The implementation of Apple Pay on the merchant side has really been messy. I went to Subway for lunch on Friday in the podunk little town where I work, no advertisement of Apple Pay or NFC anywhere, not even a logo near the register. I pulled my phone out near the card reader anyway (don't remember the brand but it was a smaller pin pad with a small screen and a swipe slot on the side) hoping it would light up; when it didn't I set my phone down and reached for my wallet. But actually the guy hadn't finished ringing up the order; once he did the NFC logo appeared on the card reader screen, my phone lit up with the Apple Pay option, I tapped TouchID, and was done in 1-2 seconds. The cashier seemed to know what was going on too; I couldn't tell if he pressed a button or anything but he definitely acted like it was normal for me to pay with my phone. But the problem here was no advertising whatsoever, not even an NFC logo at the register until the order was rung up. And this was at one of Apple's launch partners.
I went to an Auto Zone on Saturday; I only mention this because someone above said they saw an NFC-enabled register at one. No advertisement, but I watched the terminal for the NFC logo to appear just out of curiosity; when nothing did I just swiped. So if Auto Zone does have NFC enabled evidently as the above poster mentioned it's only some terminals and it's unadvertised.
Finally, I went in Panera for dinner last night. They had Apple Pay advertisements on the doors, and at about 60% of the registers. Problem was, the register I ended up at didn't have the Apple Pay and NFC logos. I pulled out my phone anyway, but of course it didn't light up and the cashier told me she didn't have it available on her register. So I had to swipe, and this was at one of the launch partners.
So my overall experience hasn't been great, but that's the fault of the launch partners not having it fully implemented and/or not advertising it. Actually using the technology itself was a breeze though the one time I was able to use it and there was a definite gratification looking at my receipt and seeing the last four of my "card number" as being different than what's on my actual card. As for the non-partners that have NFC but don't advertise it in any way...that's just annoying. Theoretically I could be using it more often...if I ended up at the right register and pulled my phone out to check every time I buy something that's not at a store that's known to not have NFC implemented. So yeah. The merchant side of this is really sloppy right now.
