Cub Foods began testing biometric payments on Monday. The Pay By Touch system reads the shopper’s finger —its unique heat signature, not the fingerprint— and then accesses their ‘electronic wallet’. Biometric scanners are only the latest high-tech gizmos supermarkets are using to differentiate themselves from discounters like Wal-Mart by focusing on speed and convenience. They are of particular interest to supermarkets, where margins are low, since it avoids paying transaction fees to credit card companies.
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