Kroger-Owned Grocery Store Chain Harris Teeter Begins Accepting Apple Pay

[tmiw]

Having to punch in a PIN for every transaction wouldn't have saved you, but it would absolutely be a PITA for everybody.

Mandatory PIN entry when inserting might have made it easier for contactless and Apple Pay to take hold (i.e. by making it a lot more difficult to not let customers touch the terminal). Instead, we needed a million+ people dying for us to think that the NFC thing might be worth trying. It's the big reason why I almost think the US should have just done QR instead; at least we might have had significantly more adoption before the pandemic happened.

(Realistically, however, we probably wouldn't have adopted QR any earlier, especially if it still used the credit card rails. The likes of Walmart would have still found a way to justify using their own QR apps instead of Apple Pay's QR system and end up turning people off of using QR altogether for years afterward.)

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Mandatory PIN entry when inserting might have made it easier for contactless and Apple Pay to take hold (i.e. by making it a lot more difficult to not let customers touch the terminal). Instead, we needed a million+ people dying for us to think that the NFC thing might be worth trying. It's the big reason why I almost think the US should have just done QR instead; at least we might have had significantly more adoption before the pandemic happened.

(Realistically, however, we probably wouldn't have adopted QR any earlier, especially if it still used the credit card rails. The likes of Walmart would have still found a way to justify using their own QR apps instead of Apple Pay's QR system and end up turning people off of using QR altogether for years afterward.)

It wouldn't have made any difference with the pandemic. Sure, we thought early on that touch transmission might be a big risk, but the reality turned out to be that SARS-CoV-2 was airborne, and touch transmission was a negligible risk.

And by that point credit cards already worked without PIN or signature most places (including Kroger) anyway, no need to touch anything but your own card.

No, the problem turned out to be people who were too stupid to wear a mask or get a vaccine.

 

[DblHelix]

How would they know my zip code?

No zip often needed with 3 digit security code

 

[tmiw]

It wouldn't have made any difference with the pandemic. Sure, we thought early on that touch transmission might be a big risk, but the reality turned out to be that SARS-CoV-2 was airborne, and touch transmission was a negligible risk.

Still, merchant/user acceptance didn't really improve much until that period when people thought touch transmission was possible. Before that point, NFC usage was languishing in the single digits and very well could have stayed that way. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world didn't need a tangible (at the time) threat to their lives to adopt it.

So yeah, I'm pretty cynical about the whole thing now. While we'd probably have a similar death toll either way, I'd feel a bit better about US mobile payments had there been a lot more adoption prior to the pandemic (even if it was QR or some other form instead of NFC).

 

[lindros2]

No zip often needed with 3 digit security code

not true; required for online; required for gasoline.

 

[lartola]

Mandatory PIN entry when inserting might have made it easier for contactless and Apple Pay to take hold (i.e. by making it a lot more difficult to not let customers touch the terminal). Instead, we needed a million+ people dying for us to think that the NFC thing might be worth trying. It's the big reason why I almost think the US should have just done QR instead; at least we might have had significantly more adoption before the pandemic happened.

Not necessarily. Look at your neighbor, Mexico. PIN entry was made mandatory in 2018 and still Apple Pay and contactless aren’t taking hold. During the pandemic and even now, after it, things haven’t changed much from how they were before.

 

[lartola]

Still, merchant/user acceptance didn't really improve much until that period when people thought touch transmission was possible. Before that point, NFC usage was languishing in the single digits and very well could have stayed that way. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world didn't need a tangible (at the time) threat to their lives to adopt it.

So yeah, I'm pretty cynical about the whole thing now. While we'd probably have a similar death toll either way, I'd feel a bit better about US mobile payments had there been a lot more adoption prior to the pandemic (even if it was QR or some other form instead of NFC).

I do know of at least one country, Mexico, where NFC usage continued to languish even through the pandemic and still does. Apple Pay didn’t arrive officially until after the pandemic, so no idea if that was a factor, but it sure doesn’t look like it was.

 

[lindros2]

I do know of at least one country, Mexico, where NFC usage continued to languish even through the pandemic and still does. Apple Pay didn’t arrive officially until after the pandemic, so no idea if that was a factor, but it sure doesn’t look like it was.

How about Korea?
Apple pay just arrived. And is limited to one card per device.

Japan was way ahead with Suica, but initially required the special iPhone model with the Sony NFC chip.

 

[lartola]

How about Korea?
Apple pay just arrived. And is limited to one card per device.

Japan was way ahead with Suica, but initially required the special iPhone model with the Sony NFC chip.

Yeah, same in Korea, NFC just won’t take hold. BTW as far as I know it’s not one card per device, it’s only one single bank that’s supporting apple pay in Korea and you can certainly add more than one card from that bank on the same iphone if you have more than one, just not any cards from other korean banks.

 

[lindros2]

Yeah, same in Korea, NFC just won’t take hold. BTW as far as I know it’s not one card per device, it’s only one single bank that’s supporting apple pay in Korea and you can certainly add more than one card from that bank on the same iphone if you have more than one, just not any cards from other korean banks.

We have a Korean phone and it appeared limited to one card, but - to your point - we only have one card at that bank.
Sorry.
A colleague made fun of my US phone/banks which have seven cards.

 

[lartola]

We have a Korean phone and it appeared limited to one card, but - to your point - we only have one card at that bank.
Sorry.
A colleague made fun of my US phone/banks which have seven cards.

I can almost assure you it isn’t limited to only one card, you can try adding one of your US cards to the korean phone to see if it lets you (Apple does allow to have cards from different countries together in the same wallet, I have Mexico and US cards for example). If it were indeed restricted to only one card (which I doubt), that would be a first for Apple: they’ve never done it anywhere before.