[Update: Statement from CVS below the fold…]
When Apple Pay launched in the US late last year, Apple’s mobile payment system was officially accepted by several launch partners and unofficially supported by even more retailers and vendors. Then a small number of retailers banded together as members of the Merchant Customer eXchange actually disabled mobile payment support at checkout in favor of an upcoming CurrentC payment system. Drug store chains CVS and Rite Aid were among the first to block Apple Pay support after initially accepting it and even prompting a response from Apple. Now Rite Aid is ending that blockade as it announced today that it will officially accept Apple Pay starting this weekend.
Starting Saturday August 15th, Rite Aid will turn on support for Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Android Pay at almost 4,600 locations around the country. Competing drug store chain Walgreens has officially accepted Apple Pay since launch while CVS remains a hold out.
Other MCX members have similarly announced upcoming support for Apple Pay despite previously resisting in favor of backing CurrentC exclusively.
Earlier this year, Best Buy, another prominent hold out, added Apple Pay support to its iPhone app and said the option would become available at checkout in stores later this fall. Dunkin’ Donuts and Kohl’s both joined the list of vendors adding support this fall as well. The group behind CurrentC vaguely stated last year that the exclusivity holding retailers back from Apple Pay would expire in months, not years, and it appears that we’re finally seeing that happen.
Update: When asked for comment on CVS’s potential plans to accept Apple Pay in the future, a CVS spokesperson had this to say:
At this time, CVS/pharmacy cannot accept ApplePay or other mobile payments that use NFC technology. We are in the process of evaluating mobile payment options for our customers.
Not quite ready to change their tune despite Rite Aid’s move, but it only seems like a matter of when, not if.
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Yeah, locking themselves into a exclusivity contract with a company that doesn’t have a product ready for launch seemed like a pretty bad idea to me…
Not only are they locked into an exclusivity contract with a company that doesn’t have a product ready for launch, but use of that product requires all information needed for identity theft (name, DOB, zip code, SSN), and it has already been hacked (with names and zip codes taken). This product blew up on the tarmac, during taxi.
I have to agree, CVS’s statement implies to me that they entered into an exclusivity contract with CurrentC. It seems like the approver of this agreement didn’t understand the emerging changes in the payment market and/or what they were agreeing to. Whoops!
Lesson learned: don’t sign contracts where you don’t understand the ramifications. And don’t sign a contract that significantly limits your options.
Seems more and more likely that CurrentC will be either a stillborn or never even see the light of day!
Good riddance – and screw WalMart!
It’s as dead as ISIS, no not the terrorist group, AT&T Softcard.
lol WalMart :)
This news along with Best Buy’s indicates that the exclusivity contract with MCX has expired. I am surprised they are turning it back on so quickly, They clearly have been doing work behind the scenes for a while.
I hope that other MCX vendors that have upgraded POS terminals that handle NFC, 7-11, CVS, Target can follow suit quickly.
Many people are tied to their pharmacies because of drug purchases and histories. So this is great to bring another day to day vendor into Apple Pay.
Target has, IIRC, confirmed a role out in times for the holidays
off topic – what’s up with the slow loading of pictures on 9to5 today?
Now, we are all looking at you CVS.
Hahaha! The people have spoken. Crappy competitors no doubt always lose in the long run with Apple.
Another nail in CurrentC’s coffin. Terrible system, very bad for customers’ security. Direct link to your bank account — are you serious?
My fiancé works at CVS, it doesn’t surprise me that they are taking their sweet time. They are currently trying to uodate their rewards system to get rid of paper all together. It seems like super ANTI-TECH people run the company and are very slow to update simple things like computers and such. Usually every time they update the system, its broken for a week until they fix the original update. It wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t see apple pay at CVS until after Christmas!
The real problem is that Walmart wasn’t thinking logically and though they had the economic might to eliminate credit cards, proving they don’t have that power. Walmart’s pompous narcissism allowed them to do great economic damage to the country when they put Walmart first, Walmart last and only Walmart.
Walmart’s attempt at jumping into banking has only produced mixed results. The CurrentC program they led the way attempting to create wasn’t about customer experience, it was about increasing profit for themselves while cutting costs. If Walmart could figure out how to only stock their stores with their own brand, created in their own factories, they would be happy as a clam, but like banking, their decades late to changing that market regardless of their wealth. If Walmart had their way, there would only be one bank–Walmart.
Fortunately for us they’ve not succeeded, we would have less money than we do now.
BOOM! lol
WalMart will be the last holdout. That suits me just fine.
See: http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-pay-foe-currentcs-wide-launch-not-expected-until-2016/ . I suspect there is reluctance on the part of merchants to restrict themselves to CuurentC, which may turn out to be vaporware, when Apple has offered the merchants the possibility of affinity programs in ApplePay in the near future. (Personally, the biggest selling point of Apple Pay as a consumer is the ability to prevent merchants, who will always be hacked because of their reluctance to impact their bottom line by maintaining good IT security, from getting _any_ of my personal information. All they need is what Apple Pay gives them: an issuing bank approval.)