grocers
Market ends fingerprint pay system
Company behind Dorothy Lane's Pay By Touch technology stops service amid Solidus bankruptcy.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Dorothy Lane Markets earlier this month pulled the plug on a checkout system that let customers pay for purchases with their fingerprint rather than cash, check or charge cards.
The grocer removed the Pay By Touch fingerprint scanners from checkout lanes on March 18 because the San Francisco-based company closed its biometrics operation, said Amy Brinkmoeller, the grocer's manager of information systems.
Extras
With the system, a customer would touch her fingertip to a small scanner. If there was a match, funds would transfer from the consumer's checking account to the merchant's account.
Dorothy Lane alerted its customers to the change by e-mail and in-store signs, Brinkmoeller said.
The family-owned grocery chain was one of several retailers that had deployed the fingerprint authentication and payment processing technology. Solidus Networks Inc., parent of Pay By Touch, exited this sector as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, according to the Solidus Web site.
Brinkmoeller said she is unsure whether a technology comparable to that of Pay By Touch exists, but the local grocer has no immediate plans to replace the system.
Dayton-based NCR Corp., which makes self-service checkouts, does have a fingerprint reader product, but doesn't offer a payment processing system identical to Pay By Touch, said Lorraine Russell, an NCR spokeswoman.
Tom Jackson, president and chief executive of the Ohio Grocers Association, said the technology offers customers convenience, security and speed, and it likely won't go away for good.
"It's going to catch on," he said. "But how soon and to what degree is, from my perspective, anybody's guess."
Brinkmoeller said Dorothy Lane customers who used the technology were disappointed to see it go.
"For those who embrace it, it's a very convenient way to shop," she said. "I think a lot of people have gotten used to the convenience."
Customer data collected for the Pay By Touch systems will be destroyed as part of the Chapter 11 proceedings, Brinkmoeller said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7317 or
ttresslar@DaytonDailyNews.com.
