Costco rolls out Apple Pay support at all US locations

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 30
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    bonobob said:
    Will I still have to hand the cashier my credit card/member card so they can scan the member number?  If so, I can't get very excited because I'll still need to pull out the credit card.  Maybe with NFC enabled, I can just use the NFC chip on my card to pay instead.
    Of course, you must still prove you’re a Costco member so you’ll have to show them your Costco card.

    Now they just need to get into Apple's Wallet and link that to Apple Pay.  
    watto_cobraSpamSandwich
  • Reply 22 of 30
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    bonobob said:
    Will I still have to hand the cashier my credit card/member card so they can scan the member number?  If so, I can't get very excited because I'll still need to pull out the credit card.  Maybe with NFC enabled, I can just use the NFC chip on my card to pay instead.
    Of course, you must still prove you’re a Costco member so you’ll have to show them your Costco card.
    I was surprised at the Roseville, CA, Costco store when they simply placed my Citi Visa card (Costco Visa and membership card) onto the top of the POS reader instead of putting it into the chip card reader and it worked. Didn't realize it could read the chip this way. Yes, I still had to give them my card so they could scan it to initiate the purchase process. In order to get away from that, they'd need to add a customer-accessible NFC reader to start the process. I'm never on the POS reader side of the cashier when they get my card so it's not practical to wait to start the process for the customer to pre-scan (phone or watch) like you do at a gas or soda machine. I was surprised when the cashier finished the payment process and I mentioned Apple Pay and they said it works with Apple Pay but had just started using it so hadn't mentioned it to me and obviously hadn't put any Apple Pay stickers anywhere to announce it. A very quiet roll-out but at least they're trying, something Target and Home Depot (to mention a few) refuse to do.
  • Reply 23 of 30
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    macseeker said:
    bageljoey said:
    I feel like we are finally getting to a tipping point with merchant adoption. 
    Still some hang ups. I asked a store clerk if I could use Apple Pay last week. She said “I don’t think so” but the POS machine looked like it took wireless. I said let me try and it worked fine.  “Oh.”  She said. I wonder how many people she turned away...
    I wonder how many lost sales she created.
    I would say "virtually none".  If people are asking the question, I would assume they have an alternate form of payment with them especially considering that  Apple Pay adoption is still "spotty".   The CVS drugstore chain, for example, doesn't accept ApplePay, at least not around me.    IIRC, Target doesn't accept ApplePay.   Even at retailers who accept ApplePay, I find sometimes that it doesn't always work.   And until ApplePay is ubiquitous everywhere and can be used at ATM's, most people will still have to carry credit or debit cards with them anyway.   In most places where I shop, I use ApplePay if it's available, but it doesn't really take any less time than using a  credit card, especially if it's a membership store and I have to pull my membership card out of my wallet anyway.   If I use ApplePay for my debit card, I still have to execute a bunch of keypresses and some of the systems still make me sign, even though signatures are getting phased out of all systems.    One should be able to simply pass the phone near the device and not have to make any selections.  

    Also, I could swear that ApplePay used to appear if I placed my phone near the device, but now I find I have to double click the side button.   
  • Reply 24 of 30
    AI_liasAI_lias Posts: 434member
    When will they allow the Costco membership card itself in the Apple Wallet?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 25 of 30
    backstabbackstab Posts: 138member
    CVS, 7-Eleven, Costco.
    Man... It's been a long time coming.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 26 of 30
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    I don't have a Costco credit-membership card and probably won't bother. Even though I still have to pull it out and  put it away, I'll use Apple Pay.

    What the 'but you still have to...'ninnies forget, using Apple Pay is not just about convenience, but about security. Costco will never ever be hacked and that makes me happy. But hypothetically, if they were hacked, my credit information might be at risk, not that companies are every hacked with personal or cretid data stolen. 

    So it's all about muscle memory for me, anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. It's not a bother for me at all. If Costco folds their membership card into Apple Wallet, so much the better.

    The other thing is making the public aware that Apple Pay is accepted. I was somewhere, at two different businesses recently that accepted Apple Pay. One had no indication whatsoever that AP and other NFC payments were accepted. The other had several NFC payment icons in the LCD display! 

    Anyway I shop at Costco and am happy they take Apple Pay.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 27 of 30
    uphilluphill Posts: 62member
    I have been using Apple Pay at COSTCO in Canada for a couple of years. Just paid for $190 worth of stuff this morning at my local COSTCO with my Apple Watch and a non-COSTCO Master Card. Most companies with US head-offices do not offer Apple Pay in Canada because their outlets here have card readers that still don't support NFC. COSTCO has been a notable and welcome exception. At least most of them support chip-and-pin, so they are only a few years behind the times. Carrying a pocketful of cards is a huge inconvenience, and a security risk especially when the card reader requires the magnetic strip. Apple Pay is almost ubiquitous for non-US based companies in Canada. There are numerous adequate alternates to US companies here and in other countries.
  • Reply 28 of 30
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    jbdragon said:
    bonobob said:
    Will I still have to hand the cashier my credit card/member card so they can scan the member number?  If so, I can't get very excited because I'll still need to pull out the credit card.  Maybe with NFC enabled, I can just use the NFC chip on my card to pay instead.
    Of course, you must still prove you’re a Costco member so you’ll have to show them your Costco card.

    Now they just need to get into Apple's Wallet and link that to Apple Pay.  
    They have to pre-scan the member card, so I’m not sure how that would work efficiently.
  • Reply 29 of 30
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    bageljoey said:
    I feel like we are finally getting to a tipping point with merchant adoption. 
    Still some hang ups. I asked a store clerk if I could use Apple Pay last week. She said “I don’t think so” but the POS machine looked like it took wireless. I said let me try and it worked fine.  “Oh.”  She said. I wonder how many people she turned away...
    I mentioned using AP on 8/18 (looking at the receipt right now) and the clerk said that Costco doesn't accept it. Costco has some training/retraining that they need to do.
  • Reply 30 of 30
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    dewme said:
    bonobob said:
    Will I still have to hand the cashier my credit card/member card so they can scan the member number?  If so, I can't get very excited because I'll still need to pull out the credit card.  Maybe with NFC enabled, I can just use the NFC chip on my card to pay instead.
    Of course, you must still prove you’re a Costco member so you’ll have to show them your Costco card.
    This sounds like an opportunity, not a problem. (For Apple)
    Apple solved it quite a while ago with Wallet. This one is in Costco's court now. I doubt that Costco would accept my version of a membership card that I add to Wallet using a third party app (but lots of other places accept homemade Wallet items like that, even my gym).
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