The next time you walk into a Lowes home improvement store, you might be surprised to find that they have entered the digital age. Bloomberg reports that Lowes has purchased 42,000 iPhones in order to implement a payment system similar to the EasyPay system used at Apple Retail Stores.
Each Lowes store will receive 25 iPhones to use for processing payments and answering customer questions. The company will also be rolling out a web app that will allow customers to use their smartphone to look up product and warranty information.
The new payment devices will presumably feature a barcode scanner and a custom app to interface with the Lowe’s retail system. While Lowes isn’t the first to make the switch to this type of payment method, having been beaten to the punch by their competitor Home Depot and other major retailers, it’s still refreshing to see that even hardware stores cannot resist the allure of iDevices.