Finger food

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Fingerprint scanners offer a new way to pay at Jewel-Osco

By KATHRYN REM
FOOD EDITOR

Published Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Don't bother bringing your checkbook, debit card, loyalty card or Alexander Hamiltons the next time you shop at Springfield's Jewel-Osco stores.

You can pay with your fingerprint.

The two stores, at 1903 W. Monroe St. and 2777 S. Sixth St., have joined a growing number of retailers using a fingerprint-scanning technology called Pay By Touch. For those who choose to sign up, it allows payment for purchases by entering a seven-digit code (usually a phone number) and pressing a finger into a small scanner at the checkout counter.

If you are who you say you are, the cost of your purchase automatically will be withdrawn from your bank account, like a debit card. Once you're registered, you can use the technology at any store using Pay By Touch.

"We started rolling it out in January. We're doing it in waves so personnel can be trained," said Juanita Kocanda, manager of public affairs for Jewel-Osco.

Using the technology is voluntary and free. If you do register, you don't have to use it every time; you choose your method of payment.

"You can start using it the same day that you sign up," Kocanda said.

The primary benefit, she said, is convenience.

"Let's say you're driving past the Jewel and you need to pick up butter, milk and eggs. You can run through the store and then check out. You don't need to fumble with a check or money or get change back," Kocanda said.

If the shopper has a Jewel-Osco Preferred Savings Card, the digit scan will activate it.

Benefits to the retailer are faster checkouts and, ideally, more repeat-customer business.

"I'm not afraid of technology," said Sheila McFadden after registering at the kiosk next to the service desk at the Fairhills Mall store. "I won't have to carry checks or cash. And it's better than a debit card because there's no plastic to lose."

The Springfield woman plans to pay by touch on her next visit to Jewel-Osco.

But not all shoppers feel comfortable giving up a fingerprint to the great unknown.

"I'm not sure about it," said Fred Hinds of Springfield. "What are they going to do with my fingerprint?"

Pay By Touch stresses that it doesn't record actual fingerprints. Rather, the biometric system collects a series of data points on a fingerprint that are unique to every individual. These tiny measurements are converted into a mathematical equation, encrypted and stored at IBM data centers under industry security standards.

No image of the full fingerprint is actually stored, so even if unscrupulous hackers ever got into the system, they would only have elements of a shopper's whorled digit.

To sign up, bring your driver's license or state ID, a personal check and - duh - your finger to the service desk at either Springfield store.

Although most users choose to scan an index finger, any finger or a thumb can be used.

Piggly Wiggly, Cub Foods, Thriftway and Bigg's stores are using the technology in some states. At Kroger, it's used to clock in employees. Disney World scans visitors for security purposes.

Jewel-Osco - the Midwest division of Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's, which has 2,500 stores - is using Pay By Touch in more than 200 stores in Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois. Kocanda said several thousand shoppers have registered.