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Really? With my Apple Watch, I need the other hand to press the button on the watch. With my iPhone, I can do it all with one hand.

Yeah, but then you have to pull the phone out of your pocket and, if you don’t, then you are already tying up your other hand by having it constantly hold your iPhone. Using Apple Watch for Apple Pay is infinitely better than paying with an iPhone. (It’s usually teenage girls who clutch their iPhones all day long.)
 
Walgreen's version even works via Apple Wallet - and on Apple Watch.
Not anymore. I recently noticed that walgreens has removed the nfc capability from its balance rewards card and now it shows up in wallet as a regular pass (and it can no longer be accessed from apple watch by double clicking the side button)

UPDATE: After writing this post I have noticed that walgreens has restored the nfc capabilities of the balance rewards card. It was gone the last few days, now it’s back
 
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Harris Teeter was testing out Apple Pay at a few stores when they were still independent. Then Kroger snapped up the North Carolina chain. Kroger utilizes a consumer-unfriendly shopper card/tracking system and has actively been fighting against implementation of Apple Pay. Harris Teeter’s earlier testing of the waters was thus immediately thrown out the window. Kroger purchased HT so they could close mid-priced Kroger locations in the same market and replace them with higher-priced HT (Publix-level) grocery stores to maximize profits. This is unfortunate, as Kroger is the nation’s largest supermarket chain. ☹
Really? Kroger purchased HT in 2013, and Apple Pay was introduced in fall 2014. I remember using Apple Pay at HT as recently as around 2015-2016.

Edit: Seems they discontinued it in 2017, according to this link: https://midatlanticconsulting.com/blog/2017/02/harris-teeter-discontinues-apple-pay-security-issues/.
 
Yeah, but then you have to pull the phone out of your pocket and, if you don’t, then you are already tying up your other hand by having it constantly hold your iPhone. Using Apple Watch for Apple Pay is infinitely better than paying with an iPhone. (It’s usually teenage girls who clutch their iPhones all day long.)
Apple Watch: two hands involved (that is, both of mine).
iPhone: one hand involved (the only that has only handled my iPhone and my shopping bag).

I'm not sure how the Watch scenario is "infinitely" better. To me it seems worse. YMMV, apparently.
 
This is good news but it's also kinda disappointing (or a serious coincidence) that it took a pandemic to make this happen.

Anyway, who else do you think is going to blink next: Kroger, Home Depot or Lowe's? (I highly doubt Walmart will ever enable it in the US unless Visa and MC force them.)
 
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A buddy of mine texted me this morning he used Apple Pay at Publix today.

publix.png
 
Kroger????

Yeah, good luck with that. I can't stand those buggers because their technology decisions are so random.

Full disclosure: I used to work for Kroger IT, and I live in their home-town.
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Really? Kroger purchased HT in 2013, and Apple Pay was introduced in fall 2014. I remember using Apple Pay at HT as recently as around 2015-2016.

Edit: Seems they discontinued it in 2017, according to this link: https://midatlanticconsulting.com/blog/2017/02/harris-teeter-discontinues-apple-pay-security-issues/.

Case in point!
 
Companies have been disabling Apple Pay to try to get people to use their own apps to pay. Thing is, this hasn't really caught on. Few people want to have to use a different app for every store they shop at, and would rather just pay the same way everywhere.

I think stores are starting to figure this out, and along with covid-19 making contactless payment a good idea, we might finally see the end of purposefully disabled Apple Pay at retail locations. I hope I'm right; Publix is a BIG, BIG deal in the Southeast so kudos to them for finally joining the fray.
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The whole MCX thing is the main reason why NFC took so long to catch on in the US. Screw the people who came up with that.
If anything it makes me AVOID places that don't take AP. And they say BS about it being more convenient to use there app. NO it's LESS convenient to have to use a separate app everywhere!
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The Wawa by me works just fine at the pump
Our Wawa AP Readers broke when they added chip card readers. Sheetz still work fine and they have chip card readers too now. So bye bye Wawa. So freaking annoying to hear like eight pumps speaking they take chip cards now out of sync also. That in itself would be enough to drive me away. Sheetz just has signs.
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This is good news but it's also kinda disappointing (or a serious coincidence) that it took a pandemic to make this happen.

Anyway, who else do you think is going to blink next: Kroger, Home Depot or Lowe's? (I highly doubt Walmart will ever enable it in the US unless Visa and MC force them.)
HD Lowe's is the most annoying because at least if only one took it, I would just go there all the time.
 
If anything it makes me AVOID places that don't take AP. And they say BS about it being more convenient to use there app. NO it's LESS convenient to have to use a separate app everywhere!

Yeah that is such a joke. I can't even remember the last time I used Apple Pay with my iPhone. Just two presses of a button on my watch and I'm paying. You cannot get more convenient than that.
 
Apple Watch: two hands involved (that is, both of mine).
iPhone: one hand involved (the only that has only handled my iPhone and my shopping bag).

I'm not sure how the Watch scenario is "infinitely" better. To me it seems worse. YMMV, apparently.
They’re actually similar. When using apple watch, the second hand is only used for an instant to double press the button. After that, both hands are free to handle shopping bags and your phone is in your pocket. Besides usually you grab the shopping bags after you’ve already paid, not before or while you pay.
 
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Not anymore. I recently noticed that walgreens has removed the nfc capability from its balance rewards card and now it shows up in wallet as a regular pass (and it can no longer be accessed from apple watch by double clicking the side button)

UPDATE: After writing this post I have noticed that walgreens has restored the nfc capabilities of the balance rewards card. It was gone the last few days, now it’s back
Interesting.

I've not been to Walgreens for a while, so don't have current experience. I did double check that it was available on my watch when posting. It's entirely possible it'd not been working during the period I hadn't used it.
 
Yeah that is such a joke. I can't even remember the last time I used Apple Pay with my iPhone. Just two presses of a button on my watch and I'm paying. You cannot get more convenient than that.
I only use Apple Pay with the phone when I go to my car dealer to have my car serviced or repaired. Car dealers here in Mexico usually have the cashiers behind a window with a narrow opening on the bottom, so it’d be difficult or even impossible to use the apple watch (the arm won’t fit through the opening, but the phone still does)
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Interesting.

I've not been to Walgreens for a while, so don't have current experience. I did double check that it was available on my watch when posting. It's entirely possible it'd not been working during the period I hadn't used it.
After posting I noticed they fixed it, but it was indeed gone for a couple of days.
 
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They’re actually similar. When using apple watch, the second hand is only used for an instant to double press the button. After that, both hands are free to handle shopping bags and your phone is in your pocket. Besides usually you grab the shopping bags after you’ve already paid, not before or while you pay.

Plus if your hands are dirty you can still use your thumb's knuckle to activate Apple Pay on your watch. Really important during a pandemic.
 
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They’re actually similar. When using apple watch, the second hand is only used for an instant to double press the button. After that, both hands are free to handle shopping bags and your phone is in your pocket. Besides usually you grab the shopping bags after you’ve already paid, not before or while you pay.
No, not similar. You say, "second hand is only used for an instant", but that means using a hand that may have touched something that's not yours, thus potentially infected surfaces. That it's "only for an instant" doesn't help - there's no 3-second rule for virus.

And, in my case, these days, no I don't "usually grab the shopping bags after you’ve already paid, not before", so the "usually" doesn't apply - I shop with one large, sturdy, wide-top (Tom Bihn) shopping bag and my phone (which has my list) in one hand, using (only) the other hand to pick up items and put them in the bag. When I get to the register, that same hand puts the items on the conveyer, and then puts them back in the bag after they're scanned. The hand with the phone unlocks it and waves it over the POS terminal to pay. No contamination between the hands.

If I were to touch my watch with the hand that has been picking up groceries, I can no longer trust that it's clean. We have to take precautions these days.
 
No, not similar. You say, "second hand is only used for an instant", but that means using a hand that may have touched something that's not yours, thus potentially infected surfaces. That it's "only for an instant" doesn't help - there's no 3-second rule for virus.

And, in my case, these days, no I don't "usually grab the shopping bags after you’ve already paid, not before", so the "usually" doesn't apply - I shop with one large, sturdy, wide-top (Tom Bihn) shopping bag and my phone (which has my list) in one hand, using (only) the other hand to pick up items and put them in the bag. When I get to the register, that same hand puts the items on the conveyer, and then puts them back in the bag after they're scanned. The hand with the phone unlocks it and waves it over the POS terminal to pay. No contamination between the hands.

If I were to touch my watch with the hand that has been picking up groceries, I can no longer trust that it's clean. We have to take precautions these days.
I meant similarly convenient. As far as contamination, I think you’re being a bit too paranoid. Supermarkets and other businesses around the world have been taking a lot of measures to prevent it, some of them extreme. In Canada, for instance, they’ve even started requiring people to wash and/or disinfect their hands when they walk into the store and they also prohibit using cell phones while inside the store except for payment at the registers.
 
Tried to use AP at my local Publix this afternoon. They just deployed it yesterday. Didn’t work. But at least I didn’t get a bogus charge.
mom sure they’ll sort out the bugs in their system.
 
and they also prohibit using cell phones while inside the store except for payment at the registers.

That would certainly annoy me as I use my phone to keep my shopping lists! Are they just trying to keep people from lingering in the store screwing around on their phones?
 
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That would certainly annoy me as I use my phone to keep my shopping lists! Are they just trying to keep people from lingering in the store screwing around on their phones?
This. I suppose if I knew ahead of time, I could print out a paper list at home, but it's less handy.
 
That would certainly annoy me as I use my phone to keep my shopping lists! Are they just trying to keep people from lingering in the store screwing around on their phones?

I wonder if they'd frown upon you looking at your list on your watch. That's what I do sometimes.
 
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Kroger near home is skeevy so I rarely go, but I've seen those things. Eww even without coronavirus.

I much prefer how Sam's Club has it set up with their phone app. It'll display my membership card for walking in. I scan stuff from the app as I put it in my buggy, then when I'm done I checkout within the app -- skipping the registers/lines/scanners -- door person scans the QR code displayed on the app and I'm out the door.

Skeezy? Yeah. The Krogers here had a fist fight in the parking lot, a white guy that almost ran over an older black woman, and someone almost get backed over, and a shouting match happened. And the Sam's Club isn't that much better. No shooting though, amazingly... It's rough out there. I just want to get my beer, and go home...
 
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Skeezy? Yeah. The Krogers here had a fist fight in the parking lot, a white guy that almost ran over an older black woman, and someone almost get backed over, and a shouting match happened. And the Sam's Club isn't that much better. No shooting though, amazingly... It's rough out there. I just want to get my beer, and go home...

Lol. Drive up window liquor store here. With a reader on a cord and Apple Pay. 😎

My Sams is pretty cool. Extremely diverse clientele and everyone’s cool. Not skeevy like the Kroger.
 
That would certainly annoy me as I use my phone to keep my shopping lists! Are they just trying to keep people from lingering in the store screwing around on their phones?
They consider the phones to be a source of contamination, that’s the argument for such a measure.
 
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