Apple Pay Website Updated to Suggest Some Partners May Not Make 2014 Rollout Goal

BTW, Albertson's (per se) isn't really buying Safeway. It's Albertson's owner company, Cerberus Capital Management (a private equity firm) that is buying Safeway/Vons. The deal is expected to close next month. The FTC is requiring Cerberus to divest itself of about 168 stores between the two companies. In our area (San Diego County), 17 Albertson's and 8 Vons stores are being sold to Haggen Food (a grocery company based in Washington state).

Must be an echo in here. I said the exact same thing in the post right before this one.

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Some people don't have the luxury of running up a credit card bill and then paying it off in full each month. I've given up traditional credit cards and only use pre-paid credit cards that I load up with my own money (instantly though my bank for free). Some banks combine debit and credit cards into one and allow it to function as either, drawing from the same pool of cash, which is awesome.

When you say luxury, it seems you really mean discipline. The prepaid card forces you to not spend more than you have, but you could do the same with a credit card too. Some of the credit cards actually pay you for borrowing money from them for free. That deal is pretty hard to beat. The prepaid card does just the opposite. You are loaning the bank your money for free.

I just wish that they could get Target (stores) onboard with  Pay. I thought that Target already has contactless payment machines in stores, so why would they not choose to support  pay?

Target, Kroger, and CVS have NFC terminals that support.

They just insist on denying secure payments, in order to stock piling information on your purchases, for their internal algorithms and such.

Someone had posted that CVS was now accepting Apple Pay on another thread. I tried it out Sunday and found that it was not true.

I don't know (actually doubt) if your conspiracy theory is correct. However, I do wish these companies either, roll out CurrentC, or Apple Pay very soon. My guess is that when they do either Apple Pay will win. The fact that they turn off NFC and basically have zero answer for contactless payment is ridiculous.

It's the only explanation. They have the hardware and software links in place.

It worked, and they disabled it.
http://www.ibtimes.com/cvs-rite-aid-baffle-payments-industry-decisions-block-nfc-apple-pay-1714093

Because storing those one time use tokens does nothing for their internal tracking algorithms.

See below. I'm not 'conspiracy-theory' this is bad, horrible. I've used credit/debit cards for ages, known this, and accept it.
But for a store to intentionally sacrifice their customers security... should be criminal. Or grounds for VISA/MC to terminate agreements.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jun/08/supermarkets-get-your-data

Even if you haven't handed over your details and product preferences through a loyalty scheme, it's likely you have used a debit or credit card to pay for your shopping at some point – and this is another way that the supermarkets can track what we buy.

"We know that an anonymised card number paid for a particular basket of groceries one week and how much was spent with the same card number the following week," says a Morrisons spokesperson. "It means we know when customers are lapsing because we won't see their card for a week. We use it to measure the effectiveness of promotions and events."

A RBS Visa debit card being handed to a shop assistant
Supermarkets can use your card details to learn more about you. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
When asked whether its customers give permission for their card numbers to be tracked in this way, the supermarket says customers "would only need to opt in" if Morrisons intended to send them any form of communication.

"All the large grocers track payment cards in this way," says Matthew Harrop at data analysis firm emnos. "All your till receipts are linked together using either a known customer identifier – or anonymously in the absence of a loyalty card – to analyse what you're buying and how loyal you are."

Waitrose and Asda also admit analysing aggregated payment card data to monitor "customer shopping patterns" (for example, items purchased) over time. Both stress this is common practice in the retail industry and that card numbers are not connected to an individual or an address. Sainsbury's and Tesco say they do not track or monitor their customers' payment cards.

The supermarkets also want to find out what their customers are doing outside their stores. Waitrose, for example, paid data analytics firm Beyond Analysis to use "aggregated and anonymised data" about shoppers' Visa card transactions to help it decide on new store locations.

Beyond Analysis integrated the Visa transaction data with Waitrose's own data to figure out what proportion of potential customers were buying groceries from other supermarkets, and the general locations of these competitors.

A Waitrose spokesperson says the supermarket would never see details about an individual customer's spending – the data would only show broad trends. Along with Visa, the supermarket emphasises that the work fully complied with the Data Protection Act. Beyond Analysis refused to comment and Waitrose says it no longer works with the firm.

However, both MasterCard and Beyond Analysis still offer data analytics services to UK retailers - which means anonymised, aggregated information about what we are all spending on our credit and debit cards and where we are spending it is potentially up for grabs to the highest bidder.

Albertson's

For Albertsons in particular this is a huge job and it's difficult to implement a change of this scope during the Christmas holidays. If you think of 10-20 terminals including self service and service counter at every store multiplied by the number of stores that's a lot of terminals.

Albertsons will become my grocery store of choice when this is completed. I check in once a month to my local one and chat with the clerks to gauge progress. Probably due for a repeat visit.

They choose to partner with CurrentC.

And that choice will pay off... NOT

CurrentC hasn't even been formally launched yet and it's already antiquated. QR codes.... really? I'm sure the folks at MCX were excited about developing CurrentC... but I'm guessing they got their teeth kicked in when Apple announced ApplePay.

Now the stores who made the deal with CurrentC have to live with that for a while... or face penalty. I wonder if any of them regret their decision already?

2015 will be the year CurrentC launches. Let them have their experiment. But I'm curious as to how many stores will solely use CurrentC in 2016 and beyond.

MCX, You can't explain that!

I just wish that they could get Target (stores) onboard with  Pay. I thought that Target already has contactless payment machines in stores, so why would they not choose to support  pay?

As stated above. As part of the MCX consortium developing the Invisiware known as CurrentC (in Private Beta, Area 51?). They choose not to enable secure payments. CurrentC is a payment method based on direct ACH transfers from your bank account tied to loyalty programs that will reduce merchants fees.

If you trust your bank account info to Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels I have some ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you.

This is also true of MCX merchants, 7-11, Best Buy, Circle K, Conoco, Sears that I have seen personally have NFC enabled terminals but deny ApplePay, Google Wallet. Rite-Aid and CVS are also on the list. Even some merchants that are listed on the Mastercard Nearby App which are contractually obligated to support SoftCard have turned them off.

Is it anti-competitive, yes. Is it aiding and abetting hackers. Yes by expanding their potential profit. Is it exposing them to additional liability if they get hacked. Absolutely. I would love to be on the jury where they explain this. I'd bring popcorn.

I have seen a law firm pursuing a class-action lawsuit. And I hope they are successful. Or CurrentC gets 0 traction and they just turn on NFC. They are supposed to turn on ChipAndPin credit card capability by October of 2015 so hopefully the wait won't be too long. Since Apple Pay is pretty much based on ChipAndPin with a fingerprint replacing the Pin, it should be an automatic feature.