Waitrose Raises Contactless Payment Limit From £30 To £45

Wednesday 1 April 2020

Waitrose is raising the contactless payment limit, at its supermarkets and convenience shops¹ from £30 to £45 to help customers minimise the need for contact while shopping.

The retailer has already worked with their payment provider to test the change in ten branches and will tonight roll it out across its entire estate. This change means that from tomorrow all shoppers with a contactless payment card will be able to make purchases up to £45 without the need to enter their pin number.

The move is part of a string of measures introduced by the retailer to ensure social distancing can be maintained while shopping.

Waitrose has already introduced rigorous social distancing measures to protect its customers and Partners, including limiting the number of customers in its shops and introducing two-metre marshals to ensure that social distancing is followed as customers queue up.

Matt Clifton, Partner and Head of Customer Checkout and Payment for the John Lewis Partnership said;

“Our customers are telling us that they want the minimum number of touchpoints possible in our shops at the moment. 

“With this in mind we’re quickly increasing the maximum contactless payment to £45.”

^{1 Excludes Welcome Break and Shell shops}

The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain's best-loved retail brands - John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 80,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business - for customers and Partners. John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops across the UK (36 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer's omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers.