From The Verge and Macrumours:
In fact, a significant number of merchants, including heavyweights like Walmart, Kmart, 7-Eleven, and Best Buy, are in outright competition with Apple Pay. The retailers, through a joint venture formed in 2012, are building their own mobile payment app, called CurrentC. It's expected to launch next year. In the meantime, these retailers have no intention to support Apple Pay.
Except, they are not in competition. Apple Pay can be used at any EMV-based NFC termainal, world wide. CurrentC: not so much. It's US residents only, and even then, only ones who install their app, and set it up. They still need to provide normal credit card processing at tills for the 99% of people who don't, or can't be bothered.
Earlier this week, a leaked internal memo from Rite Aid revealed that the drug store chain was modifying or disabling its NFC readers, preventing access to Apple Pay (and other systems, like Google Wallet and wireless carrier-backed SoftCard, which also depend on the contact-less technology). A representative later confirmed the news to iMore. Today, CVS followed suit and shut out Apple Pay, according to reports. Both will support CurrentC on launch next year
Here's how this is going to go: Apple will own iPhone-based payments, as they are supporting the "open" standard (EMV). Banks and similar places will own the Android-based market with their own wallets. All of them are the same tho - EMV-based NFC. For those without either (or a willingness to use them), the banks will do EMV based credit cards, or stickers which stick on your phone (popular in the UK).
The US will continue to flounder with stupid, old, insecure payment methods for a few years, and then all the crazy shit like signing something which looks kind of like your name, or CurrentC, will die and they'll finally get onboard with NFC.
Or the banks and credit card companies will pull finger and require that Rite Aid et all take 100% liability if they don't support EMV at the point of sale (like most of the rest of the world). That might change it up a bit quicker.
Stupid, and short sighted. Which is about normal.
