailer’s namesake and Hollister apps will be able to select the popular payment platform as an option when checking out. The company’s mobile apps are its fastest-growing digital channel, making them key to a revival at the youth clothing store, which saw sales rise last fiscal year after four annual declines.”

“The Shop & Scan service allows shoppers to scan products as they shop with a Meijer app downloaded on their phones and bag the groceries on the go. To check out, shoppers hold their phones up to a self-checkout register, then walk out the door.”

“Crate and Barrel has selected Synchrony, a leading private label credit card financing company, as its strategic provider of consumer financing. Crate and Barrel and Synchrony will partner on a private label credit card, for use in nearly 100 North American Crate and Barrel stores and all digital channels, and add a dual-branded Mastercard to the retailer’s options. The new credit cards will be launched later in 2018.”

“Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL -0.11% is banking on branded credit cards, repairing jets and plusher passenger amenities to drive growth. The No. 2 U.S. carrier beat quarterly earnings forecasts on Thursday thanks to rising passenger and cargo traffic as well as non-ticket revenue that is growing at an even faster pace. Airlines have become reliant for sales and profits on services and products such as co-branded credit cards from issuers including American Express Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.”

“Mastercard announced that Phillips 66 will integrate Masterpass into its My Phillips 66 App later this year. Mastercard’s digital payment service will enable Phillips 66 customers to simply and securely pay both at the pump and in the convenience store within the My Phillips 66 App. Masterpass securely stores all payment information, including card details, shipping details, and payment preference – making the gas tank the only thing consumers need to remember to fill.”

“KFC, has migrated its payments system in the U.S. to Ingenico Group’s Telium semi-integrated solution to simplify its path to EMV card acceptance and reduce PCI compliance scope while also providing customers with more payment options and enhanced payment security. As part of the solution, KFC customers will now be able to pay using all forms of electronic payment, including EMV chip & PIN, EMV chip & sign, magstripe and NFC/contactless.”

“Wagamamago uses Mastercard’s Qkr! digital ordering and payment platform, which is integrated via APIs into its own app. Customers need to check in and give restaurant staff a code, which the wait staff tags to the table. U.K. customers, in contrast to U.S., counterparts, may be more open to changing their payment behavior since their payment habits have already been disrupted by widespread adoption of contactless payments. Qkr! is available in the U.S., but hasn’t been widely adopted by restaurants. In the U.K. however, major chains are allowing ‘pay with mobile’ capabilities through the Qkr! app, including Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Ask Italian and Bryon Hamburgers. Wagamama did not respond to a request for comment.”

“The desire for change in the grocery shopping experience was made apparent last month, when the public got its first glimpse of the Amazon Go store in Seattle. Consider the irony: Designed to eliminate the check-out line, the store has had a line outside its entrance since it opened. And just last week, Amazon announced that it would begin offering groceries from Whole Foods through its two-hour Prime Now delivery service.”

“Cash has its advantages. It doesn’t come with a service fee, it might encourage tipping, and it requires human interaction that can shine a light on superior customer service, says Virgil Dickerson, marketing manager of Illegal Pete’s, a Denver-based burrito concept that had considered going cashless but decided against it. The brand is, however, incorporating more digital payment options than just credit cards.”