Portland - Soon, Starbucks lattes and KFC fried chicken will just be a tap away with Apple Pay.
Apple is rolling out its mobile-payments service for select Starbucks stores by the end of the year, and will reach 7 500 company-owned stores in 2016, the coffee chain said in a statement.
KFC stores and Chili’s Grill & Bar will make Apple Pay available in 2016 as well, Jennifer Bailey, the Apple vice-president in charge of the service, said at the Code/Mobile conference on Thursday.
Wider acceptance should give Apple Pay a much-needed boost. Lack of acceptance at various retail stores has been partly to blame for the slow roll-out. A year since its debut, the payment service only accounts for 1 percent of all retail transactions in the US, according to researcher Aite Group.
Starbucks’ own mobile-payment application has been a success, accounting for 20 percent of transactions at the coffee chain’s US stores. Starbucks has said it intends to make all popular payment methods available to customers. Haley Drage, a spokeswoman for the Seattle-based company, said its UK stores have been accepting Apple Pay for several months. “It was received well by consumers,” she said.
KFC owner Yum! Brands and Brinker International, which runs Chili’s, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
BLOOMBERG