Given the hassle and fraud involved in personal checks, and the widespread availability of ATMs, it was probably just a matter of time before this happened:
Whole Foods Market Inc. is considering banning the use of personal checks at its stores and this month stopped accepting checks at two stores in Los Angeles County and one in Arizona as a test. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the California division of British retailing giant Tesco, won’t take personal checks at any of the 70 stores it operates in California.
“Supermarkets used to be a repository of checking, cashing payroll and personal checks, but in an age of direct deposit and debit cards, that’s not something that is relevant to their customers anymore,” said Mac Brand, a Chicago food industry consultant. The heads of these chains see check processing as a time-consuming and expensive service at a time when the industry wants to drive down business costs, he said.
The move got mixed reviews from shoppers.
“Grocery stores are a dime a dozen. If the Albertsons where I shop stopped accepting checks, I would just go to Vons,” said Kerry Showalter of Newbury Park.
The new policy would also be hard on many seniors, who have been slow to adopt the use of debit cards, said Gail Hillebrand, a lawyer and financial services expert for the nonprofit Consumers Union.
But a widespread move by the grocery industry to ban personal checks would not upset shoppers such as Sharon Fern of Placentia.
“I haven’t written or carried a checkbook in many years,” she said. “Wouldn’t bother me a bit.” Debit cards are far more convenient, she said.
The stores say the ban will improve service, because processing check payments is a time-consuming process that slow up an entire checkout line. The stores hope check-writing customers will switch to using debit cards or ATMs.
“We keep our systems as simple as possible, keeping prices low for customers. We do accept cash, credit and debit cards and also have an ATM in-store,” said Brendan Wonnacott, a spokesman for Fresh & Easy.
Bill Jordan, Whole Foods’ regional vice president, said prohibiting personal checks should improve service.
“Since most of our customers pay with cash, debit cards or credit cards, we want them to be able to check out as quickly as possible. This pilot program was put in place to see if personal check users would make the switch to debit cards or another form of payment.”
A recent rise in bad checks also factors into the new policy, he said. “That unfortunately makes it more difficult for the remaining customers who prefer to pay this way. To help reduce fraud, we have a several-step personal check approval process that can often inconvenience other customers in line,” Jordan said.
Not mentioned: the cost of bad-check fees, which can range as high as $35 per check. There are ways to fight that, of course — such as using free check-collection services. But that doesn’t solve the time problem.
So the checks have to go — unless the stores experience a sharp decline in sales because of it. But if they’re correct and shoppers simply switch to cash and plastic, we may be seeing the beginning of the end for the personal check.
