My CFSI colleague, Karen Andres, took this picture recently while on a date with her husband – to Krogers in Norwood, OH. This isn’t just proof that we at CFSI take the underbanked seriously. It’s also another compelling data point that retailers are the most exciting thing happening in financial services for the underbanked.

From Woodforest Bank, which has all its branches inside Wal-Mart stores, to Circle K, to ExxonMobil to CVS to Cub Foods to Best Buy – dozens of retailers of all stripes are getting into the game. Unlike the traditional bank: The customer is in their store, there is a strong brand promise, there is an opportunity to move more product and gain additional fee income. Unlike the traditional check casher or payday lender the retailer can offset all their fixed costs with their normal foot traffic. That is, rent and payroll is already covered (this is in no small part what makes AFS so expensive).

Just look at this Krogers! It’s beautiful. It’s clean. It offers a ton of products and even some integration (free reloads when you cash your check – and both at a price that would cost more for each, separately, in most other places). Once a small dollar loan exists that retail executives won’t worry will get them in the wrong WSJ headline, retail channels will pose a real threat to both online and mainstream pay-day lending. Any day now!