Roger Fingas
One of the biggest U.S. retail holdouts for Apple Pay, Target, may be preparing to launch official support at its stores in the near future.
The technology is already working at the Metreon location in San Francisco, some posters on Twitter have claimed. Another noted that while they didn't try Apple Pay, they were able to use a contactless card, which only works with NFC-enabled terminals.
Target has so far resisted not just Apple Pay but any NFC-based mobile payment option for its stores. Shoppers can use Apple Pay in the Target iOS app, but at retail the closest equivalent is a scannable barcode in the app.
The Twitter anecdotes were first highlighted by 9to5Mac.
It is possible that the Metreon store has simply enabled NFC by accident, but merchants will often test Apple Pay on a small scale before official rollouts. Target has also been under public pressure to support the platform, given the popularity of the iPhone and Apple Watch in the U.S.
Target has some 1,850 stores nationwide, and is where many Americans do weekly shopping for clothes, groceries, and other necessities. It also sells some Apple products, such as iPhones.
Marko Zivkovic
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44 Comments
Well that’s interesting.
Perhaps a wee bit, but not that much.
Just another business learning to "give the customers what they want." A basic concept of capitalism. Nothing new.
It’s about time considering that data breach a few years ago. They should have been one of the first to get on with Apple Pay, et al.
I would love for Target to do ApplePay with their own RedCard. I use the RedCard all the time...like every week since I get my groceries there (Super Target).
As I recall, Target supported Apple Pay by accident when it first came out, as they had already replaced all their terminals as a result of the data breach they suffered right before Apple Pay was introduced. There was significant controversy when it was then turned back off as a result of the inane ridiculous requirements of their contract with the late unlamented CurrentC program.
CurrentC was championed by Walmart, which is desperately trying to reduce the billions of dollars they pay to the credit card issuers. Their current painful solution, Walmart Pay, tries to offer convenience for using a debit card, which is not subject to the high prices of credit card transactions.
I gotta admit, I think that credit card rates have got to go down some; Visa and MasterCard are raking in the money on transaction fees, and it is starting to become onerous for large businesses. On the other hand, I would use Apple Pay as much as possible if my phone supported it because I hate giving businesses my credit card info.