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You are here: MacNN Forums > News > Tech News > CVS throws in with Rite Aid, blocks Apple Pay and Google Wallet

CVS throws in with Rite Aid, blocks Apple Pay and Google Wallet
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NewsPoster
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Oct 25, 2014, 08:32 PM
 
CVS has ceased accepting Near-Field Communication (NFC) payments from Apple Pay and Google Wallet at its stores, US-wide. The pharmacy issued the instructions to stores earlier this week, with shutdowns continuing through the weekend. CVS has mirrored Rite Aid, which shut down its terminals earlier this week. Both CVS and Rite Aid are about to join the nascent and poorly-regarded MCX CurrentC NFC and barcode payment solution, and the move is widely seen as an effort to squeeze out both Google's and Apple's payment solutions.

Neither CVS or Rite Aid were launch partners for the Apple Pay service, but the system is compatible with many NFC terminals already in place. Users reported success at both retailers earlier in the week.

The CurrentC system's driving retailers are CVS, Kmart, Sears, Target, Walmart, Best Buy and 7-Eleven. Target's online store accepts Apple Pay, but the physical stores do not as of yet, and may not, given the chain's involvement with CurrentC. Walmart, Best Buy and Kmart have already outright declared that they would not implement Apple Pay.

Forbes ran many tests on retailers' acceptance of Apple Pay shortly after launch, and noted the cessation of Rite Aid. The author noted that "in order to do [the reversal on support for Google Wallet and Apple Pay], you have to specifically design your back end to look for transactions using those IDs and then halt them, while still allowing ordinary NFC-equipped cards to pass through. In other words, you have to spend effort to inconvenience your customers." The author added that he would no longer shop there as a result.
( Last edited by NewsPoster; Oct 27, 2014 at 05:24 PM. )
     
drbenru
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Oct 25, 2014, 10:37 PM
 
I just have to wonder, if they're outright blocking Apple Pay and Google Wallet, what platform do they expect their solutions to launch on? It's not like Google and Apple are not known for removing or not allowing apps with very little explanation.
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Oct 25, 2014, 11:57 PM
 
With Apple the explanation would be "We already have an app that does NFC on the phone, don't waste everyones time making another"
     
nowwhatareyoulookingat
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Oct 26, 2014, 12:40 AM
 
CurrentC is supposed to use a QR code, generated by the retailer, and the customer takes out their camera, launches the payment app which takes a picture of the QR code, figures out all the payer information from it, then asks the user to authorize the payment [probably have to enter a PIN here], then the phone connects to the CurrentC web site which then processes the payment, helpfully directly removing the money from your bank account [so even less protection for a customer than if you used a debit card], while tracking everything you are purchasing. Then the CurrentC system goes the other way, through the internet to that cash register to indicate that you have successfully payed, and you can leave.

No NFC involved with the CurrentC train wreck.
     
Charles Martin
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Oct 26, 2014, 01:38 AM
 
Normally I'd be in favour of a system in which banks don't collect their middlemen fee (though for the most part, frankly, they earn it) -- but this CurrentC, at least as laid out, is like the evil bearded twin of Apple Pay. ALL data around the transaction is collected and shared by the merchants (and anyone they choose to sell it to), it relies on the same POS systems that so many national retailers have been struck by data thieves with, and the collected data is said to be stored in the cloud.

Merchants collect a lot of data on customers already -- hello, loyalty cards and transaction records! -- but if I have a choice between a merchant doing the much more private, much more secure Apple Pay system and one doing CurrentC -- at least as it currently stands -- that decision for me would be a no-brainer.
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Inkling
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Oct 26, 2014, 09:03 AM
 
Even though I don't have Apple Pay and, given my budget, won't be able to afford a phone that does for several years, both CVS (the nearest drugstore to me) and RiteAid are now on my 'Don't Shop' list. This move unduly burdens their customers and thus makes them a place not worth patronizing. A pox on them,
Author of Untangling Tolkien and Chesterton on War and Peace
     
Ham Sandwich
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Oct 26, 2014, 09:27 AM
 
So pathetic! Is every store going to require its own proprietary method of payment? This is B.S.!

As a customer I would get so annoyed by not having each store's specific required mobile payment plan on my wallet or device or whatever, just because each one wants to use its own, and that's no better than the current system of having rewards cards for each store. I walk into Staples and I don't have your stupid mobile device on me, and then I walk into Bam Books and I don't have your stupid mobile device on me either, and then I walk into A. C. Moore... now wait where did my stupid mobile device for this store go?

Pathetic. Do a service to the customer and maintain a unified system. Don't go backwards and have each store require its own specialized system of payments. That's the wrong direction, and besides, if you go in that direction, it's no different than using a Bull Moose card to pay for stuff (and get discounts) at Bull Moose, an A. C. Moore card to pay for stuff (and get discounts) at A. C. Moore... Staples same thing... etc.
     
msuper69
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Oct 26, 2014, 10:57 AM
 
There is also the possibility that the IT folks at these companies are Windows lovers and hate anything Apple.
     
Steve Wilkinson
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Oct 26, 2014, 01:46 PM
 
If nothing else this fail will be interesting entertainment.
------
Steve Wilkinson
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cgWerks | TilledSoil.org
     
Ham Sandwich
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Oct 26, 2014, 09:35 PM
 
I felt so ashamed today I had to use my one-and-only debit card to pay at the supermarket, the car wash, even the NY-style burger restaurant. How ever will I manage with this already-convenient system? And forbid I drop my card... I have to bend down, and pick it up to use it like normal.

Yeah seriously for now digi-wallet systems can get bent.
     
besson3c
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Oct 26, 2014, 10:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by And.reg View Post
I felt so ashamed today I had to use my one-and-only debit card to pay at the supermarket, the car wash, even the NY-style burger restaurant. How ever will I manage with this already-convenient system? And forbid I drop my card... I have to bend down, and pick it up to use it like normal.

Yeah seriously for now digi-wallet systems can get bent.

Do you have any idea how insecure (and old) the current magnetic stripe-based technology is? There is a reason why we hear about new fraudulent breaks and financial losses pretty frequently: the tech is fundamentally insecure.
     
climacs
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Oct 26, 2014, 11:13 PM
 
there's this thing called "cash" that is untraceable and accepted everywhere. Y'all should give it a try sometime.
     
coffeetime
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Oct 27, 2014, 12:14 AM
 
You got to have some fun by turning on iPhone, enter password, launch app, enter password, swiping left, right, left, left, up and down and tab. Turning phone side way and do it one more time to be scannable. Then it crashed. Relaunch everything. Wifi not working. Switch to LTE. Talking to terminal. Then the reward card or payment is finally working. Paying cash and swiping credit card are boring. Don't worry about those 10 people waiting in line behind you. You have all day to make this thing works. Get the most out of your shopping experience with your hundred collations of iPhone apps. And don't forget to update your twitter, foursquare, Google+, facebook, Instagram on what just happened.
     
cmdahler
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Oct 27, 2014, 01:37 AM
 
Seriously, +1 to climacs. Has no one ever heard of simple cash anymore? Everyone gets bent out of shape over some retailers wanting to collect purchasing data on you...do you seriously think they haven't been doing that for years already, just tying it to their internal collection of data on your CC? This new scheme of theirs is just a way to collate that data from other retailers. If you're seriously worried about data collection, for crying out loud, there's this amazing innovation called a Bank, and it has this really cool device attached to it called an ATM, where you can get these little green pieces of paper that fit neatly into your actual pocket, and lo and behold, Rite Aid and CVS and Wal Mart and God knows who else still accepts these pieces of green paper as payment for their products. And as a side benefit, if you stick to using said paper, beyond the whole no-one-is-tracking-me-so-I-don't-need-to-worry-about-who-has-the-best-encryption-scheme, amazingly enough, you avoid the entire debt discussion entirely! Everybody wins.

Really, people. If you *really* care about privacy, everyone still takes cash. It really isn't that hard.
     
Makosuke
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Oct 27, 2014, 06:47 AM
 
Although I will frequently pay cash if it's a local store that I want to give the extra couple percent margin to, coffeetime is being a little silly exaggerating a system that is actually faster than paying cash.

I bought some Halloween candy in a CVS prior to them turning ApplePay off. I pulled the phone out of my pocket, pushed the button to wake it, kept my thumb on the button so it would be readable by the fingerprint scanner, and waved the phone in the general vicinity of the payment thing. It had beeped and payed faster than I could even read the prompts, and I was walking out the door with a receipt literally three seconds later.

There is absolutely no way the cashier could have taken a bill from my hand, put it in the drawer, extracted change, and handed it to me faster than the Apple Pay transaction went through. It would not have been physically possible. Hell, it probably would have taken me longer to find the correct bills in my wallet unless there was nothing but 20s in there--it was that fast. The only way cash could have even compared would be if I had pre-calculated the cost of everything, with tax, and had exact change in my hand.

This isn't to say that cash is bad. It's great, I'm glad I have the option, I use it frequently. But making up problems that don't exist with a system that is fundamentally more secure, improves privacy, and is generally more convenient relative to a swiped credit card is silly.

Also, those of us who never carry a balance on credit cards also don't worry about debt and get about 1% of our purchases back from the processor, so we're getting a cut of those credit card processing fees for ourselves. Hypothetically the store is passing on the average savings to them from the customers that pay cash, but I have serious doubts that amounts to 1% of the sticker price, particularly for products that have a fixed or more or less constant price between retailers. There is the additional added bonus of being able to do try for a chargeback if the store rips you off, something you can't do with cash other than stomping your feet and demanding a refund.
     
efithian
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Oct 27, 2014, 07:44 AM
 
It is not like I ever go to a CVS or Rite-Aid. My local all-purpose grocery, Wegmans, does have just about everything that is in CVS or Rite-Aid and is open 24 hours. And they accept Apple Pay.
     
pairof9s
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Oct 27, 2014, 08:47 AM
 
In the end, efithian has the point...we're going to use what's convenient for us, whether that's shopping somewhere else to use Apple Pay for its merits, or going to our usual spot and paying cash/debit card for its merits. Somewhere down the road, this will all shake out and we'll adjust to the new norm but for now, it's really a matter of doing what works for you.

As for me, I will go to Walgreens because I don't really give a rat's arse about any of these 3 pharmacies, as long as I get my prescriptions...so I just as well go where I can enjoy the advantages of Apple Pay.
     
nouser
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Oct 27, 2014, 09:31 AM
 
BREAKING NEWS !!!

This just in...The James Foundation throws in with Walgreens and removes CVS from shopping venue.

According to James COO. "If we all speak loud and clear with our wallet they (stores who put customers last) will get the message. I've informed CVS that, effective immediately, we are transferring all of our future purchasing to Walgreens." He further commented, " We continue to make our purchasing decisions based on where we perceive we get the best service and value. Businesses (like CVS) that purposely go out of their way to make our shopping experience more difficult are off our list."
     
azrich
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Oct 27, 2014, 09:34 AM
 
I wanted to throw in my 2¢ when it comes to paying cash- I used to have a retail cafe where our average ticket was about $5. Lets say with tax & tip the total is $6. When you use a CC at on such a low ticket the cafe is paying fees on the $6 for a $5 sale, which is 20% more than the real sale. My rates were 1.23% + a swipe fee but when I calculated the total from the statement I would get it was more like 15%. Swipe fees, those 'miles' and rewards cards cost the merchant more. It all adds up. This is why you'll see so many small shops with signs saying they'll add 50¢ or so onto a sale under a certain amount. Its not that they are greedy, its because we are asking them to earn 15% less because we want to use a credit card. Please keep that in mind! I closed my shop at the end of 2011, so maybe its different now. Still, anything under $10 and I'm paying cash every time at my local shops. Please consider this when you go local
     
nazzdeq
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Oct 27, 2014, 01:51 PM
 
Excellent. Now I know which stores to boycott.
     
Ham Sandwich
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Oct 28, 2014, 08:04 AM
 
This boycotting is stupid. Boycott a store because their products suck, not because the company has an opinion about how they want you to pay (especially if they still accept cash/debit cards)!
     
besson3c
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Oct 28, 2014, 09:15 AM
 
Cash is lovely and all, but I'm not sure what the point of discussing it is. If the critical mass is happy with their current credit cards despite the frequent fraudulent activity, there is little to no chance that they'll ditch cards in favor of cash.
     
besson3c
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Oct 28, 2014, 09:21 AM
 
CurrentC seems like a step in the right direction as far as cutting the credit cards out of the picture, but relying on photos of QR codes rather than NFC barcode scanning seems like a mistake.
     
   
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