Aldi made national news last week when it announced it would accept credit cards at its stores across the country. Until now the company accepted cash and debit cards, but didn’t want to pay the processing costs associated with credit.
In 2014 Aldi tested credit card acceptance at stores in the Minneapolis, MN and Syracuse, NY markets, and the test obviously went well.
Industry experts told Supermarket News that accepting credit payments typically adds about 2% in added costs for every credit transaction, but also noted that it can be less if the retailer can negotiate better terms. And it’s likely that Aldi, which represents billions of dollars in potential credit card sales, can do so.
Aldi currently operates about 1,500 stores in the U.S., and is growing at a steady pace.