Retail
Ring up groceries by barcode, search or weight, take SNAP EBT through Square's open beta and send deli orders to a kitchen display. Payaroo helps you set up the Square pieces that fit your store.
Square, made easier with Payaroo.
What your grocery store needs
One basket can hold a barcoded box of cereal, a pound and a half of apples, a six-pack that needs an age check and a hot lunch from the deli. One customer pays with a card, the next with cash and the one after with SNAP.
A grocery setup has to read barcodes and scale weights at the register, find the odd item by search, flag what's running low before the next delivery and get prepared-food orders to the kitchen without a paper slip.
Packaged goods scan, but apples, bulk nuts and deli meat are priced by weight. Doing that math by hand slows the lane.
How Square helps A compatible scale fills in the weight and price at checkout, with tare for containers, while a USB scanner handles everything with a barcode.
Shoppers who rely on SNAP need a store that takes EBT, and splitting a mixed basket by hand is slow.
How Square helps Square's SNAP EBT open beta runs on Register, Terminal and Handheld in Retail mode for stores with a USDA FNS number. Flag the eligible items and mixed carts split on their own.
Milk, eggs and bread have to be on the shelf every morning. Reorders made from memory miss things.
How Square helps Low-stock alerts flag items under your threshold after close, and purchase orders on a paid plan keep vendor contacts, costs and deliveries in one place.
Sandwich and hot-food orders on handwritten slips go missing between the register and the kitchen.
How Square helps Square's grocery page pairs checkout with a kitchen display, so prepared-food orders show up on a screen in the kitchen. Square KDS needs a paid plan plus a per-device add-on.
Recommended setup
The Square tools that matter most for a grocery store — and why each one earns its place.
Retail mode is where SNAP EBT, age prompts, barcode checkout and vendor orders come together, with stock tracked item by item.
A compatible USB or Bluetooth scale sends the weight straight to the sale, so nobody does produce math on a notepad.
A scanner at each register for the packaged-goods aisles, from brands such as Honeywell, Zebra and Magellan.
Take SNAP in person on Register, Terminal or Handheld. It's an open beta and needs your USDA FNS number.
Orders to your produce, dairy and dry-goods vendors, received in full or in part as each delivery comes off the truck.
A kitchen screen for deli and prepared-food orders instead of paper slips taped to the counter.
Online orders for in-store or curbside pickup, drawing on the same stock as your aisles.
Points for the weekly shop, earned by visit or spend and redeemed at the register.
How Payaroo helps
Tell us how your business works. We'll help you understand the Square tools that fit.
Core capabilities
Sell produce, bulk bins and deli items by the pound, ounce or gram. Staff type in a weight or let a connected scale fill it in, with tare for the container. Prepacked items with price-embedded barcodes scan like anything else.
Square accepts SNAP EBT in person on Register, Terminal and Handheld in Retail mode for stores with an active USDA FNS number. Flag eligible items and mixed carts split automatically. EBT Cash isn't supported, it doesn't work offline and Square Stand can't take it.
Give age-restricted items the right age limit and checkout prompts the cashier to confirm age. Date-of-birth entry and ID barcode scanning come with a paid Square plan.
Set up each produce, dairy and dry-goods vendor once, with contacts and unit costs. Email a purchase order, then receive the delivery in full or in part so your counts match what's on the shelf. It's part of Square Plus and Premium.
Pick a threshold for each item at each location. Whatever dips below it shows up flagged in your stock list and in an email after the store closes, ready for tomorrow's vendor orders.
A Square website lets customers shop your aisles online and pick up in store or at the curb. Local delivery by your own staff or on-demand couriers is available too, within zones you set.
Hardware options
You don't need every device. Start with what matches where you take payments — and add more later.
A countertop point of sale with two touchscreens: one for your team and one that faces the customer.
The lane workhorse: a USB scanner and scale plug in, and customers watch their order build on the second screen.
USB and Bluetooth scanners for ringing up items by barcode (Square Handheld has one built in).
A corded USB scanner rings up packaged goods and reads price-embedded labels printed by a label-printing deli scale.
Compatible scales that fill in the weight and price for items sold by weight.
A compatible scale fills in weight and price for produce and bulk bins, with tare for the container.
A pocket-sized point of sale with a built-in barcode scanner and camera.
Counts stock with its built-in scanner and opens an extra lane on busy days. It's also supported in Square's SNAP EBT beta.
Software and tools
Barcode, search and weight checkout, SNAP EBT (open beta), age prompts and vendor orders.
Your own online store for in-store and curbside pickup.
Rewards for the weekly shop, joined with a phone number at checkout.
Weekly specials by email, and texts to shoppers who opt in.
How it works
One realistic day at a grocery store, with the setup above doing the work.
Setup finder
Answer a few quick questions about your grocery store. We'll stop as soon as we can point you to a useful starting setup.
Tell Buckaroo how your business works and he'll help you figure out which Square tools make sense.
FAQs
Each lane typically runs Square Register with a USB barcode scanner, a compatible scale, a receipt printer and a cash drawer. Square Handheld helps with stock counts and can open an extra lane, and a deli can add a Square KDS screen on a paid plan with a per-device add-on. If you plan to take SNAP EBT, stick with Register, Terminal or Handheld, since Square Stand isn't supported.
Yes, through an open beta. Square accepts SNAP EBT in person on Square Register, Terminal and Handheld in Retail mode. You need an active USDA FNS number. You flag eligible items, and Square removes tax from them and splits mixed carts. EBT Cash isn't supported, EBT doesn't work offline and SNAP refunds go back to the same EBT card. For cards that need a swipe, Terminal swipes on its own, while Register and Handheld need Square's magstripe reader.
Yes. Items can be sold by the pound, ounce or gram. Staff can type in the weight, or a compatible scale can fill in weight and price with tare for containers. Square's compatibility list includes USB scales from Brecknell and CAS, a Bluetooth Star Micronics model and Magellan scanner-scales. Price-embedded barcodes from label-printing scales scan at checkout too.
Square's grocery page describes sending prepared-food orders to a kitchen display. Square KDS runs on Android tablets or Square's kitchen touchscreens, and it needs Square Plus or Premium plus a per-device add-on. Tell us how your deli takes orders and we'll help you decide whether a screen is worth it.
Square publishes its own pricing, and its fees page lists EBT processing as its own category. On Square Free there's no monthly subscription, only processing fees. Purchase orders, date-of-birth and ID scanning for age checks, cost reports, loyalty and marketing need Square Plus or Premium. A deli kitchen display is a per-device add-on on top of a paid plan. Current rates are on Square's pricing page, and we'll help you sort out which of these your lanes need.
Start with a call about your lanes, scales, deli and whether you take SNAP. Square vets every application, and no account is approved until it has verified the owner's identity and the business. SNAP EBT also needs your own USDA FNS number. From there, Payaroo helps with setup, from importing items and barcodes to connecting scanners and scales.
Related businesses
Barcode checkout, age prompts at the register and orders to your distributors.
Display-case checkout, preorders, cake deposits and daily counts that reset.
Counter ordering, combos, self-order kiosks, kitchen routing and delivery apps.
Tell us about your registers, your deli and your SNAP shoppers. We'll help you pick the Square pieces that fit your aisles.
Square reviews and approves every account. Call Payaroo at 972-431-0439.
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