You’ve heard of the police using fingerprints to identify suspects in crime cases, but how about paying for your food at the grocery store?

There is a new technology in Ames that allows customers who have set up an account to pay for their purchases by the touch of a finger. The service has been offered at the Ames Cub Foods, 3121 Grand Ave., for about six months, said store manager Mike Lee. Pay By Touch, a biometric payment service, manages the service for Cub Foods and other retailers.

The response has been pretty positive because it makes things easier on the customer, he said.

“A lot of people like to use them, it makes it simple,” he said.

The program has been in place for more than a year in the Cub Foods chain, said Chris Murphy, director of public relations and consumer affairs of Cub Foods. It began with a pilot program and spread after the success of the program.

“It was very successful,” he said.

Hy-Vee has recently decided to implement the new technology in its stores through Pay By Touch, said Chris Friesleben, spokeswoman for Hy-Vee. The service is being tested in Quincy, Ill., currently.

“We’ll move it into the Ames stores in January and into Mason City [stores] in February. Those are our tentative plans,” Friesleben said. “Obviously, if we have any glitches in Quincy, we might have to move that back, but we expect that we’ll be able to move ahead in January.”

The decision to make this available at Hy-Vee stores was not made overnight, Friesleben said.

“We consider any technology that we put into our stores very, very carefully,” she said.

The program has gone pretty smoothly thus far, Lee said. So far, the customers who have used Pay By Touch have done so without any problems.

“No one has complained about their accounts being debited wrong,” he said. “I haven’t heard of any [problems].”

Murphy said there have been some questions about the features of the program, but no complaints.

Right now, this is on a trial basis in the Hy-Vee stores.

“People today are more comfortable with technology, but we will move slowly, and if it looks like it’s not being well-received, then we might have to take a look at it again,” Murphy said.

Although the service is still not the norm when it comes to paying at the checkout, Lee thinks it will continue to grow. People of all ages use it, especially many of the employees, he said, and as with any technology, this one just needs time. He pointed out that when debit and credit cards first came out, people were slow to use them.

“People have to get comfortable with it,” he said.

The program has been very popular at the Cub Foods stores as a whole, Murphy said. When it first became available, people were curious and its use spread by word of mouth, he said.

“Once someone signs up, they tell everyone about it,” he said.

The opportunity has two big advantages, Murphy said. It has the convenience factor of not having to carry wallets and purses around, but also provides security, since a fingerprint can’t be stolen.

“It’s more secure. Credit cards can be stolen and the number can be taken,” he said.

The new service will be better for business as well as helping customers, Friesleben said.

She added that the customer comes first, however.

“It certainly will cut down fraudulent checks and fraudulent pay systems. It will help from a business standpoint, but again, we have to make sure that our customers are comfortable with it as well,” she said.

Lee also said once someone signs up, which can be done at the store’s kiosk, they can use it at any Cub Food store where the service is offered.

“As others [businesses] take this on, people will be able to use it anywhere,” Lee said.