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Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.
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The terminals they have are almost certainly already have NFC unless they are like 10 years old or more. Wallmart in the USA just disables NFC.
If anyone at Walmart's VP level or above had an ounce of common sense, they could still take contactless payments, and also track an individual's shopping habits.
Just like Wegmans, Target, or Best Buy, or any other company that wants to track information -- Walmart could have a "club card" that you scan or swipe before ringing out your item(s). People that use a club card could then get their Walmart+ membership benefits and member pricing at checkout, while at the same time, customers can utilize contactless payments. There's that solution, and Walmart could make their Walmart credit card a better product so people will actually want to obtain one. I'm sure Walmart could cut a deal with whatever company that issues their cards to track information.
Good, I will continue to avoid shopping there. 
They made a conscious decision, while I do the same.
They made a conscious decision, while I do the same.
Who knows if Walmart disabled NFC or just didn't buy the NFC terminals. It just wants people to use its Walmart Pay.
You pay via cash, debit/credit cards using the insert/swipe method, scan the QRC code so it takes you to Walmart Pay or log in with your telephone number into your online account to pay with whatever payment that's been linked/stored in your account.
According to Walmart at its website:
Walmart Pay - Walmart.com
Shop for Walmart Pay at Walmart.com. Save money. Live better.
www.walmart.com
"Top technology on your side
We keep our technology simple & use tested hardware that’s already widely in place.
Walmart Pay doesn’t use near-field communication (NFC). Instead, our customers use their smartphones to scan a secure QR code displayed on the same PIN pads at checkout that are being used now. A customer’s scan sends a signal to Walmart’s server that it’s okay to use Walmart Pay for that purchase. The signal itself does not transmit any financial information."
Walmart uses the Ingenico Lane/7000 now. They all have NFC embedded, which means it had to have been disabled at the software level.
Virtually any POS terminal less than 10 years old is NFC
There aren’t really non NFC to “buy”
I bring my own reusable shopping bags that I place items in as I shop.What do you do for bagging at Walmart? Do they let you go to the self checkouts and bag your items?
Or are you only grabbing a few single items?
I use Scan & Go at Sam's Club... but those items are huge and unbaggable.
This is really simple. Walmart is the largest retailer in the world and can dictate the terms. The data Walmart collects on Walmart pay is infinitely more valuable than any customer who might be lost by not taking Apple pay. The end
There is no such thing as a zero cost to the merchant on ACH, debit or credit card transactions, there is always an interchange cost on every transaction. That cost varies depending on if the payment is card present or card-not-present, and what type of card it is (eg. Debit, Credit, AMEX, Visa, etc). Since Walmart is huge, the merchant services provider they are using is adding a small basis point over interchange cost as their profitably. The only time a merchant can avoid a fee, is to enable surcharging where they can pass the cost of the transaction to the customer, but that's only on credit cards, not debit.
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Well, they can still shoplift at Apple too, but they don’t make you show a receipt as you walk out. So what’s your point?
It’s not that bad. Long press on the Walmart app icon > Walmart Pay > scan the QR code
How do I put this… there is something very “Android” about Walmart
I appreciate the ability to occasionally scan my items while waiting in line BUT I don’t want to create, maintain a separate app for every company I do business with. I want to buy something and if you sell that item just make it as easy as possible for me to purchase it. If they’d just say it’s to make more money I’d respect them more.
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient payment technologies available in the Walmart app, including Walmart Pay and Mobile Scan & Go.
Walmart Pay allows customers to scan a QR code displayed at checkout to pay for their purchase with a payment card stored in the Walmart app. Scan & Go allows Walmart+ members to save time by scanning barcodes on items while they shop, rather than having to scan all of the items at a self-checkout register later.
The spokesperson said the following statement still stands:
Apple Pay launched more than 10 years ago, and it was accepted at more than 90 percent of U.S. retailers as of 2022, according to Apple. Some other major Apple Pay holdouts in the U.S. have reversed course and started accepting it over the past few years, including The Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, and Texas grocery store chain H-E-B, leaving Walmart as one of the country's only major retailers not to accept Apple Pay.
Walmart has accepted Apple Pay in Canada since 2020.
Article Link: Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.
Then why are people suggesting it's them trying to avoid credit card fees, they still have to pay for card processing from a merchant bank in all those services too.
Scale. An Apple store has maybe a hundred items on the sales floor. Costco and Sam's Club easily have a couple thousand, and Walmart probably tens of thousands. There's just more stuff to steal.
Pretty tough to shoplift at an Apple Store
You would be hard pressed to just grab something and walk out
And any Apple device they could just track it anyway
because they don't understand how the world works and think that is the reason
those people are just plain wrong
a bunch of people providing entirely mistaken analysis is neither an argument for nor against any position
