Smart & Final Payment Methods

You can shop at this discount supermarket to get good deals on bulk purchases of private-label products. Unlike many other grocery stores, it has a lot of institutional customers. Here are the payment methods you can use at Smart & Final.

Support for Commonly Used Payment Options at Smart & Final

There are several payment options available at Smart & Final. It accepts cash and all major credit cards and it also has point-of-sale terminals that accept contactless payments. You can use Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and other mobile wallets to shop in-store there. Smart & Final doesn’t accept payments from mobile wallets for online purchases, though, and it doesn’t accept PayPal or Venmo either.

If you’re looking for an alternative, Albertsons stores do accept PayPal and Venmo for in-store purchases because their terminals can scan QR codes but they don’t accept these apps for online orders either.

Buying Groceries at Smart & Final With EBT, BNPL, and Other Options

You can use EBT and WIC to buy qualifying products at Smart & Final. But you can’t use EBT to shop online there because this supermarket hasn’t signed up for the SNAP online purchasing pilot program yet. Food 4 Less and Walmart do participate in this program but some of the other discount grocery stores such as Grocery Outlet haven’t signed up for it either.

Additionally, like other supermarkets, Smart & Final has a delivery partnership with Instacart. If you’re ordering groceries for delivery from its online store you can use the buy now, pay later apps Klarna and Zip to pay for your groceries as well. This is noteworthy because BNPL isn’t available as a payment option at many grocery stores. If you’re not familiar with BNPL, it’s a financing method you can use to split your grocery bill into several installments.

More Things to Know About Shopping at Smart & Final

While Smart & Final supplies groceries to institutions, including small businesses, it also has a network of Smart & Final Extra! grocery stores that are open to the public. These discount supermarkets sell private-label branded First Street groceries in bulk and you can save a lot of money by purchasing these products. Be aware that buying fresh produce in bulk may not be a good idea unless you can eat all of it quickly or preserve it.

You can also buy standard-sized brand-name products at this grocery store for prices comparable to the prices at other traditional grocery stores. Additionally, since Smart & Final is a supplier to restaurants and other small businesses, you can also buy food that’s normally only available at restaurants in its frozen food section for significantly lower prices.

Even More Supermarkets Where You Can Shop With Apple Pay

You can also get large discounts on bulk grocery purchases at the wholesale store Costco. Unlike Smart & Final, though, Costco is members-only.

The traditional grocery store Vons has a fairly large prepared food section as well as a few amenities such as Starbucks cafes in its stores. For brand-name products it has prices comparable to Smart & Final.

The parent company of Vons, Albertsons, also has some stores in Santa Barbara and other California cities. You can save money by buying its Signature Select private-label products but they’re typically not sold in bulk like Smart & Final’s First Street products.

You can find some products in bulk at Grocery Outlet as well and this may even include health-food that’s normally pricey elsewhere. But its merchandise selection varies because of how its business model works.

If you’re looking for brand-name groceries, Ralphs is another store where you can buy them. It does sell some products in bulk as well but not as many as Smart & Final. In some locations it operates premium Ralphs Fresh Fare stores.

The Mexican grocery store Vallarta Supermarkets sells lots of specialty packaged foods and produce. Its stores also have pop-up food courts with indoor dining areas that have seats and tables.