For folks looking to avoid paying for cash at ATMs, getting cash back at the grocery store has been a popular – and until recently – free option in Cortez and Durango.

However, City Market, a division of The Kroger Co., began charging to get cash back with a debt card at checkout about a month ago.

Jessica Trowbridge, a spokeswoman with King Soopers/City Market, said the cash-back fee was implemented across all City Market stores.

“This service is very popular, and we process millions of transactions enterprise-wide per year. Unfortunately, we cannot continue to offer this service for free due to the high demand and processing/labor costs,” Trowbridge wrote in an email to The Durango Herald.

City Market now charges 50 cents to receive between $1 and $100 on checkout, and $3.50 for between $100.01 and $300. The $3.50 fee is lowered to $3 if customers use their City Market value card.

Three hundred dollars is the maximum amount that can be withdrawn in cash at City Market through the use of a debt card.

Ryne Hayes, manager at Durango’s Albertsons, said the store has no plans to start charging for cash back.

“If you’re shopping at Albertsons, it’s a service we provide,” he said.

An employee at Safeway in Cortez said the store does not charge for cash-back services, but declined to comment for a news article, saying responses had to come from the corporate office.

Walmart also does not charge for cash back at checkout.

Robin Bobbitt, a spokeswoman with Walmart, said it is a service the retailer provides to customers paying with debt cards, and she said she is unaware of any plan to begin charging for the service.

parmijo@durangoherald.com