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p10 weekender march 22 1997 auvi to acce visa an mastercar loeb a subsidiary of provigo inc announces that its stores will be offering an additional service to their customers by accepting visa and mastercard effective sunday march 23 1997 we want to offer our customers the same choices they have in other types of stores said sylvie lorrain provisos executive vicepresident the vast majority of customers will probably continue paying cash or using their bank debit cards but when it is convenient for them they will now also be able to use credit cards like they do in other stores credit cards can already be used to buy food items in drugstores discount stores and warehouse stores lcbo outlets also accept credit cards in the us over 14000 stores belonging to the major grocery chains take credit cards as do several large chains in other canadian provinces the great advantage of using visa and mastercard is that consumers pay no interest if they pay their balance in full before the due date which enables them to better plan their budgets said jim robertson senior vicepresident operations at loeb he also mentioned another advantage for customers they will be able to use their grocery purchases to accumulate points in loyalty programs offered by visa and mastercard travel miles for example ms lorrain added that with the growing number of readytoeat dishes it is particularly important for food stores to provide consumers with the same convenient payment options as they have in restaurants loeb service offered at participating stores