One of South Africa’s Largest Supermarket Chains Now Supports Bitcoin Payments

Pick n Pay, which is one of South Africa’s largest supermarket chains, has reportedly started letting their customers pay for groceries via any Bitcoin Lightning-enabled wallet, such as Zap or BlueWallet.

According to the company’s press release, this move “follows the successful completion of the first phase of a new pilot that allows customers to pay using cryptocurrency on their smartphones using a trusted app,” and the company has now decided to the testing “in more stores.”

It went on to say:

“The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the Rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction. The service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70 cents, and takes less than 30 seconds.“

Apparently, Pick n Pay “ran the pilot in 10 Western Cape stores over the past five months with pre-selected testers,” and the retailer “has now extended the pilot to a further 29 stores for testing with customers, with the intention to roll it out to all stores in the coming months.”

Chris Shortt, Group Executive : Information and Technology (CITO) at Pick n Pay, had this to say:

“This new technology means we can provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa… We are constantly innovating and testing new technology so that we can add real value and choice for the customers we serve. This exciting pilot shows huge potential and is another way we can help and support our customers.“

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