Kroger stores start accepting Apple Pay for grocery purchases

Grocery chain Kroger is increasing its acceptance of Apple Pay, with some of its stores able to take payments from Apple's platform, while owned-chain Fred Meyer is also rolling out support.

Kroger is a major holdout from taking Apple Pay payments across its chain of stores. It now seems that the retailer is slowly changing its mind about Apple's mobile payments, and is allowing more stores to take payments from iPhones.

So far, Kroger's main stores have largely avoided taking Apple Pay payments, but that's changing. In tweets and other social postings, customers are reporting that some stores are taking Apple Pay payments without issue.

The tweets, originally reported by Appleosophy, indicate some Kroger-branded stores are taking Apple Pay. However, Kroger itself has yet to officially announce Apple Pay support across the chain.

Though the main Kroger stores are only just testing the waters, other areas of the empire already take Apple Pay. Some King Soopers, Ralph's, and Quality Food Centers already take Apple Pay payments.

Joining the list is the Northwest-based Fred Meyer, a Kroger-owned chain that has started to take Apple Pay payments. In a statement to MacRumors, Fred Meyer confirmed it is "now accepting Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, mobile banking apps and contactless chip cards."

As part of Kroger's resistance to Apple Pay and other third-party platforms, Kroger Pay was introduced in 2019. Unlike Apple Pay, Kroger Pay relied on QR codes displayed on a customer's device, which were scanned by a cashier at checkout.