In reply to Allie Kat.

Thanks Allie Kat. However, my point remains the same. Per Apple, if the terminal accepts contactless (NFC) payments, Apple Pay should work along with other NFC solutions. Writing an article that implies Apple Pay is being singled out for acceptance is misleading - they either accept NFC and thus all the Apple Pay NFC-based alternatives or they don't.
Where an exception can be drawn is in 'support', where they display the Apple Pay icon at the point of sale (in the manner prescribed by Apple), train employees to aid customers with the new payment method, test Apple Pay specifically to ensure there are no hiccups, etc.
I don't so much have a problem with the headline - they have to get their clicks and, really, Apple Pay is a hot topic and has been hyped more than Google Wallet et al, so the 'Best Friend' moniker may be appropriate; however, within the article, there are repeated mentions of whether Apple Pay is 'accepted' and one alluding to Apple Pay being "dropped", as if Home Depot's technical team actually changed coding at their POS to excluded Apple Pay and only Apple Pay.
Even that wouldn't really seem like an issue, except that I read lines like this in most of PYMNTS.com's articles on the subject of Apple Pay. The problem is that this can mislead readers who don't make a point of keeping up on mobile wallets - and the related tech - to believe that a retailer has to take some special action to accept/deny Apple Pay that doesn't apply to similar solutions. So if I'm an independent retailer reading these articles, am I to believe I have to do backflips just to accept Apple Pay?
Ultimately, it's poor journalism and PYMNTS.com needs to get their act together.