NFC Times Exclusive: LAS VEGAS, Nev. – While a number of major U.S. merchants have pledged to only accept one mobile-payments service, that is not the case for giant Subway sandwich chain, which has now introduced at least three major options for its customers to pay with their smartphones.
Subway, which has enabled its 26,000 locations across the U.S. to accept both the Apple Pay and the Softcard wallets, along with other NFC-enabled wallets, is also rolling out its own QR code-based mobile payments service as part of its new mobile app.
“I think consumers are going to pick their favorite way to pay, one or maybe two distinct wallets,” Subway CIO Carman Wenkoff told NFC Times, adding that he believes that the exclusivity clauses that large merchants in the MCX consortium have been following are probably not sustainable. “My guess is that the exclusivity is going to soften up quite a bit,” he said. “It’s a tough position to be in, so (it’s) hard to hold that line.”
