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Walmart and Best Buy Opt Out of 'Apple Pay' as Apple Leverages Required Point-of-Sale Upgrades

HiRez said:
I don't think they realize quite how big of a barrier [a download] is for many people.
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I agree. I believe that WalMart's "solution" is the "Shop and Go" functionality in their app. You scan your purchases as you put them in your basket, and then go to a special register. Your "cart" is sent to the register, and you complete the purchase normally (using a credit card).

If so, this isn't the same as NFC payment. It's something completely different, and WalMart is trying to explain its way out of this. The real issue is they have already spent a lot of money putting in custom EMV terminals, that don't support NFC.
 
Apparently, MCX uses an app called CurrentC across a bunch of retailers. The app isn't out yet. Wouldn't it be comical if Apple refused to approve the app because it "appears confusingly similar to an existing Apple product, interface, or advertising theme "

more info:
http://www.mcx.com
 
brendu said:
Apple would lose hundreds of thousands of sales doing that. There aren't apple stores everywhere. There are Wal Marts everywhere.
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Temporarily lose "hundreds of thousands" in pursuit of adoption of their payment system that would make them "billions".

Given Apple's profitability, knack for moving the world forward, and clout...I'd take that bet if I were them.
 
In some senses I'm quite proud that Walmart and BestBuy are making a stand. While I'm all for the ubiquity and convenience I'll receive with :apple:PAY as an iOS citizen these upcoming security mandates were a real chance for transaction facilitators to come together and unify the crap out of this instead of giving poor old merchants yet another bloody rub.

Apple have strong market share but they aren't the only smart NFC device provider and with their locked in proprietary nature, not playing nice with the other guys (Android, for one) is going to lead to some stupid AT&T vs Verizon type split for coverage and support, all at the cost of precious resources.

Good on Walmart and BestBuy for choosing a solution that supports all customers, send a message to these overly rich executives that some things need not be a competition.

(Google Wallet + Apple Pay) Future Ca$h support POS for the win.


[Edit: Have since discovered that Apple Pay only requires the merchant/vendor to support NFC to work. Vying for MacRumors to do some kind of an editorial on the matter so we have less confusion and unnecessary posts in the forums. My last point still stands - Future Ca$h support POS for the win]
 
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Why are people going gaga over a new payment system? I have never had a harder time pulling out a wallet versus a phone. Pull out wallet. Pull out card. Swipe. Wow, so much harder than nfc... I might have loss a few seconds of time.
 
isepic said:
Walmart and Sam's Club started their new "chip and pin" system just recently --- every-single-time it is used, takes FOREVER, plus, they don't even enter in a pin, just push the card in, 3-4 times later it finally reads it, goes though the slow process of authentication, then asks if you want cash back, then another slow process to finish. Mean while if you had stripe, you'd be done in 30 seconds, Apple Pay, 5 seconds if you have a clean finger :)
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I was in the US last year, I was amazed in how many shops you needed to have an ID, signature... Such a slow process. The new system cannot come quick enough.
 
I can't believe the ludicrous comments about "who shops at Walmart?" and "Walmart shoppers have smart phones?" You do realize that you don't become the largest retailer in the world without having the vast majority of people on the planet shopping there, don't you? They employ 2,000,000 people.

I guess the hipsters like to pretend like they are too good to shop at Walmart. Chances are they just go at 2:00 am so their other hipster friends don't see them.
 
Target might not be joining in the near future. After the December 2013 breach, Target already updated its credit card readers that still don't have NFC functionality. It isn't cost effective to make the change in less than a year.
 
thisrocks said:
In some senses I'm quite proud that Walmart and BestBuy are making a stand. While I'm all for the ubiquity and convenience I'll receive with :apple:PAY as an iOS citizen these upcoming security mandates were a real chance for transaction facilitators to come together and unify the crap out of this instead of giving poor old merchants yet another bloody rub.

Apple have strong market share but they aren't the only smart NFC device provider and with their locked in proprietary nature, not playing nice with the other guys (Android, for one) is going to lead to some stupid AT&T vs Verizon type split for coverage and support, all at the cost of precious resources.

Good on Walmart and BestBuy for choosing a solution that supports all customers, send a message to these overly rich executives that some things need not be a competition.

(Google Wallet + Apple Pay) Future Ca$h support POS for the win.
Click to expand...

Accepting :apple:Pay doesn't preclude them from accepting Google Wallet or other NFC payments.
 
People do realize this COULD be a big deal in the future adoption of Apple Pay, right? Best Buy and Walmart are not saying that they won't serve Apple customers, just that they won't allow Apple Customers to use Apple Pay. For Apple Pay to be successful the 98% of users who don't frequent MacRumors, Technology Blogs or watch Apple product unveiling need to buy into it.

If those people consider giving it a try only to find out that some of their favorite retailers won't support it they won't bother trying it again or at other retailers. Now if Walmart and BB are the only major holdouts (and of course they could offer to support it later) it might no be a huge deal. However if a few other large retailers decide not to support Apple Pay it will probably prevent Apple Pay from ever really taking off. While tech geeks might be willing to swap back and forth between phones and credit cards and remember what retailers support what, I doubt the average user will feel the same.

I say all of this as an Android user hoping for a successful roll out of Apple pay so that NFC pay methods become more widespread and understood in stores so that I can more ably use my phone with Google Wallet.
 
Somehow I doubt Wal-mart (the world's biggest retailer) will suffer any loss of sales because of this. It will take a long time for :apple:Pay to gain any real traction or widespread adoption anyway.

Plus, considering Wal-mart already targets consumers who would be signing up for pre-paid credit cards/etc., I doubt they feel the majority of their demographic would likely have the necessary equipment anyway, at least for some time.
 
I would never shop at Walmart, first of all, so I couldn't care less.

Next, Best Buy is on the edge of bankruptcy, so nobody cares.

I'd be shocked if Target didn't support Apple Pay.
 
You mean you americans don't have the security chips in your credit cards but instead use those magnetic strips the rest of us haven't been using for 10 years?
 
TimUSCA said:
I don't shop at either one, so oh well. Target is a bigger concern for me since the article said they belong to the same group, but I guess time will tell. And no, that wasn't a pun.
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Yeah we really want to trust a payment service created by the same people responsible for the largest breach of customer credit card data in history.
 
Don't worry. By 2016, they'll be on board. Even if Apple Pay was inferior to competing technologies, those don't have the Apple Can't Lose halo. It sounds like I'm being critical of Apple, but believe me, I'm not.
 
The CurrentC app that Best Buy, Walmart, and others are placing their bets on is a non-starter. It won't work with regular credit cards. You can link it to a checking account, a gift card, or certain retail credit cards. People are just not interested in that. They want to use their existing credit cards so they can either go deeper into debt or work the system and get cash back or points. Credit cards still offer much better, and legally mandated, fraud protection and dispute resolution.

I don't know if Apple Pay itself will actually catch on, but it's one of the few payment systems structured in a way that could catch on. But we'll still need plastic cards for quite a while. There are a lot of people who don't have smart phones. I, for example, never carry one even though I'm an iOS developer, so Apple Pay is useless to me. But mostly it's old people who will still need the cards. And don't underestimate how many there are.
 
This has nothing to do with Apple Pay per se. Its all about who controls the upcoming mobile payment revolution and profits the most out of it.

The telcos like Verizon and AT&T already tried to control it -- but failed. So now some large retailers are trying to control it and hope to make $$$$ off of it.

But if Apple Pay takes off in many other outlets, these retailers will have no choice to accept it. Just like they accept many credit cards (not just one) , they will likely eventually have to accept many mobile payment systems, including Apple Pay.
 
newagemac said:
Looking forward to getting my 64GB in Space Gray next week and just crossed off Walmart on my list of places to shop.
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No you haven’t. Don’t be so ridiculous. If Walmart have something you want at the price you want you’ll buy it - we both know you’re not going to opt to pay more because they don’t support FanBoy money. Remember you can’t actually use ApplePay until you’ve actually bought the phone!!

The rate you lot are going Apple will take over the world and then you’ll ask how it happened.
 
Judas1 said:
Why are people going gaga over a new payment system? I have never had a harder time pulling out a wallet versus a phone. Pull out wallet. Pull out card. Swipe. Wow, so much harder than nfc... I might have loss a few seconds of time.
Click to expand...

For me, security and privacy is a big selling point.

I've had my card replaced by my credit card company due to some sort of fraud or breach. It's usually due to a breach at a retailer I swiped my card at.
But what a pain it is to have to figure out where you had auto pay enabled for the card, and having to change info everywhere.

Remember that using Apple Pay gives the merchant a one-time-use credit card number, and includes zero information, not our name, not our last 4 digits of the card, nothing. This makes me believe card skimming won't be possible either because of these one-time-uses.
And apple also promises to not track where you shop, how much you spend, what you buy, etc. etc.

I can appreciate this because it is something clearly something Google is tracking, because that is their business model.
 
isepic said:
Walmart and Sam's Club started their new "chip and pin" system just recently --- every-single-time it is used, takes FOREVER, plus, they don't even enter in a pin, just push the card in, 3-4 times later it finally reads it, goes though the slow process of authentication, then asks if you want cash back, then another slow process to finish.
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Walmart didn't choose to not require a PIN for your EMV card. That was a decision by your card issuer. Most US banks are programming the cards to ask for a signature (although Walmart appears to skip the signature below a certain amount). Some cards are programmed to ask for a PIN at an unattended terminal (where you can't get a signature), but I've found that isn't working well, at least in Europe.

The truth is: authorization time isn't much different than it was before. The difference is that the cashier waited for the approval, and now you are waiting for approval before you can retrieve your card.

However, I have noticed that WalMart's card readers seem to be a bit flaky. And it can be a problem if the chip reader doesn't work: the magstripe on your card says it has a chip, and the terminal will insist you insert the card into the chip reader. I had that happen to me last month: the cashier had to enter the card number manually.
 
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