Seattle Independent First to Install IBM POS System with Biometrics

SEATTLE - Thriftway Supermarket, a one-store independent here, is the first retailer to install a new IBM SurePOS ACE point-of-sale application that provides a turnkey solution for the Pay By Touch biometric payment service, IBM, Raleigh, N.C., announced yesterday. The biometric service, from Pay By Touch, San Francisco, allows shoppers to pay by linking a fingerscan at the POS with an electronic payment method. “Thanks to IBM, we have very little hardware and software to worry about,” said Paul Kapioski, president and owner of Thriftway Supermarket, which, in 2002, installed the first retail grocery Pay By Touch biometric payment system. “We‘ve seen many operational improvements from using the Pay By Touch system, including fraud reduction and increased transaction speed. With the new IBM ACE underpinning, we look forward to integrating additional Pay By Touch capabilities into our IBM in-store technology.”