Walmart's statement was crafted by the finest PR spin doctors and social message think tanks. The same people who try to sell us on the idea that merging Comcast and Time Warner Cable is good for consumers and competition.
"CurrentC also requests to link up with users' bank accounts" The kiss of death for a very secure payment system and a disaster waiting to <span style="line-height:22.399999618530273px;">happen.</span>
No way I'll trust retailers with my bank info, not even a debit card.
Since Michaels, Target, Home Depot, etc, etc, etc got gamed I've been paying cash for everything except large purchases that I want to get CC points for & those I'll do online if practical
Wal-Mart: We meant what we said about “consumers’ best interests in mind,” because you disgusting meatbags that come into our stores are our customers. Our consumers are the people to whom we sell your meatbag information.
With Kindle cash registers, Amazon isn’t trying to sell merchandise itself. It wants other merchants to use them. It may even give merchants the Kindles for free. But in exchange, it gains the ability to collect some truly valuable intelligence: what people are buying when they’re not on Amazon.com. In a market where more than 90 percent of all U.S. retail spending still happens offline, that’s clearly data that Jeff Bezos covets.
(Reportedly, his company is also developing an Amazon digital wallet that lets you pay for stuff in real world retail shops through your smartphone — a way of tracking your offline purchases from the other side of the counter.)
If somehow CurrentC caught on, the MCX partners would be capable of exchanging vast amounts of consumer data. This would make it less necessary to utilize Google for creating targeted advertising. I'm a little surprised that Google's astroturfers haven't been more vocal in opposing CurrentC around here.
Apple: CurrentC app will not be allowed in the App Store or on iOS Devices. Your turn Walmart.
I'd do the opposite - ensure their CurrenC app was immediately available and supported in Apple stores and publicly announce the fact.
I agree. CurrentC looks very much inferior when compared side-by-side with ?Pay. Nobody aware of the facts would use CurrentC.
Apple certainly would have nothing to fear in their own stores.
I've boycotted Walmart years ago, it smells bad, its loud with people yelling over the PA, dirty and the the employees have no clue what they're doing. Hopefully soon, we'll see the fall of this big box BS store. This whole MCX thing is retarded
After members of the Merchant Customer Exchange pulled support for Apple Pay mobile payments this past weekend, specifically Rite Aid and CVS, a major partner in the consortium has offered its take on why Apple's solution is not being implemented.
Offering color to the brewing mobile payments battle seemingly sparked when Apple threw its hat into the mobile payments ring last week, an unnamed Walmart representative told Business Insider that big-name retailer consortium MCX is thinking of consumers when it comes to denying support for Apple Pay.
There are certainly a lot of compelling technologies being developed, which is great for the mobile-commerce industry as a whole. Ultimately, what matters is that consumers have a payment option that is widely accepted, secure and developed with their best interests in mind. MCX member merchants already collectively serve a majority of Americans every day. MCX's members believe merchants are in the best position to provide a mobile solution because of their deep insights into their customers' shopping and buying experiences.
Apparently the statement took a bit of cajoling, and for good reason, as the topic has developed into something of a hot button issue over the past few days. Following Apple's remarks on the matter, Walmart's thoughts offer valuable insight from the perspective of MCX, which is on the brink of rolling out Apple Pay competitor CurrentC.
When Apple Pay launched last Monday with iOS 8.1, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners eager to test out Apple's first foray into mobile payments struck out to see where and how the system worked. Initially, MCX partners Rite Aid and CVS supported NFC-based touch-less transactions, including Apple Pay, but that changed by the weekend. As of Saturday, the two drug store chains had shut down NFC transactions, assumedly the result of contractual obligations to MCX.
CurrentC has been in development since 2012, but is a far cry from Apple's streamlined solution. A smartphone-powered system, CurrentC requires users download a specialized wallet app that generates a QR code for scanning upon checkout. Alternatively, a point-of-sale terminal can generate the code to be read by a user's smartphone. Either way, customers need to open the app and present their device to make in-store purchases.
Unlike Apple Pay, CurrentC offers incentives like rewards programs, but critics point out purchase histories are recorded and can be used in marketing campaigns. CurrentC also requests to link up with users' bank accounts, while Apple Pay deals only with credit and debit cards at this time.
In addition to the security risks, CurrentC's implementation is more of a burden when compared to Apple's protocol. On checkout, Apple Pay automatically recognizes POS terminals, requiring only a simple thumbprint scan through Touch ID to send over relevant anonymized payment data, which is then processed as a secure tokenized transaction.
The mobile payments space is estimated to grow into a multi-billion business and MCX is looking to get a piece of that pie by bypassing credit card network fees. Apple is also reportedly collecting swipe fees for Apple Pay payments, and may move further into the industry depending on Apple Pay's performance.
At such an early stage in the game, no one payments option can be named a decisive frontrunner, but initial Apple Pay tests bode well for the system's future. It will be interesting to see how MCX responds to pushback from consumers, something the consortium is at least taking into consideration given today's comments.
Yes it is in there best interests to take your private data and commercialize it so they can send you a lot of junk mail and there servers can be hacked and that data will get stolen. That's there answer to Apple Pay. Which gives no personal data, not even your credit card number the only thing the store gets is a validation code that says your purchase went through. Security means nothing to these big chain stores apparently. Your answer Walmart is LAME!
If Apple is taking as small of a cut as it appears, CurrentC should partner with Apple to achieve their goal of bypassing credit cards.
Aside from that, I have to ask: Why would a customer want to use CurrentC? It looks like a way for retailers to save money, but what is the benefit for customers?
I would find it interesting if MCX supported a credit facility to counter VISA / MasterCard, et al. One of the common uses of a credit card is to take advantage of specific deals on large ticket items; something that MCX does not at this time support, and probably won't be able to in any short term scenario. That leaves retailers with their own credit facilities, and we know how well that has worked out with hackers.
Wal Mart is having problems because its customer demographics seem to run out of money before the ends of pay periods, hence the rise of pay day loan companies. This is also driving the growth of dollar stores of various ilk, and to a certain extent, drives the sales in nationwide pharmacy chains. Funny how MCX will probably allow Wal Mart to be even more predatory towards the other retailers in the MCX consortium, i.e., good luck Best Buy on competing in electronics with Wal Mart.
For all this, what MCX brings to the customer is a blizzard of "e-coupons" that really aren't all that valuable, in my opinion anyway, but may be bread and butter to the demographics that are cash poor anyway.
Seems like the smaller retailers have bought into Wal Mart's vision, but I don't see them profiting from it. Maybe it is ultimately about surviving for them. Also seems obvious to me that people with Apple Pay/Google Wallet will vote with their wallets; something that will certainly come to haunt the smaller players in the MCX consortium.
Walmart's CurrentC is already dead man walking, and deep down inside they know it.
it's plainly inferior - cumbersome to use, more trouble to set up, and inherently less secure. and that's assuming you don't care about your privacy at all. the one chance they have to keep it alive is to give the 3% they save on bank credit card fees back to consumers when they use it. but of course that was not their original plan. the plan was to keep that 3% for themselves. too bad.
even Google Wallet is better - and fairly widely available. just a little more trouble than Apple Pay to use. but anyone who values their privacy is avoiding Google more and more nowadays - for good reason. it's the proto-Skynet.
it will take a year, tho, for enough iPhone 6's and Apple Watches to come into use for Apple Pay to dominate the US mid-upper digital payments markets. and Google Wallet will as usual gobble up the mid-low market. Walmart and the rest won't dare to freeze either out then. Target, Costco, et al would eat Walmart alive while Walgreens puts CVS out of business. Globally, Apple Pay will become the universally accepted digital payment gold standard, while all kinds of Android-based regional systems akin to Google Wallet pop up everywhere, many badly insecure.
retailers already have loyalty apps for iOS and Android anyway, and will be tying them into iBeacon capabilities for coupons and awards in-store. the only missing piece is to enable them to somehow affect the price processed at checkout via Apple Pay. i assume Apple will figure that out next.
With respect to stores like CVS and Rite Aid disabling support for Apple Pay, that stems from contractual obligations MCX members have made not to support competing mobile payment platforms.
In January 2013, Fierce Retail reported MCX had been asking retailers in 2012 to pay a big upfront fee from $250,000 to $500,000 to get on board, and sign three-year mobile payment app exclusivity deals with MCX. Retailers who signed up may have had a one-year grace period from the start of their exclusivity contract to bail out of the deal. If Apple Pay gains steam early, some retailers might look to take advantage of this option to ditch MCX. However, if deals were signed in 2012, that grace period is long gone but retailers may be coming up on the end of their exclusivity agreements even though CurrentC hasn't launched yet.
ApplePay had over a million users within 72 hours of launch. What will CurrentC have when fully rolled out...50,000 including company employees that may be strong-armed or otherwise coerced into participation? By that time, how many will ApplePay have? This will reach a critical mass, and these retailers will quietly start to accept ApplePay, but for now they have to double-down on what they are realizing is the wrong horse.
It's nice when you can beat the competition. It's even better when you can make the competition beat itself.
With Black Friday coming we're witness the stupidity of some recent business school graduates - eager to show off their brilliance by having their employers block a secure payment system to over one million (and growing) potential customers. This will result in income losses that no amount of advertising or special promotion will make up for.
If I were an investor (stock, bond or venture capital) in any of these firms I'd be on the phone with their CEO, CFO, COO and any other relevant corporate officer telling them to accept Apple Pay NOW!
Year end Holiday shopping is the biggest season for consumer fraud with the breach of their account information. Banks and customers have had enough of this interns of administrative cost and consumer inconvenience.
This will pressure Apple to develop an API for ApplePay. I'm sure it is coming, but it's development priority will need to be raised. At this point, ApplePay only allows customers to receive usage points by the CC companies. Apps like Belly and Levelup give customers benefits based on the store.
ApplePay is secure, an absolute requirement. MCX is deadly unsecure and absolutely invasive as requiring ban account access. That should be the end of the story.
Don't pay cash. Force them to pay the fee. I think, and I could be mistaken, but come October 2015, they will be responsible for fraud issues. Stick it to em!
There is Federal law which requires CC to deal with fraudulent use. When the merchants become liable, in theory, I don't know if the Federal law applies to them, or how it applies. Fraud costs are costs of doing business to banks, which is the reason we are 30 years behind europe in stopping fraud. The last thing Walmart will accept is responsibility for compensating customers for breach. At this point, because of Federal law, there is an easy system for disputing payments. What proof will be sufficient for walmart? Also, if you've noticed, there are no customer protections for fraudulent use of Debit cards. With MCX attached to your bank account, this is effectively a debit card transaction or even an EFT.
Walmart has political clout -- they own the politicians. You can be sure MCX will be protected.
Comments
Walmart's statement was crafted by the finest PR spin doctors and social message think tanks. The same people who try to sell us on the idea that merging Comcast and Time Warner Cable is good for consumers and competition.
Walmart: Your turn Apple.
Apple: CurrentC app will not be allowed in the App Store or on iOS Devices. Your turn Walmart.
No need to do that as it is already has a solid one star rating.
Better just remove the entire Apple product line from Wal-crap. Anyways it is not a store where an average Apple customer usually goes to
Just another reason for me to boycott Walmart.
No way I'll trust retailers with my bank info, not even a debit card.
Since Michaels, Target, Home Depot, etc, etc, etc got gamed I've been paying cash for everything except large purchases that I want to get CC points for & those I'll do online if practical
Wal-Mart: We meant what we said about “consumers’ best interests in mind,” because you disgusting meatbags that come into our stores are our customers. Our consumers are the people to whom we sell your meatbag information.
"what matters is that consumers have a payment option that is widely accepted, secure and developed with their best interests in mind."
It exists. It's called cash. No data collection. No tracking. No problems with databases being hacked.
Privacy. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Also:
http://www.wired.com/2014/01/kindle-cash-registers-tell-amazon-buy-everywhere/
(Reportedly, his company is also developing an Amazon digital wallet that lets you pay for stuff in real world retail shops through your smartphone — a way of tracking your offline purchases from the other side of the counter.)
Walmart: Your turn Apple.
Apple: CurrentC app will not be allowed in the App Store or on iOS Devices. Your turn Walmart.
I'd do the opposite - ensure their CurrenC app was immediately available and supported in Apple stores and publicly announce the fact.
I agree. CurrentC looks very much inferior when compared side-by-side with ?Pay. Nobody aware of the facts would use CurrentC.
Apple certainly would have nothing to fear in their own stores.
I've boycotted Walmart years ago, it smells bad, its loud with people yelling over the PA, dirty and the the employees have no clue what they're doing. Hopefully soon, we'll see the fall of this big box BS store. This whole MCX thing is retarded
After members of the Merchant Customer Exchange pulled support for Apple Pay mobile payments this past weekend, specifically Rite Aid and CVS, a major partner in the consortium has offered its take on why Apple's solution is not being implemented.
Offering color to the brewing mobile payments battle seemingly sparked when Apple threw its hat into the mobile payments ring last week, an unnamed Walmart representative told Business Insider that big-name retailer consortium MCX is thinking of consumers when it comes to denying support for Apple Pay.
Apparently the statement took a bit of cajoling, and for good reason, as the topic has developed into something of a hot button issue over the past few days. Following Apple's remarks on the matter, Walmart's thoughts offer valuable insight from the perspective of MCX, which is on the brink of rolling out Apple Pay competitor CurrentC.
When Apple Pay launched last Monday with iOS 8.1, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners eager to test out Apple's first foray into mobile payments struck out to see where and how the system worked. Initially, MCX partners Rite Aid and CVS supported NFC-based touch-less transactions, including Apple Pay, but that changed by the weekend. As of Saturday, the two drug store chains had shut down NFC transactions, assumedly the result of contractual obligations to MCX.
CurrentC has been in development since 2012, but is a far cry from Apple's streamlined solution. A smartphone-powered system, CurrentC requires users download a specialized wallet app that generates a QR code for scanning upon checkout. Alternatively, a point-of-sale terminal can generate the code to be read by a user's smartphone. Either way, customers need to open the app and present their device to make in-store purchases.
Unlike Apple Pay, CurrentC offers incentives like rewards programs, but critics point out purchase histories are recorded and can be used in marketing campaigns. CurrentC also requests to link up with users' bank accounts, while Apple Pay deals only with credit and debit cards at this time.
In addition to the security risks, CurrentC's implementation is more of a burden when compared to Apple's protocol. On checkout, Apple Pay automatically recognizes POS terminals, requiring only a simple thumbprint scan through Touch ID to send over relevant anonymized payment data, which is then processed as a secure tokenized transaction.
The mobile payments space is estimated to grow into a multi-billion business and MCX is looking to get a piece of that pie by bypassing credit card network fees. Apple is also reportedly collecting swipe fees for Apple Pay payments, and may move further into the industry depending on Apple Pay's performance.
At such an early stage in the game, no one payments option can be named a decisive frontrunner, but initial Apple Pay tests bode well for the system's future. It will be interesting to see how MCX responds to pushback from consumers, something the consortium is at least taking into consideration given today's comments.
Yes it is in there best interests to take your private data and commercialize it so they can send you a lot of junk mail and there servers can be hacked and that data will get stolen. That's there answer to Apple Pay. Which gives no personal data, not even your credit card number the only thing the store gets is a validation code that says your purchase went through. Security means nothing to these big chain stores apparently. Your answer Walmart is LAME!
If Apple is taking as small of a cut as it appears, CurrentC should partner with Apple to achieve their goal of bypassing credit cards.
Aside from that, I have to ask: Why would a customer want to use CurrentC? It looks like a way for retailers to save money, but what is the benefit for customers?
I would find it interesting if MCX supported a credit facility to counter VISA / MasterCard, et al. One of the common uses of a credit card is to take advantage of specific deals on large ticket items; something that MCX does not at this time support, and probably won't be able to in any short term scenario. That leaves retailers with their own credit facilities, and we know how well that has worked out with hackers.
Wal Mart is having problems because its customer demographics seem to run out of money before the ends of pay periods, hence the rise of pay day loan companies. This is also driving the growth of dollar stores of various ilk, and to a certain extent, drives the sales in nationwide pharmacy chains. Funny how MCX will probably allow Wal Mart to be even more predatory towards the other retailers in the MCX consortium, i.e., good luck Best Buy on competing in electronics with Wal Mart.
For all this, what MCX brings to the customer is a blizzard of "e-coupons" that really aren't all that valuable, in my opinion anyway, but may be bread and butter to the demographics that are cash poor anyway.
Seems like the smaller retailers have bought into Wal Mart's vision, but I don't see them profiting from it. Maybe it is ultimately about surviving for them. Also seems obvious to me that people with Apple Pay/Google Wallet will vote with their wallets; something that will certainly come to haunt the smaller players in the MCX consortium.
Walmart's CurrentC is already dead man walking, and deep down inside they know it.
it's plainly inferior - cumbersome to use, more trouble to set up, and inherently less secure. and that's assuming you don't care about your privacy at all. the one chance they have to keep it alive is to give the 3% they save on bank credit card fees back to consumers when they use it. but of course that was not their original plan. the plan was to keep that 3% for themselves. too bad.
even Google Wallet is better - and fairly widely available. just a little more trouble than Apple Pay to use. but anyone who values their privacy is avoiding Google more and more nowadays - for good reason. it's the proto-Skynet.
it will take a year, tho, for enough iPhone 6's and Apple Watches to come into use for Apple Pay to dominate the US mid-upper digital payments markets. and Google Wallet will as usual gobble up the mid-low market. Walmart and the rest won't dare to freeze either out then. Target, Costco, et al would eat Walmart alive while Walgreens puts CVS out of business. Globally, Apple Pay will become the universally accepted digital payment gold standard, while all kinds of Android-based regional systems akin to Google Wallet pop up everywhere, many badly insecure.
retailers already have loyalty apps for iOS and Android anyway, and will be tying them into iBeacon capabilities for coupons and awards in-store. the only missing piece is to enable them to somehow affect the price processed at checkout via Apple Pay. i assume Apple will figure that out next.
These stores are too heavily invested in MCX and CurrentC to do anything other than fight Apple for now. From http://www.tuaw.com/2014/10/27/a-closer-look-at-currentc-the-reason-why-cvs-and-rite-aid-are-d/
ApplePay had over a million users within 72 hours of launch. What will CurrentC have when fully rolled out...50,000 including company employees that may be strong-armed or otherwise coerced into participation? By that time, how many will ApplePay have? This will reach a critical mass, and these retailers will quietly start to accept ApplePay, but for now they have to double-down on what they are realizing is the wrong horse.
It's nice when you can beat the competition. It's even better when you can make the competition beat itself.
If I were an investor (stock, bond or venture capital) in any of these firms I'd be on the phone with their CEO, CFO, COO and any other relevant corporate officer telling them to accept Apple Pay NOW!
Year end Holiday shopping is the biggest season for consumer fraud with the breach of their account information. Banks and customers have had enough of this interns of administrative cost and consumer inconvenience.
ApplePay is secure, an absolute requirement. MCX is deadly unsecure and absolutely invasive as requiring ban account access. That should be the end of the story.
There is Federal law which requires CC to deal with fraudulent use. When the merchants become liable, in theory, I don't know if the Federal law applies to them, or how it applies. Fraud costs are costs of doing business to banks, which is the reason we are 30 years behind europe in stopping fraud. The last thing Walmart will accept is responsibility for compensating customers for breach. At this point, because of Federal law, there is an easy system for disputing payments. What proof will be sufficient for walmart? Also, if you've noticed, there are no customer protections for fraudulent use of Debit cards. With MCX attached to your bank account, this is effectively a debit card transaction or even an EFT.
Walmart has political clout -- they own the politicians. You can be sure MCX will be protected.