While a new study claims Apple Pay usage is on the skids, two more regional grocery store chains, both based in St. Louis, MO, recently began offering point-of-sale support for the touchless payments service.
Both Schnucks and Dierbergs Markets are now accepting Apple Pay at registers, joining nationwide grocers like Whole Foods that also support Apple’s NFC-based payment system. Apple has yet to append its official Apple Pay website, but Schnucks and Dierbergs announced the news on their respective blogs late last month.
Schnucks offers Apple Pay at each of the company’s 98 locations in five states, while Dierbergs rolled out support for the payments service at its 25 stores.
A study published this week indicated the number of iPhone users that are willing to try out Apple Pay has declined over the past three months. The study also noted a decline in usage rates from both casual and previously committed iPhone users.
Apple Pay still remains one of the most popular touchless payment systems available, due to the iPhone’s huge user base. It should also be noted that the InfoScout survey covers only users in the United States, where users are more familiar with swiping a card, rather than using a tap-to-pay system.
Apple recently rolled Apple Pay out to the U.K., where tap-to-pay is more prevalent, and has plans to expand the service to China and Japan, where customers also have more familiarity with touchless transactions.
