Ontario-based company resurrects the biometric grocery store transaction concept

Here's a press release from AllTrust Networks:

AllTrust Networks Provides Biometric Check Cashing Service for Pro’s Ranch Markets

Paycheck Secure Brings Convenience and Security

HERNDON, VA AND ONTARIO, CA – (April 7, 2009) – AllTrust Networks, the leading provider of biometric check cashing solutions, and Pro’s Ranch Markets today announced that Paycheck Secure, a fingerprint check cashing service, is available at all 11 grocery store locations across 4 states in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

Paycheck Secure uses a simple finger scan to authenticate customers' identities in order to cash checks. The check cashing system was first implemented in their Delano, CA store in 2007, to streamline the manual check processes. Now they have an automated check cashing system that enables them to quickly and accurately identify customers and view individuals’ check cashing history in advance of the transaction.

"Paycheck Secure enabled us to more confidently cash checks," said Jeff Provenzano, Vice President of Technology and Advertising at Pro’s Ranch Markets. "The Paycheck Secure check cashing system provided us with the user friendly tools and critical technology we needed to make better informed decisions. The positive customer and employee feedback, combined with the high level of service we receive from AllTrust, made it an easy decision to expand the service to all our stores."

Signing up to cash checks using Paycheck Secure is quick and easy. Customers simply provide a photo ID; two finger scans, and a smile for a digital photograph. Pro’s Ranch shoppers enroll one time, and can then quickly and securely cash checks with a quick finger scan, at any store. This multi-store technology speeds transaction times; and combined with AllTrust’s national negative database allows for better fraud control.

"Paycheck Secure offers a unique way for Pro’s Ranch customers to cash their checks rapidly and securely," said Jon Dorsey, President and CEO, AllTrust Networks. "The service also helps merchants like Pro’s Ranch dramatically reduce fraud by leveraging biometric technology to verify customers’ identities."

About AllTrust Networks

With more than five million registered consumers, AllTrust Networks (formerly BioPay Paycheck Secure) is the most widely used biometric check cashing system in the nation. Thousands of retail locations across 46-states are using the Paycheck Secure® system to quickly, safely, and easily identify customers and process financial transactions. Paycheck Secure system is a complete payroll check cashing solution designed to stop fraud and speed check cashing transactions. With a proven record of preventing losses, the product offers retailers and banks full MSB compliance features as well as embedded Check 21 processing. For more information on AllTrust Networks, visit www.alltrustnetworks.com.

About Pro's Ranch Markets

With eleven stores in four states, including five stores in Arizona, four stores in California, one store in Texas, one store in New Mexico, a restaurant, a gas station, an 80,000 square foot corporate office and warehouse in California and a 130,000 square foot warehouse in Phoenix, Pro's Ranch Markets is one of the fastest growing Hispanic Independent Grocery Retailers in the country. For more information on Pro's Ranch Markets, please visit www.prosranch.com.

While Pro's Ranch does not have any locations in the Inland Empire, the company itself is headquartered in Ontario.


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You'll note that I said "resurrect" in the title. It turns out that the use of biometrics in grocery stores was formerly undertaken by Pay By Touch, which no longer exists. See this post by Hutch Carpenter, and this Minneapolis Star Tribune article about John Rogers. I also quoted an excerpt on Pay By Touch in an Ontario Technoblog post in 2005, and I've also discussed Pay By Touch in other forums (noting that there is a difference between the technical issues related to a biometric implementation, and the business issues discussed by the Star Tribune article).