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Kroger ends Visa ban

US supermarket giant Kroger is accepting Visa credit cards at all of its stores again, ending a ban begun more than a year ago in protest at "excessive" interchange fees.

The company last year initiated a Visa ban on 26 California stores in its Foods Co. business before extending the policy to 142 Smith's Food and Drug Stores and 108 petrol stations across seven states.

In March, Kroger CFO Mike Schlotman said "Visa's excessive fees and unfairness cannot continue to go unchecked".

However, a threat to extend the ban to the rest of Kroger's 2800 stores failed to materialise and the company is now accepting Visa at all of its stores. It has not given a reason for the reversal.

Related Companies

Visa

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Retail banking Payments

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Cards Eftpos

Editorial | what does this mean?

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

Comments: (5)

A Finextra member 30 October, 2019, 21:37

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The reason for the reversal is pretty obvious. They received a lot of customer complaints and lost significant business by refusing to accept the largest card brand. It's easier to switch supermarkets than credit cards.

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Duane Tough - PBATM - ny 30 October, 2019, 21:58

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can't give one something special and not the others (walmart) and marketing incentive rebates and dollar credits for advertising etc....are not a lower interchange, but the life cycle works itself out to be less....

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Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 31 October, 2019, 15:01

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Uh oh, a year ago, I'd lauded Kroger's move here. Sad to say its gambit didn't play out. I strongly suspect that the retailer got carried away by the fintech buzz and tried to find alternative payment methods. And realized, as we've seen repeatedly over the last decade, that there just isn't any cheaper alternative to credit / debit cards that are equally popular with consumers.

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A Finextra member 31 October, 2019, 18:42

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Who's to say that they didn't achieve their objective? The press release tells us nothing! Personally, after all this time I think they'd made their point, achieved concessions from Visa in some form or another and were gagged by the deal reached to say nothing.

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Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 01 November, 2019, 09:06

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Yo @FinextraMember at 18:42: Hope you're right! If so, it will restore my faith in free market capitalism. Especially since it would prove that buyers still have power even under an alleged monopoly / duopoly situation.