Wawa Food Market purchases 2,000 Hypercom RFID-enabled payment terminals
10 November, 2005
category: Contactless, Financial
Convenience store chain Wawa has installed Hypercom card payment terminals, capable of reading mag stripe and contactless credit and debit cards and key fobs in its 540 stores in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
540 Stores Offer Contactless Payments With Optimum L4100 Device
PHOENIX – Hypercom Corporation announced that convenience store operator Wawa, Inc., has purchased and installed more than 2,000 Optimum L4100 high-speed card payment terminals at 540 retail stores in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Wawa has also named Hypercom its preferred supplier of card payment devices based on the L4100’s advanced functionality, including the ability to support contactless payment systems that speed checkout by eliminating swiping and signature requirements.
The Hypercom terminals are configured to Wawa’s specifications to accept magnetic stripe credit/debit cards and smart cards as well as contactless cards or key fobs that communicate with the terminal without any physical contact. These contactless systems utilize embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to securely transmit consumer account information over radio frequency waves.
“We switched our payment terminal business to Hypercom because the L4100 gives us a strong feature set, flexible configuration, and a combination of security and reliability that we did not find in any other unit we evaluated,” said Guy Festa, Manager of Store Automation for Wawa. “All of our checkout counters are now equipped with the Hypercom product and ready to accept the new contactless forms of payment for faster checkout.”
Specific features that led Wawa to select the L4100 include:
- Industry-leading transaction speeds, based on a 200Mhz 32-bit Intel XScale processor.
- A 64K color 5.7″ 1/4 VGA screen, permitting exact reproduction of corporate logos, advertising and promotional messages to deliver strong branding and marketing messages at the point of sale.
- A bi-directional, dual-sided magnetic stripe reader, an exclusive feature that speeds checkout by allowing cards to be swiped from right or left no matter which way the magnetic stripe is facing.
- An advanced screen protection and replacement system, including a scratch-resistant Terrapin(TM) screen protector, automatic disabling of the unit to prevent accidental screen damage if the protector is not in place, and easy no-adhesive replacement of the protective overlays.
- Multiple connectivity options, with the ability to support RS-232, Ethernet, and powered or non-powered USB on the same device enabling retailers to switch POS systems without replacing their payment terminals.
- Contactless RFID reader, capable of supporting ExpressPay from American Express, MasterCard PayPass and Visa Contactless payment programs to help speed transaction times.
The Optimum L4100 also features a changeable bezel enabling retailers to incorporate their own branding, integrated signature capture, an optional compact flash card slot, and an optional EMV Level 1 and 2-approved smart card reader. The terminal is Visa PED compliant and can handle credit, debit, gift, loyalty and EBT (food stamp) cards and electronic check conversion.
“The fact that Wawa selected Hypercom over their incumbent supplier is a strong endorsement of our L4100 terminal as well as of our reputation in the industry,” said O.B. Rawls IV, senior vice president, North America Sales, Hypercom Corporation. “These are clear competitive advantages that we expect will continue to build our business.”
About Wawa (www.wawa.com)
Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, traces its roots back to 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Owner George Wood started a dairy processing plant in Wawa, Pennsylvania, in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and “certified” process. In 1964, George’s grandson Grahame Wood opened the first Wawa Food Market in Folsom, PA. Today, the company operates more than 540 stores in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Wawa is known for quality own-branded products including award-winning coffee and freshly prepared hoagies. Wawa consistently ranks among Forbes’ top 200 privately held companies. “Wawa” is the Lenni-Lenape Indian word for flying goose.
About Hypercom (www.hypercom.com)
Widely recognized as the global payment technology innovator, Hypercom delivers complete card payment terminal, network access device, server and transaction networking solutions that help merchants and financial institutions generate revenues and increase profits. Hypercom’s card payment terminal, network and server solutions are leading the transformation of electronic payments in more than 100 countries. The company is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.