Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
MacBook Pro Updates
CVS and Rite Aid Officially Disable Apple Pay Support At Stores Nationwide
Last week, multiple reports indicated that pharmacy chains CVS and Rite Aid were disabling near field communications (NFC) payment terminals at some of their locations in order to stop the use of Apple Pay. Now, The New York Times reports that both drug chains have officially disabled Apple Pay from working at their stores nationwide.
A spokeswoman for Rite Aid said that the company "does not currently accept Apple Pay" and that the company was "still in the process of evaluating mobile payment options." Representatives from CVS did not respond to interview requests from The New York Times. Apple declined to comment on the actions from both stores. However, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard Ed McLaughlin said that "consumers should have the ability to pay any way they want" and that the company "looks forward to [CVS and Rite Aid] turning on the functionality back on in their stores."
Many believe that Rite Aid's and CVS's moves to disable Apple Pay support is related to their participation in the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which is a group consisting of other retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Gap. MCX is developing its own mobile payment system known as CurrentC, which will be available next year according to a claimed internal Rite Aid message.
Apple Pay launched last week and is accepted at over 200,000 locations in the U.S. Rite Aid and CVS competitor Walgreens has been one of the biggest supporters of Apple Pay, as the feature is available at many of its over 8,000 stores around the United States.
A spokeswoman for Rite Aid said that the company "does not currently accept Apple Pay" and that the company was "still in the process of evaluating mobile payment options." Representatives from CVS did not respond to interview requests from The New York Times. Apple declined to comment on the actions from both stores. However, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard Ed McLaughlin said that "consumers should have the ability to pay any way they want" and that the company "looks forward to [CVS and Rite Aid] turning on the functionality back on in their stores."
Many believe that Rite Aid's and CVS's moves to disable Apple Pay support is related to their participation in the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which is a group consisting of other retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Gap. MCX is developing its own mobile payment system known as CurrentC, which will be available next year according to a claimed internal Rite Aid message.
Apple Pay launched last week and is accepted at over 200,000 locations in the U.S. Rite Aid and CVS competitor Walgreens has been one of the biggest supporters of Apple Pay, as the feature is available at many of its over 8,000 stores around the United States.
Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: nytimes.com, CVS
[ 461 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
60 months ago
Drive away your wealthier customers who can afford an iPhone. Makes perfect sense.
60 months ago
I've moved my prescriptions to Walgreens. Now instead of making a left, I make a right. They are 230 ft apart in my town.
60 months ago
Strikes me as being a veiled threat.
If you must go to CVS or Rite Aid, pay in pennies and dimes. Maybe when you're holding up the queue for several minutes they'll appreciate the worldwide NFC standard.
All that will do is annoy the 19 year old making $10/hour working the register. Douchey move.
60 months ago
Looks like MacRumors is going to milk this topic dry by posting a dozen overlapping topics - - just like they did when they promoted the fake bending story.
60 months ago
All that will do is annoy the 19 year old making $10/hour working the register. Douchey move.
Of course it's a douchey move. It's an appropriately douchey response to a douchey manoeuvre by the company.
And they'll complain to their boss, and they'll complain to their boss, and so forth. This is how things get fixed - from the grassroots level. Enough people do it and there'll be an obvious monetary penalty to the company. Until they're negatively impacted, they won't give a crap about the customer.
60 months ago
Check out the CurrentC app's comments sometime. One star, 1000 reviews, all angry (as far as I can tell). Seems like this issue is getting some traction at least...
60 months ago
Not accepting money seems like a poor business decision.
It will be interesting to see how this works out for them.
It will be interesting to see how this works out for them.
60 months ago
New York times is reporting on it now? My guess is within a few days they will all re-enable it because it is quickly becoming a national issue and not losing thousands of customers/stopping negative press will become more important than trying to stop competition of their crappy payment system.
I bet the quote will be something like "we were still testing Apple pay for maximum compatability with our nfc system" as if it had nothing to do with their competing product and they had planned to enable Apple pay all along and this whole thing was just a misunderstanding.
I bet the quote will be something like "we were still testing Apple pay for maximum compatability with our nfc system" as if it had nothing to do with their competing product and they had planned to enable Apple pay all along and this whole thing was just a misunderstanding.
60 months ago
looks forward to [CVS and Rite Aid] turning on the functionality back on in their stores.
Strikes me as being a veiled threat.
If you must go to CVS or Rite Aid, pay in pennies and dimes. Maybe when you're holding up the queue for several minutes they'll appreciate the worldwide NFC standard. And actually tell them: "I would have paid with my phone in a couple of seconds, but you deliberately turned it off, so this is what you get."
[ Read All Comments ]
Nintendo today kicked off the beta for its mobile game Mario Kart Tour, limited to Android in Japan and the United States. Thanks to players starting to get their hands on the game, we now have a...
Mobile network EE has announced it will launch 5G in the United Kingdom on May 30, beating rival Vodafone's 5G offering which launches in early July.
At a London press event this morning,...
Valve has released a new free standalone Steam Chat app for iOS and Android that brings several of the desktop Steam chat client's features to mobile.
Steam users can now use their...
As of today, transit users in the Portland-Vancouver area are able to use their iPhones and Apple Watches to ride the TriMet, C-Tran, and Portland Streetcar, according to the Portland Tribune.
A...
There are quite a few deals happening today that could save shoppers some money on iTunes credit, Apple's Smart Battery Case for the iPhone XR, and previous generation Retina iMacs. All of these...
Smart home company Tado has announced an updated version of its Smart AC Controller that includes Apple HomeKit support out of the box.
Available today in the U.K. and other European...
National Australia Bank (NAB) today announced support for Apple Pay, allowing NAB customers with a Visa Card to make purchases using the Apple Pay payments service.
NAB, a former notable Apple...
MacRumors readers have a chance to save on a collection of Anker accessories this week, thanks to our latest exclusive sale with the popular accessory maker. This time around our sale includes up to...
