American Apparel Launching Apple Pay in U.S. Stores

[MacRumors]

Index has announced that it is upgrading clothing retailer American Apparel's point-of-sale systems to enable Apple Pay, Android Pay, and other NFC-based mobile payment services at its U.S. stores. The new systems will also include point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and EMV for Chip-and-Signature or Chip-and-PIN cards.

American Apparel, based in Los Angeles, California, is a popular wholesale provider of basic t-shirts and other clothing. As of September 2015, the company operated 227 retail stores in 19 countries, although many of its sales occur online. The retailer exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2016 with an approved restructuring plan.

American Apparel joins several other popular U.S. brands that have or will adopt Apple Pay by the end of 2016, including Crate & Barrel, Chick-fil-A, Au Bon Pain, Cinnabon, Chili's, Domino's, KFC, and Starbucks. Apple Pay is now available at more than 2 million retail locations in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and China.

Earlier this week, an unconfirmed leaked document revealed MasterCard's plans to support Apple Pay in Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore in 2016. Apple previously announced that it will launch Apple Pay in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain this year in partnership with American Express.

Article Link: American Apparel Launching Apple Pay in U.S. Stores

 

[2457282]

I went to have lunch at the cafeteria in my wife's workplace and they are now taking apple pay. Things are finally starting to get interesting. I am finally getting to the tipping point of Apple pay working more often than not in the stores I frequent. This is all good news in my opinion.

 

[BlakePowers]

I went to have lunch at the cafeteria in my wife's workplace and they are now taking apple pay. Things are finally starting to get interesting. I am finally getting to the tipping point of Apple pay working more often than not in the stores I frequent. This is all good news in my opinion.

That must be nice.. I've only used it a handful of times because I don't have a place to use it.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Plenty of places to use it especially mom and pop stores. If your mom and pop store uses any of the latest chip card equipment, chances are Apple Pay works just fine. Just gotta have a keen eye. Sometimes the equipment is behind the counter and you gotta ask.

I find more and more places accepting Apple Pay every day now thanks to chip cards

 

[JohnApples]

I went to have lunch at the cafeteria in my wife's workplace and they are now taking apple pay. Things are finally starting to get interesting. I am finally getting to the tipping point of Apple pay working more often than not in the stores I frequent. This is all good news in my opinion.

Yeah, I'm at the point now where I'm surprised when a place DOESN'T take ApplePay, as opposed to the other way around. The real kicker will be getting sit-down restaurants to accept AP. So far, it looks like only Chili's does.

 

[2457282]

Yeah, I'm at the point now where I'm surprised when a place DOESN'T take ApplePay, as opposed to the other way around. The real kicker will be getting sit-down restaurants to accept AP. So far, it looks like only Chili's does.

Soooooo Agree. I cringe everytime I give my credit card and it walks away for agonizing minutes where anything can happen. Being a traveler it is especially concerning. I have had to cancel my card twice over the last 3 years because my CC company found suspicious charges. The more AP the better I say.

 

[Truckondo]

Has anyone else had issues at Babies R Us? They are listed as an Apple Pay partner. Employees have told me at two separate locations that ever since they added the card chip reading functionality , Apple Pay stopped working.

 

[Beerstalker]

I have used Apple Pay at Toys R Us numerous times, but it has been a couple of months since I tried last. If they only switched on their chip reader in the last couple months then that could be true.

My local Casey's General Store starting taking Apple Pay some time this week. I really appreciate that since I tend to go there multiple times a week. Sadly they do still require a signature for any purchase over $25.

 

[tmiw]

So when is American Apparel going to actually support it? The press release is a bit light on details.

I went to have lunch at the cafeteria in my wife's workplace and they are now taking apple pay. Things are finally starting to get interesting. I am finally getting to the tipping point of Apple pay working more often than not in the stores I frequent. This is all good news in my opinion.

Not there yet for me. I eat out at a lot of smaller mom and pop type places during the week for lunch which haven't even upgraded their terminals, never mind the fair number of places that charge extra or have a minimum for cards (which conveniently for them is set such that a lunch for one person is effectively cash only). Oh, and they don't differentiate between debit and credit cards either even though they're supposed to. Complaining to Visa about every single one would eat up large chunks of my day with no guarantee anything will be done about them.

As for the larger food places, while it works fine at Rubio's, McDonald's, Jersey Mike's and Subway, In-N-Out's started mounting their new terminals such that Apple Pay might not be possible at all. I'm not sure what's going on there but I have a theory that they balked when their POS vendor told them they'd need brand new hardware to enable AP/chip. No idea if there's any truth to that but considering that some places are simply never going to bother adopting chip unless forced, it's not out of the question.

Plenty of places to use it especially mom and pop stores. If your mom and pop store uses any of the latest chip card equipment, chances are Apple Pay works just fine. Just gotta have a keen eye. Sometimes the equipment is behind the counter and you gotta ask.

I find more and more places accepting Apple Pay every day now thanks to chip cards

I think it depends on the area. Where I live, it's a pretty big hassle unless their POS is set to automatically enable the terminal once totaled. That's mostly because whoever's been installing terminals around here sucks at their job though.

Yeah, I'm at the point now where I'm surprised when a place DOESN'T take ApplePay, as opposed to the other way around. The real kicker will be getting sit-down restaurants to accept AP. So far, it looks like only Chili's does.

IMO the only way restaurants will accept AP is if they're already set up for paying at the front counter or if they're large enough to afford those tablets at every table. Otherwise, they have no incentive to do anything other than what they've always done.

Has anyone else had issues at Babies R Us? They are listed as an Apple Pay partner. Employees have told me at two separate locations that ever since they added the card chip reading functionality , Apple Pay stopped working.

Could they have purposely disabled it? I doubt that's actually the case but you never know.