Cumberland Farms Takes Bite of Apple Pay

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Cumberland Farms Inc. now accepts mobile payment via Apple Pay across its nearly 600 convenience stores and gas stations in the Northeast and Florida.

Apple Pay allows consumers to pay for products by tapping their iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 on Cumberland Farms' near-field communications-enabled PIN pads. At this point, Cumberland Farms is only accepting Apple Pay for in-store purchases, but the c-store retailer said it is working with its partners to make the service available at the pump in the near future.

"Our 'first mover' position on mobile pay at the pump sets us up to continue to innovate on platforms like Apple Pay. We are working with our partners now to leverage the SmartPay platform and make Apple Pay available at the pump soon," said Dave Banks, chief information officer for Cumberland Farms.

Cumberland Farms began accepting cardless payments last year when it launched its proprietary SmartPay Check-Link mobile app, which links directly to customer checking accounts and allows them to save 10 cents per gallon of gas.

"Prior to Apple Pay, we pioneered a pay-at-the-pump mobile payment app, which makes gas transactions as easy and convenient as possible for our customers and also saves users 10 cents on every gallon of gas," said Ari Haseotes, CEO of Cumberland Farms. "To date, our customers have purchased $600 million of our products using SmartPay, and have enjoyed savings of over $16 million on gas purchases. They love the savings and the convenience." 

Framingham-based Cumberland Farms was founded in 1939. Still family owned and operated, it has convenience stores in eight states.