News

Rite Aid decides to support Apple Pay, Android Pay

The pharmacy chain is the latest MCX member to to announce support for NFC-based mobile payment systems.

August 11, 2015

Rite Aid is the latest Merchant Customer Exchange partner to announce support for NFC-based mobile payment systems such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. The pharmacy chain announced today it will begin to accept mobile contactless payments starting this Saturday across its 4,600 locations nationwide.

CVS and Rite Aid, two MCX members, caused controversy in October when Apple Pay went live by turning off contactless support at their respective stores. At the time, MCX had in place an exclusivity agreement with its partners to only accept the QR code-based CurrentC mobile app.

Best Buy, Dunkin' Donuts, and Kohl's, all original MCX members, earlier this year announced Apple Pay support in some form. Best Buy added Apple Pay support to its iOS app and said it would accept it in-store this fall. 

In April, the consortium announced it planned to launch the system some time in the third quarter in an unnamed, midsize market.