Some Retailers Not Supporting Apple Pay

While there are a number of companies, such as Walgreens and Office Depot that are embracing Apple (News - Alert) Pay whole-heartedly, there are other companies that are apparently actively working against it. How are the retailers trying to make sure Apple Pay isn’t going to work as well as the Cupertino-based company hoped it would? Reports have been coming in from a number of different sources saying certain retailers are actually shutting down their support for Near Field Communications (NFC).

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of all of this is that the retailers are not just hurting Apple. By shutting down support for NFC technology, Google (News - Alert) Wallet is also getting burned with this approach. It’s also a bit weird that stores like Rite Aid decided to shut down their support for Apple Pay and Google Wallet in the middle of the week. Customers reported last week that they were able to use Apple Pay just fine.

It turns out that these companies might not be doing this because they just don’t like Apple or they suddenly have a beef with Google Wallet. Another pharmacy chain, CVS is also ending its support for NFC payment terminals. Rite Aid, CVS and some of the other companies are part of a group called the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which are working on their own mobile payment system. This system has been dubbed CurrentC .

It appears this coalition has basically declared war on Google Wallet and Apple Pay. This could be especially damaging when it comes to Apple, because they literally just launched their mobile payment solution and it needs every retailer possible to be working for the company. This development means it didn’t take long for the predictions of one Pizza Hut exec to come true. Danny Sullivan, the vice president of global digital experience talked earlier this month about the fact that there just weren’t enough people willing to adopt Apple Pay in order for the solution to catch on.

While this may not cripple Apple Pay in the long run, it certainly isn’t useful for a service just trying to find its footing.