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Walgreens Gearing Up for Apple Pay-Linked Loyalty Rewards Cards
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i wish apple sell their own sale terminal so smaller business could sign up for. in the mean time samsung pay is king.
Take a look at Square. It's their own terminal that small businesses could sign up for. Supports Contactless Payments (Apple Pay) and Chip Cards.
Same with all the other ones like PayPal support both chip and Apple Pay now.
Sounds like Apple doesn't need to enter this game
If you want your privacy, you can have it. If you want loyalty discounts at the expense of a loss of privacy you can have it. If you want to complain about a system that accommodates both populations, you can do that, too.
Not anymore. Since they turned on chip card support Apple Pay is lightning fast.
It's been super fast for me for the last year. I've only used a credit card to pay with Apple Pay there, so no PIN required.
If you want your privacy, you can have it. If you want loyalty discounts at the expense of a loss of privacy you can have it. If you want to complain about a system that accommodates both populations, you can do that, too.
You do know that many of those stores let you use the a card the cashier keeps on their register if you ask. You can literally get the sale price without giving anything up. So, no, you're not saving any more money than I am.
That's what's depressing. That people are giving up their privacy and getting nothing in return.
It's not just Walgreens. My local grocery store also requires a pin. Apparently they don't work as a Credit card, but rather an ATM.
It's interesting. I am a Walgreen Pharmacist and I keep up with our internal communications and news. As of this evening, there's been no mention of additional changes coming to the Balance Rewards program or any hints that NFC will be used in the future. It would be nice if they would tell us these things before updating the Balance Rewards Wallet Pass with NFC support when we have not even been made aware that we will be accepting the card in this way. However, I can say that the Balance Rewards system at the POS has been much, much slower at pulling up rewards accounts for several weeks now. I'm wondering if it has to do with maintenance/updates rolling out to support this. They rolled out a software update to accept chip cards earlier this month (hardware was already there--just disabled). If I see a memo come in, I will share.
2) Frequent Sales: majority of items are priced higher compared to Everyday Low Pricing, HOWEVER there are frequent (i.e. weekly) specials, sales, or clearances on select items that are actually better deals (such as BOGO Free) than that of the Everyday Low Pricing (e.g. Walgreens). The idea is these sales will draw customers in and they will pick up other items that are not on special, in addition to the select sales items.
Both schools have advantages and disadvantages. Money-smart can use a mixture of both types of establishment to get maximum benefit.
There's two main retail marketing schools of thought. 1) Everyday Low Pricing: the majority of items are priced fairly, however there are rarely (or never) sales or clearances (e.g. Walmart).
2) Frequent Sales: majority of items are priced higher compared to Everyday Low Pricing, HOWEVER there are frequent (i.e. weekly) specials, sales, or clearances on select items that are actually better deals (such as BOGO Free) than that of the Everyday Low Pricing (e.g. Walgreens). The idea is these sales will draw customers in and they will pick up other items that are not on special, in addition to the select sales items.
Both schools have advantages and disadvantages. Money-smart can use a mixture of both types of establishment to get maximum benefit.
They used to only give points on prescriptions and select items that change weekly, so it was hard to get a lot of points unless you specifically went to buy those items or you get prescriptions on a regular basis. Now (since June) they have "everyday" points and you get 10 points for every dollar you spend in the store (in addition to the "special" items of the week that give you some bonus points)...makes it easier to get points from everyday items.
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My local Walgreens doesn't turn on the NFC reader until after you enter your phone number, so I guess this isn't going to work there yet. I also don't know if it'll save much time vs. entering the number unless it will transmit both the loyalty card and your credit card on the single tap. We'll see whenever it finally starts working.
If you have inside information, you might want to just let your GM know about this so he can get the word out across the whole store, and also to managers of other stores at meetings.
It is awesome that they are buying Rite Aid because Rite Aid is currently on the Plenti program which is quite awful with an awful iOS app. The majority of the time I cannot even bring up my Plenti card on the app because it is so laggy and buggy. Walgreens with Wallet and Apple Pay compatibility FTW.
I'm curious to see if a single tap will work.
In order to be able to redeem any Balance Rewards that you've earned, you need to tap before the cashier starts ringing stuff up.
But it's been my experience that when it comes to paying, if you try to tap to pay before or while the cashier is still ringing up the sale, it doesn't always work (and you'll have to tap again after the order is totally rung up).
Also, what if you want to tap to use your Balance Rewards, but you want to pay with cash? How would you stop a one-tap from paying with Apple Pay in that situation?
IMO, a tap for the Balance Rewards is still 1-2 seconds quicker than typing it in. Plus it's 10 less times you have to touch their PIN pad with your finger, which in a place that can be full of sick people, isn't a bad thing.
Yep, blazing fast. Honestly ApplePay is such an improvement and step forward in the payment process that retails should be rushing to implement it.
I think a bunch of them erroneously believe that Apple Pay increases their merchant fees. Or they're just data gathering scum.
Well many also like to track customers and Apple Pay until recently didn't provide a rewards system to do that - Walmart is trying to bypass credit cards entirely and make even more money, which is why I think they are skipping it for now
Walmart will be unsuccessful in trying to get the MCX off the ground.
Any consumer with half a brain wouldn't want to risk losing their points, purchase protection, airport concierge, extended warranty, and the wide acceptance of credit cards.
Oh yes we do. By using our own awards card, we often get cash back awards and customized coupons that you don't get by using the store (or cashier's!) card.
For example, partly due to large prescription orders, we get at least a $5 award about every week at CVS. We also get great personalized coupons for things like we to buy. We've saved literally hundreds of extra dollars each year, at that one store alone.
I mean, seriously, you don't have a personal awards card of any kind? You're just cheating yourself. Man, I really save at Staples with mine.
What's sad is how many people equate shopping with real privacy issues.
Heck, when you get older, you'll have to buy lots of prescriptions. Guess what? Those tell far more secrets about us than their knowing what kind of chewing gum we like.
Besides, as I keep pointing out, many of us LIKE businesses knowing us and catering to our desires. From banks to restaurants, from clothing sellers to pharmacies.
Not having the data does cost them more. That's because the banks are also "data gathering scum" and they sell targeted ads / coupons back to the merchants.
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Frankly, I think Apple should allow each person to decide what level of privacy we want during a contactless payment... same as the way iOS has an advertising-id opt-out switch.
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My wallet would be a lot thinner if I could pull all of the loyalty cards out of it!