EMV Gets Speedy at New Leaf, New Seasons
Two California grocery chains, New Leaf Community Markets and its New Seasons Market subsidiary, have implemented new Visa and Mastercard EMV-transaction technology to speed up the process of payments via chip cards.
The two natural grocers worked with Index, a retail software company that combines secure payments, measurement and personalization for the offline world, to bring the “faster EMV” technology to their stores. Mastercard’s M/Chip Fast application, which launched in April, is based on contactless – or “tap-and-go” – technology, designed to speed EMV transactions by prioritizing the steps critical to security. Cardholders can expect to experience speeds closer to the familiar magnetic-stripe transactions with the added security of EMV technology.
“We’re known for having the friendliest cashiers in town and now we have faster checkout too,” said Sean Teisher, New Seasons Market. “With this new technology from our partner Index, our customers can just dip their chip card and remove it – it’s simple, fast and friendly.”
Meanwhile, Visa’s Quick Chip technology, which launched earlier this year, optimizes EMV, allowing customers to insert and remove their chip card from store payment terminals in about two seconds. In addition to accelerating chip-card transactions, Quick Chip enables faster deployment of EMV-chip systems for retailers.
“The upgrade to Quick Chip was fairly invisible from our perspective” during its seven-day implementation, said Brendan Lazarus, IT manager, New Leaf. “Once we decided to move forward, working with our partner Index, the process moved quickly. We appreciate the responsiveness of Index in cracking the code on this technology quickly so we can make our customers’ checkout experience better and faster.”
Based in Portland, Ore., New Seasons Market operates 20 stores, most of them in the Portland metropolitan area. Its subsidiary, Santa Cruz, Calif.-based New Leaf Community Markets, operates seven stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.