Square Makes First Grocer Partnership With Whole Foods

About a year and a half ago, Square announced a major partnership with Starbucks. Today, Square has announced another such partnership with Whole Foods Market, which will see select grocery stores imp...
Square Makes First Grocer Partnership With Whole Foods
Written by Chris Crum
  • About a year and a half ago, Square announced a major partnership with Starbucks. Today, Square has announced another such partnership with Whole Foods Market, which will see select grocery stores implementing Square payment and checkout features.

    Whole Foods expects the integration of Square Register and Square Stand (and in some stores, Square Wallet) to make the checkout process faster and easier for customers., allowing them to skip checkout lines, including at interior sandwich counters, juice and coffee bars, pizzerias, and beer and wine bars.

    Square CEO Jack Dorsey said, “Whole Foods Market and Square share a focus on supporting local sellers and creating amazing shopping experiences. With Square, Whole Foods Market will enable commerce in more parts of their stores with easy, accessible tools that showcase the best of what’s achievable in the service of retailers and customers.”

    “Together with Square, we’ll deliver options to expedite checkouts, and we look forward to developing new concepts to further simplify and improve grocery shopping,” said Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. “Square’s forward-thinking vision and technology makes them an ideal partner to create a convenient, responsive experience for our customers.”

    Seven Whole Foods venues already use Square Stand. It’s unclear how many stores will utilize Square initially as a result of the partnership. Some of them, however, will serve as “lab stores” testing additional features ahead of wider roll-outs.

    It goes without saying that entry into grocery stores is a huge step for Square, which may go public this year. Other grocers will no doubt be watching to see how the partnership affects the customer experience at Whole Foods.

    If you’re a smaller business, it may interest you to know that Square recently reduced the price of Square Stand to $99.

    Image via Square (Twitter)

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