Call me cynical, but when I saw the latest ad in the “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” series Thursday afternoon, I felt a little uneasy.
Sure, there’s over a million stores you can use Apple Pay in, but if this ad is to be believed, they’re all the same corporate-owned stores you’ll see in every mall across the US.
Ugh.
Check out the Apple Pay video below.
https://youtu.be/58gAy85dwf0
Apple Pay was announced last September, and it’s striking how fast it’s gaining traction. If you’re running iOS 8.1 or later, you can purchase stuff with your iPhone 6 by just waving the device at an enabled kiosk. The Apple Watch experience is even more fun and gets all sorts of comments from retail clerks and other customers.
I love Apple Pay, honest, but it sort of creeps me out that the world of retail they’re presenting here is a kaleidoscope of options that only includes Whole Foods, Foot Locker, Toys R Us, McDonald’s, Jamba Juice, Subway, Sephora, Petco, Staples, American Eagle Outfitters, Macy’s, and Walgreens (which is the only place in Anchorage I’ve seen Apple Pay).
Here’s hoping that more and more small and local businesses will be able to connect to the Apple Pay system in the near future; I’d really like to use my Apple Watch to pay for a cup of Kaladi Bros. coffee and a meal or two at Spenard Roadhouse here in my town.
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
9 responses to “New Apple Pay video reveals your new corporate masters”
this is the most liberal hippie post i have ever seen on this website please go back to your normal stuff i don’t care if you don’t like the “takeover of corporate america” fact is these are the stores most people are familiar with everyones heard of them so apple’s gonna put them in their ad because people know who they are there not gonna put in your local deli because no one has herd of that
Common, you can’t be that naive, can you? Of course they’re going to use well-known brands in their ads – how stupid it would it be if they listed a bunch of places nobody heard of? What motivation would people have to try it?
Yeah, Rob, you don’t want to show Apple Pay being used in stores where most people actually shop.
I really don’t like name-calling or unfounded criticism in comments sections, but this is just a stupid post.
You’re better than this.
WTF?
Showing local stores and restaurants would be thought provoking. Folks would recognize them for what they were and think, “I’ll be happy when I can use Pay at my local hangouts!” As the US banks roll out the chip & pen credit/debit cards this Fall, we should see a lot more local businesses updating their CC systems to the NFC and we will see a lot more places where we can use Pay.
What I’m waiting for is a way to use Pay in sit down restaurants. I still have to carry all the CCs that are in my Wallet app on my phone and watch because there is no way to pay with Pay in most restaurants.
I really like how Apple is pushing Apple Pay through TV ads now, and I’m excited to see a UK adaptation of this too.
Visually this ad looks great, and fun too! But, (especially here in the UK) there’s gotta be a higher element of trust. Of course people trust Apple, but it’s peoples money we’re talking about here.
Apple should perhaps place out a stricter and more informative Apple Pay ad too. Fast. Easy. Secure. – And to drive adoption (from people who I speak to) security is everyones biggest worry.
Apple pay actually makes these big retailers less powerful, because they don’t even know who you are unless you tell them. Try that with a credit card.
Meanwhile only “X” amount of credit card companies will only support the idea. 75% of the non-big chain banks have yet to add NFC support for their credit cards or Apply Pay support.
Yes, I can see how widespread usability would be a letdown. Man, Apple has forgotten its roots. Whatever happened to the love, man??