Latest Apple Pay Retailers Include LCBO and Former CurrentC Backers

Liquor, wine, and beer drinkers across Ontario, Canada can now pay for their alcoholic beverages with an iPhone or Apple Watch, as LCBO has confirmed that it now accepts Apple Pay at all of its over 850 stores in the province.

LCBO had been gradually rolling out Apple Pay support since June at its stores, which have long been equipped with NFC-based terminals for contactless payments, and the province-wide rollout was officially completed last week.

Meanwhile, former CurrentC backers continue to reverse course and expand Apple Pay support at their U.S. stores. Twitter user Matt S. was able to use Apple Pay at Sheetz, a gas and convenience chain with over 500 stores in mostly Mid-Atlantic states, next to Raleigh–Durham International Airport.

Sheetz has not publicly confirmed that it is widely launching Apple Pay at the gas pump, but many of its locations are equipped with the requisite contactless payments infrastructure to tap an iPhone or Apple Watch.

QuikTrip, another U.S. chain of over 730 gas and convenience stores in the midwest and southern United States, has also supported Apple Pay and other contactless payments since February, with all locations coming on board within the past few weeks. QuikTrip does not appear to accept Apple Pay directly at their gas pumps at this time.

QuikTrip-Apple-Pay

QuikTrip began piloting Apple Pay earlier this year (Image: Ian M. via Twitter)
Sheetz and QuikTrip were both previously committed to the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) and its indefinitely-postponed Apple Pay rival CurrentC.

Sheetz and QuikTrip join a handful of other former MCX members that now accept Apple Pay, including high-profile retailers Best Buy and Rite Aid. Apple Pay holdouts Walmart and Target also belonged to MCX, but the former released Walmart Pay and the latter is developing its own similar QR code-based solution.

Update: Former MCX member CVS also appears to be testing Apple Pay support on contactless payment terminals at select U.S. stores. The pharmacy chain's official stance is that it's "in the process of evaluating mobile payment options for our customers."

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Top Rated Comments

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graywolf323

31 months ago

Target and Wal-Mart are being idiots about this

Rating: 6 Votes

egibbys

31 months ago

I asked Target on twitter when we would be able to use Apple Pay at the register. They responded and said they were currently working on it. :)

Rating: 4 Votes

Stella

31 months ago

Not news. Been able to pay LCBO from day 1 of Apple Pay in Canada. Their payment system automatically supported AP like everywhere else that takes Tap.

Rating: 2 Votes

matthew12

31 months ago

Yup, QT started to accept Apple Pay at the one near me sometime in early-mid June. Super convenient when grabbing a snack after Nerf Wars club at college.

Rating: 1 Votes

emcampbe

31 months ago

Nice. Now how about working on expanding Apple Pay's availability in more countries. It's frustrating to have NFC-enabled hardware with no way to use it as Apple can't work out the deals and they're not allowing 3rd party developers access the hardware either.

Technically, you can use Apple Pay in most countries - you just can't use it with local credit cards unless they are set up. I used Apple Pay with my US cards in Canada before it rolled out there, because most places accept NFC payments. I've also used at merchants accepting NFC in India, again, with my US cards. Now that Canadian banks are setup, I have added both my Canadian and US cards which is nice - and be fact that most merchants actually accept NfC, as opposed to the Us, means you really don't have to carry physical cards.

I thought the reason they did not implement PIN is to save the consumer a step. Already the CHIP is too slow for most people so many retailers have not turned it on. Adding PIN to this is even more steps the buyer is not yet willing to accept.

Um, really, you think big banks didn't implement PIN to help consumers? Don't be silly - it's all about $ and it costing more.

Here in the US we have the less secure chip and signature. No chip and pin in use.

To be fair, Chip and PIN does exist in the US. Just very few issuers, and especially the bigger ones, don't use it.

I asked Target on twitter when we would be able to use Apple Pay at the register. They responded and said they were currently working on it. :)

Like many retailers, Target has the devices that accept NFC, but don't have it turned on. I don't really get it - since they take Apple Pay on their app.

On the other hand, DD, at least in my area, does 'take' Apple Pay. Except everytime I've tried using it, they ask me for my 3 digit security code. Which obviously the cards with ApplePay don't have. I've tried 000, I've tried the 3 digits on my physical add, and tried the 4 digits listed in Apple Pay settings for the card and nothing works. So they claim to take Apple Pay, but can't get it to work.

Rating: 1 Votes

Shunnabunich

31 months ago

Yeah, announcements of individual retailers supporting Pay in Canada are pretty redundant — it'd likely be easier to compile a list of the few that haven't yet switched on their NFC hardware (or, in some cases, replaced their old PIN pads), and scratch them off as they join the rest of the country.

Rating: 1 Votes

ipedro

31 months ago

I've been shopping at the LCBO with ApplePay for a while now. Almost every major retailer in Canada already accepts ApplePay, even if not explicitly mentioning it. All the electronic transaction providers have been actively replacing retailers' terminals to the new ones with NFC and most large and small retailers have had those new terminals for over a year now. The only major holdout is Hudson's Bay which for some reason has these ancient massive cube shaped PIN pads that don't accept tap payments.

Rating: 1 Votes

xpxp2002

31 months ago

I figured it was a matter of time before MCX would fold. It was more obnoxious and painful than using EMV and waiting the 10 seconds to do an online auth.

And I got that notification last week too, but I refuse to use Walmart Pay on principle. I figure the less adoption it sees, the sooner it'll go away and they can devote their attention to supporting NFC payments. Hopefully WP will die (an albeit slow death), and they can finally conform to what the customers want instead of trying to strong-arm the industry into using its QR code kludge of a payment system just to save on transaction fees.

Rating: 1 Votes

gsmornot

31 months ago

You guys talking about chip and pin must not be US based. Here in the US we have the less secure chip and signature. No chip and pin in use. Apple Pay is a step up. The chip and signature may help at some level but nothing in that validates who you are since you can just scribble on the pad. At least adding the pin adds a second factor and Apple Pay has the fingerprint.

Rating: 1 Votes

jmh600cbr

31 months ago

LCBO took Apple Pay one day 1. That is because they accepted NFC payments for the last 5 years.

What people need to understand: all retailers accepting NFC (tap to pay) accept Apple Pay.

Rating: 1 Votes

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