According to the source, a deal with Apple isn’t in place yet, so the plan isn’t final. The chain, which currently accepts PayPal, also may add other kinds of mobile payment, the source notes.
Customers already were able to use Apple Pay at some of Home Depot’s stores despite there not being an agreement. The retailer could accept mobile payments at those locations because its checkout terminals have near field communication (NFC) readers, bloomberg.com points out.
Those devices have now been turned off for the past few weeks during an upgrade of its point-of-sale (POS) system, thus leading to some inaccurate reports that Home Depot had dropped Apple Pay, the source adds.
If it pushes ahead with the plan, Home Depot would join chains like Macy’s and Whole Foods Market in embracing Apple Pay at stores. Many other retailers are betting on a mobile payment option from the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which was founded in 2012 by companies such as Wal-Mart Stores and Target. That offering, CurrentC, is still being developed and is expected to launch in the summer of 2015.
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