honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 5, 2005

Fast card, faster food at all McDonald's

By Josh Fineman
Bloomberg News Service

In a New York promotional event, Troy Aikman, former Dallas Cow- boys quarterback, treats youngsters to lunch after demonstrating how MasterCard's PayPass cut waiting time for his orders.

Bill Kostroun | Associated Press

spacer
spacer

NEW YORK — McDonald's Corp. plans to expand to all U.S. stores the use of a new credit and debit card that customers can wave in front of a machine to make payments in a matter of seconds.

The world's largest restaurant chain will offer MasterCard International Inc.'s PayPass service in more than 13,600 U.S. stores after introducing it in about 7,500, Cathleen Conforti, MasterCard's global PayPass product manager, said in an interview. The service uses radio frequencies to allow customers to pay for transactions simply by tapping or waving the card near a McDonald's checkout counter.

The new technology cuts 12 to 18 seconds of wait time, Conforti said. McDonald's is stepping up use of technology that has been adopted by competitor Yum! Brands Inc., owner of the Pizza Hut and KFC chains, as well as retailers such as 7-Eleven Inc., CVS Corp., Sheetz Inc. supermarkets, and some National Football League stadiums.

"We have actually gotten so much more interest from both the issuers' banks and the merchant side that we are going to be in many more markets than we expected to be in by the fourth quarter," Conforti said. "They find that they get a lot more activity, a lot more revenue, because they've got more customers that they can get in and out faster."

McDonald's began testing PayPass last August in New York and Dallas. The average total weekly amount spent by consumers using the new cards increased 28 percent, according to Conforti.

Shares of Oakbrook, Ill.-based McDonald's fell 42 cents to $31.20 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have dropped 2.7 percent this year.

Second-quarter sales at McDonald's stores open at least 13 months rose 2.8 percent, the slowest in two years. The company has had more than two years of sales gains by expanding beyond burgers and fries, adding a $2.99 fruit-and-walnut salad to spur U.S. growth.