Target joins ranks of Aldi, Whole Foods as stores no longer taking checks

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Soon, shoppers will not be able to cut a check to pay for the contents of their Target shopping baskets.

The Minneapolis retailer said it will stop accepting personal checks in stores later this month, with the payment method dwindling in popularity through the years as more people use credit and debit cards as well as a growing segment of digital-exchange platforms.

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Check usage — which in the 1980s and 90s had been a dominant form of payment used for a range of everyday activities from paying rent to sending a gift — has lessened considerably in recent years. Checks represented about half of noncash payments in the United States in 2003, but that number fell to 15% in 2012, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

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The decline of check payments in the past decade only accelerated during the pandemic as more consumers began to widely use contactless virtual payments, including digital wallets and peer-to-peer (P2P) apps like Zelle, Venmo and PayPal, said Elisa Tavilla, director of debit advisor services for payments and banking consultancy Javelin Strategy & Research.

Only 1% of consumers prefer to use checks when making in-store purchases like at retail stores or restaurants, according to a 2023 North America payment insights study by Javelin Strategy & Research.

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According to their websites, discount grocery chain Aldi and organic store Whole Foods also don't take checks.

https://www.startribune.com/target-aldi-whole-foods-not-take-checks-payment/600378276/