One of Apple Pay's first big opponents has reversed course.
Rite Aid announced on Tuesday that it will start accepting Apple Pay for transactions in nearly 4,600 stores nationwide, along with Google's upcoming Android Pay service.
"By accepting mobile payments, we’re able to offer Rite Aid customers an easy and convenient checkout process, which we know is important to them," Rite Aid CEO Ken Martindale said in a statement.
The move to accept Apple Pay is a big win for Apple given that Rite Aid decided to block the service when it was first made available last fall. At the time, Rite Aid was part of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium of retailers that have been supposedly working on a rival mobile payments service called CurrentC.
MCX was trying to get retailers like Rite Aid, CVS, Best Buy, and Dunkin Donuts to only support CurrentC in an effort to slow Apple Pay's growth.
Many MCX retailers have since announced plans to support Apple Pay anyway, and it's been nearly a year since MCX announced any new developments with its service.
Meanwhile, it's unclear when or if CurrentC will launch. MCX originally said it'd be available in early 2015.
Apple and MCX aren't the only companies trying to explore the next generation of mobile payments. In June, Google announced Android Pay, a platform Android phone makers can use for mobile payments. Samsung is expected to launch Samsung Pay, which works with regular magnetic readers on credit card terminals, this fall.
