Why Walmart may never accept Apple Pay
When CVS disabled support for Apple Pay a few weeks ago, the result was a PR nightmare for MCX and its in-the-works mobile payment app CurrentC. As a result, MCX executives have effectively been forced to speak up and shed some light on the rules that govern MCX partners. For instance, during an interview with Re/Code last week, MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson explained that the exclusivity period which prevents MCX partners from supporting competing mobile payment platforms expires in "months, not years." We've also since learned that retailers on board the CurrentC bandwagon are not subject to fines should they decide to stop working with MCX.
Of course, the optimists amongst us read this as a hopeful hint that CurrentC partners such as CVS and Best Buy might eventually offer support for Apple Pay in the not too distant future.
But one retailer that may never support Apple Pay, or at the very least may be the last holdout, is Walmart. For Walmart, it's not about security and it's not about giving CurrentC a chance to breathe. On the contrary, Walmart, despite its ridiculous assertion that it has the best interests of consumers in mind, is laser focused and damn-near obsessed with minimizing costs at every angle.
So naturally, Walmart is not a fan in the slightest of the fees it has to fork over on each and every credit card transaction. To that end, Walmart arguably views Apple Pay with disdain, and perhaps dangerous to the extent that Apple's new mobile payment platform might encourage even more consumers to pay with credit cards.
Underscoring Walmart's, shall we say, deep frustration with credit cards, Re/Code yesterday published the following video depicting Walmart treasurer Mike Cook aggressively asking Visa's Jim McCarthy a question about Apple Pay and card-present rates. The video is from last week's Money2020 conference. in Las Vegas.
Re/Code adds:
This exchange is noteworthy because it epitomizes the mistrust and disdain between Walmart and the credit card networks. Walmart is convinced that the fees merchants have to pay banks when a credit card is used in their stores is too high. And because the credit card networks are the entities that set the pricing framework for the fees, Walmart and other retailers blame them.
While it's easy to jump on Walmart, it's worth noting that they're hardly alone in believing that Visa and MasterCard tend to charge excessive fees for their service. In 2005, a large group of retailers banded together and filed a class action lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard alleging that the two companies conspired together to charge excessive fees. The parties involved ultimately settled for a whopping $6 billion.
