Pick n Pay, a South African retailer, has launched acceptance of bitcoin for payments throughout all of their stores. Previously, a test pilot had rolled out to 39 stores in November 2022. Now, all stores under the Pick n Pay brand will allow customers to use CryptoQR to buy their groceries using bitcoin, according to an announcement by the payments platform on Twitter.
Customers will also be able to “buy airtime and electricity, plane and bus tickets, and pay your municipal bills with Bitcoin at the till!” according to the tweet.
Increasing usage at larger retailers like Pick n Pay introduces the concept of spending bitcoin as opposed to selling it for usability to new users of bitcoin. By allowing people to spend their BTC, the line between setting aside money for bitcoin and simply utilizing bitcoin as your money is blurred. The prior launch of the pilot noted that Pick n Pay will charge a small service fee for payments in BTC, “costing the customer on average 70c” of the local currency, or about $0.04 as of November 2022.
Pick n Pay has almost 2,000 stores across the country, Business Insider South Africa reported. The firm has a 16% market share of the country’s formal food and grocery sector, per the report.
The introduction of bitcoin to Pick n Pay’s stores is likely to have a significant impact on the broader bitcoin payments landscape in South Africa. It could bring the concept of using bitcoin as a form of payment to a wider audience, potentially stimulating more widespread adoption of bitcoin usage. Furthermore, it could inspire other major retailers to follow suit, further increasing the acceptance and usage of bitcoin as a payment method. This could be a major step forward in the wider adoption of bitcoin payments.