Best Buy is already supporting Apple Pay in some stores, despite not having formally announced a start date, various anecdotes indicated on Thursday.
Reports of transactions working at some California Best Buys emerged via a Reddit thread and a YouTube video noticed by MacRumors. Google's Android Pay also appears to be an option.
In April, Apple announced that Best Buy would begin supporting Apple Pay in late 2015, but since then neither company has been more specific. Until August Best Buy was restricted by an exclusivity agreement with MCX, the consortium developing a rival payment platform called CurrentC. That system was supposed to go live in 2015, but may now have to wait until 2016.
Apple Pay may not be ready in all Best Buy locations, which would explain the lack of a formal announcement. Often Apple Pay will begin working at individual stores as a partner chain upgrades each one with NFC terminals.
Best Buy support is just one of a round of changes to Apple Pay this month. British banks Lloyds, Halifax, and the Bank of Scotland launched support last week, and American shoppers can now use Discover cards. iOS 9 supports store credit and reward cards.