It has merely been a week since Apple Pay went live and even though it is supported by many businesses, some are choosing to go the other way. After retailers like Best Buy and Walmart announced that they will not support the new service from Apple, others have joined in as well, even though they didn’t exactly make their position clear.
Since Apple Pay uses NFC to function the retailers in question didn’t necessarily have to support it. Many customers found that they could pay for purchases at both CVS and Rite Aid using their NFC terminals even though both retailers didn’t support the service at launch.
Now though CVS and Rite Aid have circulated memos to all stores ordering them to shut down NFC terminals, which will not only render Apple Pay unusable, but other solutions like Google Wallet as well. Apparently this is being done to push in another payments service that is backed by the likes of Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Sears, Kmart, CVS and 7-Eleven. The new system is a NFC and barcode based payment solution called MCX CurrentC.
It remains to be seen whether these retailers will change their position from Apple Pay when millions of customers walk into their stores and ask if they can pay for purchases using the new service. Apple Pay is available in the U.S. only right now but the company does have plans to take it around the world.
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