Just FYI, The MacRumors forum user who posted that is under the Banned status (DKDonkeyKong).

I have had no problems at McDonald's using ApplePay, 3 stores, 2 states. I don't have a discussion about NFC and NFC-Based technologies, they are hard working people who work at McDonald's, they are not Electrical Engineers. And colleagues of mine have used Google Wallet at McDonalds as well.

If someone asks, I just say the credit card is built into my phone or my phone's capabilities.

At Panera and Whole Foods and Staples, my experience with the cashiers is that they just take it as another payment method. It's not a surprise anymore.