How could they even do that? I don’t shop there much, but I don’t let any company save any of my card numbers. From my understanding, that scan and go thing requires a card saved to your account.
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Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.
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It's about tracking customers. Walmart is large enough that they negotiate extremely favorable transaction fees with the various payment networks. It's all about the data.
And this is why they're the last retailer I would/do shop at.
I use my CostCo Citi Bank credit card every time with no issues. In the mountains where we spend time in the summer there is only a single general store: a Super Store Walmart. When a Walmart comes in, local stores disappear.
I'm the UK too. My local Turkish barber accepts contactless. I'm pretty sure that many years ago Visa and Mastercard both mandated that all POS terminals in the UK and Europe must be contactless enabled. No idea why they didn't/won't do this in the USA too.
Ha! Even with the Turkish barbers I use Apple Pay…
I ask, before the snipping starts and if they um and ah I head to the door. They mostly produce a little card reader.
These days — unless you really are a little teashop run by 84 year old ladies stuck in a hidden valley in deepest Wales where any kind of mobile signal is unheard of — I just walk away from the ones insisting on cash only.
And yes as you said, there are "reasons" why some places only insist on cash.
Apparently not.
As another European (well, citizen of that large island anchored off the continent!) I often ask this question and some folk have answered that it is indeed an issue in the US of A.
“Scan&Go”…until you get to the door, then they stop to verify. What’s the point?
Walmart, you jerk. You could still do an app and have contactless payments. “We instead make payment harder for no reason”.
I'm hesitant to shop places that don't accept Apple Pay / Contactless. Stores should make it as easy as possible to give them your money.
My hope is that card issuers eventually mandate NFC support for all retailers which forces Walmart to give in. Big companies like this tend to only do good things when forced to.
Walmart’s been my personal preference to shop now compared to other major retailers like Target (in-store) or Amazon (online), and to be honest? Don’t miss Apple Pay in the slightest. Scan & Go is way more convenient than the traditional shopping experience + Apple Pay.
Lame they don’t support it, but as long as I have Scan & Go, I don’t even really care.
Lame they don’t support it, but as long as I have Scan & Go, I don’t even really care.
I only reluctantly and begrudgingly shop at Walmart when I have to but their lack of Apple Pay is one of the many reason I detest them. They're like the Facebook of retail stores. They want to know everything about you and have access to all of your data but how DARE you ask them to implement security standards or modern payment methods.
The average person (most people) don't use Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, etc. We just pay with a CC at the store.
NFC support is all I personally care about so I can use my Garmin watch in as many places as possible
It's incredible how little usage my actual wallet gets anymore -- it's really great
Even for that, it'd be nice (and more secure) to have tap support
I use Apple Pay whenever it's an option and I cringe at having to use my physical card anywhere. If retailers took away the CC function and only used NFC terminals, Apple Pay usage (along with all of the others) would instantly skyrocket. Physical money is already going the way of the dodo. CC's aren't far behind.
This isn't about Walmart not accepting Apple Pay; they just don't accept contactless payments, period. So you can't even tap your regular debit/credit card to pay via NFC. Too bad banks/credit card companies haven't mandated that all terminals must accept contactless payments, like they did for chips in 2015. Hopefully, they will someday. If Walmart ever starts accepting contactless payments, Apple Pay and everything else will just work.
I'm not sure I'm following. You link a credit card (or debit card) to your Walmart Pay account. So even if you use Walmart Pay, you're actually still paying with a credit/debit card.
My Walmart doesn’t stop you at the door at all. Rarely with S&G it will ask for an employee to come verify a few items, but 99% of the time the experience is super smooth. S&G makes existing checkout feel ancient.
Sam’s Club is even better because you can confirm the payment in app, and ours also has their new AI detectors installed so you just walk right in, scan your product, and leave. Never have to go to a register or talk to anyone if you don’t want. It’s awesome
I've pointed this out in the past
the story is indeed about contactless payment and not just apple pay
MacRumors makes an editorial decision to write "apple pay" instead of "contactless payment" because it is an apple focused site
My wife shops at Walfart, and I wouldn't darken the doors with a gun to my back. I know of no other establishment that puts a thug at the door to check its customers to make sure they didn't sneak something past cashier or scanner.
There's a note in the Sams app that you can add EBT payment during Scan & Go checkout. Maybe they offer the same for regular credit cards? (Not sure, can't bring it up in the app unless you're at the store.)
... And I'll continue to refuse to use Walmart's stuff. I chose an iPhone explicitly because I wanted a platform with a single way to handle payments, subscriptions, apps, etc. Devs/merchants who believe doing their own thing is the way to getting my money are mistaken. That said - Are Apple's App Store and other fees a bit too high? Yes.
Fortunately for me the stores closest to me - Which don't include Walmart anymore (it failed and closed, in a suburb of a medium/large US city) - Are all plenty happy to let me hold my wrist out with an Apple Watch to pay using Apple Pay.
Fortunately for me the stores closest to me - Which don't include Walmart anymore (it failed and closed, in a suburb of a medium/large US city) - Are all plenty happy to let me hold my wrist out with an Apple Watch to pay using Apple Pay.
They’re the largest retail company in the world.