tmiw

I'm not even expecting restaurants to ever get pay at the table in any large numbers. Just switching to a pay at the front setup like what IHOP and Denny's have would be good enough, especially if the hardware stays easily accessible to customers. Or maybe partner up with OpenTable and let people use Apple/Android Pay in the app but I don't know how many restaurants/customers would be willing to do that.

storewanderer

Safeway self checkout in Jackson, CA took Contactless great this weekend.

Clunky NCR Self Checkout that operated very, very slowly, but it did take the Contactless.

storewanderer

I don't see why a merchant would regret enabling Contactless. If the banks would issue more Contactless cards, there would be a ton more use. Merchants want quick checkout and an easy experience for the customer, and this is a tool they can use to help promote that.

In Northern California, now that Safeway is enabled, pretty much every grocery store has Contactless. There are a few hold outs but not really many. WinCo (Debit only...), the 10 or so stores Kroger has left in NorCal after they mostly left the market...

tmiw

Sure, but Quick Chip is likely a less expensive/lower effort solution for that compared to going through the EMV contactless certification and/or development process again. If there are still non-contactless capable devices available in 5-10 years and if some of these places have to recertify, continued low use of contactless by that time might make removing support an option.

However, we're still pretty far out from that becoming an option, so we very well could end up seeing all the major issuers providing contactless cards by default or the mobile wallets getting far more use.

Anyway, I'd consider Walmart a significant holdout as well, even if they don't really do full SuperCenters or Neighborhood Markets in some major cities.

D582

Here is an interesting observation I have made. There is a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in San Francisco located that I frequent when in the area. They use Square, with the the Chip/Contactless reader properly positioned. They are located on the ground floor of the Twitter HQ building, and directly across the street is the building with both the Uber and (ironically) the Square HQ. The coffee shop is frequented by employees from all three companies, with most in their 20s and 30s - so a perfect target demographic for mobile payment use.

And yet, despite seeing them clutching their iPhones or Android phones in their hands, I see very few actually use Apple Pay/Android Pay/Samsung Pay - instead opting to insert their chip cards.

Apple did say earlier this year that 75% of Apple Pay transactions occur outside the US, and honestly, and unfortunately, I believe it.

Points Scrounger

My impression from clerks here in Seattle, the other techie-zone besides the Bay Area, is that they encounter tapping often enough not to be surprised, but not regularly.

mikesyr18

I'm not even sure what the problem is in this country.

Do you think it's an unwillingness for Americans to change their ways? Laziness? A society where many people have a below average IQ; thus, don't understand contactless exits? Perhaps Apple's laziness with not promoting Apple Pay enough is the problem... I don't remember the last time I've witnessed an Apple Pay commercial on television. Perhaps merchant's should be required to shut off chip and swipe for anything under $50 to promote contactless use.

I'm one to believe the merchants are the biggest issue here. I went to a different Subway than I usually frequent and the terminal is facing towards the cashier. Well how do you expect someone to use contactless without resistance if you have the reader illogically placed like a moron?

I'm sorry but this just angers me more by the day... It's not a hard concept. Get certified for chip... Get certified for EMV contactless... Face the reader towards the consumer, it's not a difficult concept, yet it seems like it. NOT 1) Have 20 year old card reader with neither technology available. 2) Not have contactless enabled. 3) Not have chip reader working and active. 4) Have reader facing towards the cashier so you have to hand them your card.

It's pathetic that after the Equifax data breaches and Congressional audits/subpoenas that our representatives aren't writing a thorough law to protect our data, which starts with regulating the credit bureaus more and regulating the way our cards can be used.

RedLight2015

Phoenix is hardly tech central and people here don’t get surprised when tapping with a phone. Tap a watch or card and watch them awe in amazement and eyes pop out! Lol!

Points Scrounger

I'm too greedy for Samsung Pay credits to tap my AMEX card!

tmiw

Then again, there's at least sixteen countries that have Apple Pay available; the US having 25% usage on its own is still pretty good. Of course, we have no idea how many transactions that corresponds to, nor do I think Apple will be forthcoming with such data until the numbers are large enough (IMO).

Well, 50% of people are going to be below the median IQ regardless of the country. I don't think that's the issue.

Really, though, contactless is extremely unreliable in the US relative to magstripe and EMV. Sure, it'll probably work the vast majority of the time for US issued cards where it's enabled (which in itself is a whole separate problem), but most people are going to stop using it after a couple of failures. I mean, they have to bring a wallet everywhere anyway, so why bother continuing to try it if only half of places support it at best?

There's also not much of a motivation to use it. The banks are responsible for all fraud, for example, not us--so security isn't going to be a huge motivator. Even EMV's "slowness" might not be that huge of a deal for most, despite the loud minority of people complaining online. For the rest, Quick Chip and/or other terminal optimizations are probably enough.

Anyway, I suspect that you'd either have to have a real-world example of Apple Pay helping with security (for instance, an announcement from Whole Foods or another recently breached merchant saying that Apple Pay was not affected) or eliminate some of the convenience features in our current system (mandating signature/PIN for every non-NFC transaction and actually verifying the former) to improve customer motivation.

BTW, contactless enablement should have been included as part of the liability shift, even if that comes at the cost of pushing back Visa's EMV contactless requirements a couple of years. Then at least you could definitely say that all chip-enabled terminals have NFC enabled, unlike the current situation.

HkCaGu

Same culprit as the dollar coin issue. The government can mint. Vending machines can give change. People can try to use. But if the merchants only collect and never give them out ASSUMING people don't like it, every single one ends up in the bank.

tmiw

I've gotten dollar coins back as change before (and not from a vending machine either), but it's definitely rare.

Also, I'm not sure dollar coins are a good example since cash usage is dropping. I suspect the whole issue with those will be mostly moot soon for that reason.

scibot

You were 100% correct its 1am on Tuesday and it has updated and I see many Village Inn on there I wonder if they are actually accepting it now. More GAP as well so you were correct about that one too.

tmiw

More IHOP too. Unfortunately Village Inn (if it's the one I'm seeing online) isn't in California so I'll leave that to others to confirm.

Also, I forget if I mentioned this already but it looks like In-N-Out fell off the MC map. That probably doesn't bode well for its enablement any time soon.

D582

I agree that that the card networks lost an opportunity here. The liability shift should have been full contact and contactless EMV enablement. (Not just MSD)