Earlier this year, Apple reported that Apple Pay was finally coming to CVS. Oddly enough, CVS’ terminals have supported NFC for years, but they intentionally disabled it. I was actually was able to use it on the day Apple Pay launched right before they disabled it.
Apple just sent out an email informing that Apple Pay is now accepted at CVS.
I personally get medicines for my entire family from CVS as I pass one right near my house. I’ve tried to use their CVS app to make purchases, but it’s a cumbersome process (it involves a QR code). I actually had considered switching to Walgreens, but I never got around to it.
Apple Pay has slowly made its way into most of the retailers I shop at in the US. Target is one of the main holdouts at this point. Matt Bircher actually looked at the possibilities of why on his Birchtree blog:
I personally think that majors retailers that hold out do it because they want to be able to connect their marketing efforts to transactions. I personally use Walmart Pay quite a bit, and it allows Walmart to know exactly what I purchase and where. They now know what I am buying, and can use that to further influence marketing decisions.
Now that CVS has joined the club, will Target and Walmart be next? I’ve often said that CMOs for retailers likely hate Apple Pay because it can limit their ability to track purchases, but CTOs love it because it limits the amount of financial data they have to secure.
In other Apple Pay news today, Discover has announced that its Cashback Debit card works with Apple’s payment platform.
Users will see the same 1% cashback reward for all transactions when using the card with Apple Pay that it normally offers.
