McKeever's Market & Eatery became the first grocer to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments directly on Instacart's smart shopping carts, Chain Store Age first reported.

McKeever's enabled the feature on its Caper Carts in partnership with payments processor Forage, according to Chain Store Age. SNAP participants can pay for eligible items with their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card at the cart itself. The system uses end-to-end encryption to protect card data and PIN entry.

McKeever's operates two locations: Lee's Summit, Missouri, at 840 NW Pryor Road, and Lenexa, Kansas, at 8800 Maurer Court. Reports of the SNAP feature describe it only at the Lee's Summit store.

McKeever's first deployed Caper Carts at its Lee's Summit store in June 2024. At the launch, Tim Cosens, chief technology officer at McKeever's, described the company as "a home-grown grocery business" and said the carts help customers "effortlessly discover new products and stay on budget, all during a single visit," Supermarket News reported.

McKeever's launched the carts alongside Price Chopper, which debuted them at its Parkville, Missouri, store. Both grocers planned a broader deployment, according to Supermarket News. Price Chopper operates 52 stores in the Kansas City area and has partnered with Instacart since 2017, according to Grocery Dive.

The carts use cameras, a built-in scale and location sensors connected to Nvidia Jetson hardware to recognize items as shoppers place them in the basket. Shoppers pick up the carts at the store entrance, according to Fox4KC. An interactive screen displays coupons, loyalty-program deals and personalized product recommendations, and rewards shoppers who pass a spending threshold.

Shoppers skip the checkout line. The system charges the bill directly to a linked payment method.

Cosens said in a statement reported by Chain Store Age that the carts help customers track their budgets in real time while "showing our SNAP customers what items are eligible for benefit use."

"Customers using Caper Carts tell us they love tracking their spending, discovering deals right in the aisle, and skipping the unload at checkout," David McIntosh, Instacart's chief connected stores officer, said in comments reported by Chain Store Age.

The rollout is part of a broader Instacart push into physical grocery technology. Instacart acquired Caper AI, the cart's manufacturer, for $350 million in 2021, according to Grocery Dive. Thousands of Caper Carts are now live in more than 100 cities. The business tripled year over year, Instacart told Forbes in an Aug. 21 article.

More than 80% of North American shoppers are shopping to a budget, McIntosh said in the Forbes article.

Instacart's 2025 Economic Impact Report, a company-commissioned analysis conducted with NERA Economic Consulting, says the platform has helped U.S. grocers generate more than $22.5 billion in additional revenue since 2012. The report also credits the platform with helping create more than 237,000 grocery jobs over that period.

EBT SNAP payments are currently available on Caper Carts at McKeever's Lee's Summit store.