Apple Pay Partners Sprint For 2014 Rollout

With the end of 2014 approaching, some major retailers will apparently be missing their year-end deadlines to be able to accept Apple Pay. But one unexpected merchant has already gone live with Apple’s mobile payment system: the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works now accepts Apple Pay for building permits.

The county, which issues hundreds of building permits each week ranging from multimillion-dollar construction projects to single-family home additions, began accepting Apple Pay on Dec. 18 at L.A. County Building and Safety offices to pay for the permits. (That beats Disneyland in neighboring Orange County, which won’t support Apple Pay until next year.)

Meanwhile, Apple has tweaked its Apple Pay web pages to change the status of some merchant partners from “Coming later this year” to “Coming soon,” suggesting that they won’t have Apple Pay rolled out by New Year’s, MacRumors reported.

While Walt Disney World and Ticketmaster will meet the deadline, it appears that the Albertsons and ACME grocery chains and apparel retailers Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People — which were expected to go live in 2014 — won’t hit the mark. Starbucks, StubHub and Tickets.com were already expected to roll out the system in 2015.

Many retailers that are implementing Apple Pay may still be working to train employees, update hardware and swap out point-of-sale systems, leading to variable launch dates, MacRumors says.