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Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in U.S. Despite Many Customer Requests

The US have been late to modern POS modern payment technology (Chip&PIN), instrad clinging to cheap and outdated Magstripe.

But I don’t think this is a national issue - rather just a few powerful retailers trying to push their own proprietary payment/checkout solutions and gather customer/sales data from customers. Believing they can get away with inconveniencing their customers due to their size and market power.
 
Honestly? The US still has some of (if not) the developed world's lowest usage of contactless payment, both via cards and mobile devices. For instance, we only recently got up to 20%ish of all card payments using it--and we needed a million people (and counting) dying of a pandemic to get to that point. Why would Walmart et al enable it when (a) the vast majority of their customers likely don't care and (b) it's very possible that stuff like curbside pickup, Just Walk Out/Scan & Go type technology, etc. will eventually negate a lot of the need for tapping in the first place?

That said, that 20% figure is only an average and could be significantly higher depending on where you are. It's possible that the calculation the various holdouts made will end up changing more quickly than we think, causing at least some of them to eventually enable support.

(Personally I'm more worried about Kroger possibly disabling contactless at Safeway and Albertsons once that deal becomes final. Then again, they do have it enabled at QFC, so it's also possible they'll finally get off their butts and enable it company-wide as a result of the merger.)
 
AppliedMicro said:
The US have been late to modern POS modern payment technology (Chip&PIN), instrad clinging to cheap and outdated Magstripe.

But I don’t think this is a national issue - rather just a few powerful retailers trying to push their own proprietary payment/checkout solutions and gather customer/sales data from customers. Believing they can get away with inconveniencing their customers due to their size and market power.
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While the US was much later to that than it frankly should have been, swiping has been pretty uncommon for a bit now.
 
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Infiniverse48 said:
...and all of the food is fresh and has not been damaged in shipping like it is 99% of the time from Amazon.
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Every Walmart I've ever gone into (in multiple states) has rotting produce on display. The potato bin at the Walmart by my house (which is in a fairly nice part of town) had flies all over the rotting potatoes last Thanksgiving week. Like, so many that you could see them from 10 feet away. The meat department offers a wonderful selection of beef that expires the same day and looks half-cooked already.

Fresh is not a word I would use to describe anything at Walmart.
 
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MacRumors said:


A quick search on Twitter reveals that Walmart faces numerous requests to accept Apple Pay on a daily basis, but the big-box retailer still does not accept the iPhone's tap-to-pay service at its over 4,700 stores across the United States.

Apple-Pay-Feature.jpg

Walmart has instead committed to its own payments service called Walmart Pay, available through the Walmart app on the iPhone. Instead of using NFC technology like Apple Pay and many other mobile wallets, Walmart Pay allows customers to scan a QR code displayed at checkout to pay for their purchase with a payment card stored in the app.

"We do not accept NFC and instead have implemented convenient solutions, such as Walmart Pay, that provide our customers easy, touchless payments on any smartphone," a Walmart spokesperson told MacRumors this week. "We have also invested in innovative technologies that go beyond payments, such as Scan & Go, which allow Sam's Club and Walmart+ members to bypass the checkout altogether."

There are certainly some benefits for Walmart in pushing its own mobile payments service, including getting more customers to download the Walmart app, being able to track a customer's purchase history, and avoiding Apple Pay fees, but it's clear that Walmart is ignoring one of its customers' most frequent requests as a result.

Apple Pay launched just over eight years ago, on October 20, 2014. In a press release earlier this year, Apple said that Apple Pay is accepted at more than 90 percent of U.S. retailers, with some major holdouts including Walmart, The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Kroger. Walmart did start accepting Apple Pay in Canada in late 2020.

Article Link: Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in U.S. Despite Many Customer Requests
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Walmart is missing the boat. There is an easier way to get apple users to download their App, accept Apple Pay but follow Walgreens’ lead and attach it to the wallet for points. I sign in with my phone every time I’m in Walgreens and they do not have my credit card on file. They still know everything I buy from them and even when I’m passing by. If I’m inside the store the app pops up to remind me I can use it to find deals. It’s a much better experience.
 
This thread is very interesting from a UK perspective.

There’s not really a concept here of Apple Pay vs anything else, there’s just contactless which basically every retailer big or small supports. So if they have contactless you can use Apple Pay. I’ve found the same in much of Europe.

Why is the US different? I’m interested
 
Also keep in mind, they are inconveniencing 80% of the market and probably 90% of theirs. Google Pay and even the contactless cards most banks here finally switched are also locked out. It just means the chip will be inserted. Notice Walmart Canada started accepting Apple pay almost 3 years ago.
 
GigabitEthernet said:
This thread is very interesting from a UK perspective.

There’s not really a concept here of Apple Pay vs anything else, there’s just contactless which basically every retailer big or small supports. So if they have contactless you can use Apple Pay. I’ve found the same in much of Europe.

Why is the US different? I’m interested
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Walmart and several others attempted to create their own version which is identical to what Walmart had. It failed to gain traction and almost all members canceled in the first year.
ian87w said:
I guess just like Apple not willing to adopt RCS? 😆
Walmart does what it does because it can, and it's not stopping people from shopping at Walmart.
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Actually it is. I personally pass them by often because they don’t.
 
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MacRumors said:


A quick search on Twitter reveals that Walmart faces numerous requests to accept Apple Pay on a daily basis, but the big-box retailer still does not accept the iPhone's tap-to-pay service at its over 4,700 stores across the United States.

Apple-Pay-Feature.jpg

Walmart has instead committed to its own payments service called Walmart Pay, available through the Walmart app on the iPhone. Instead of using NFC technology like Apple Pay and many other mobile wallets, Walmart Pay allows customers to scan a QR code displayed at checkout to pay for their purchase with a payment card stored in the app.

"We do not accept NFC and instead have implemented convenient solutions, such as Walmart Pay, that provide our customers easy, touchless payments on any smartphone," a Walmart spokesperson told MacRumors this week. "We have also invested in innovative technologies that go beyond payments, such as Scan & Go, which allow Sam's Club and Walmart+ members to bypass the checkout altogether."

There are certainly some benefits for Walmart in pushing its own mobile payments service, including getting more customers to download the Walmart app, being able to track a customer's purchase history, and avoiding Apple Pay fees, but it's clear that Walmart is ignoring one of its customers' most frequent requests as a result.

Apple Pay launched just over eight years ago, on October 20, 2014. In a press release earlier this year, Apple said that Apple Pay is accepted at more than 90 percent of U.S. retailers, with some major holdouts including Walmart, The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Kroger. Walmart did start accepting Apple Pay in Canada in late 2020.

Article Link: Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in U.S. Despite Many Customer Requests
Click to expand...
Home Depot stopped taking Applepay about 6 months ago because they signed a deal with Paypal.... Sadly
 
RalfTheDog said:
In the US. the Walmart terminals don't support NFC. They went out of their way to get card readers that did not.
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it’s all in the file build For the devices. Ingenico, PAX, Verifone haven’t made a device without NFC built in in 3-4 years. The capability is there, Walmart had their processor disable the feature in the file build.
 
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"We do not accept NFC and instead have implemented convenient solutions, such as Walmart Pay"

Have you asked your customers if they also find it "convenient" tho?
 
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Apple should make their own supermarket /s (kinda)

Like Apple, Walmart are stubborn/arrogant and can do whatever they want. Guess you'll just need to suck it up if you want to use Apple Pay.
 
kirky29 said:
I can't think of a single place in the UK that doesn't accept Apple Pay? Even the really small thrift stores do....
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I've only been to two businesses that straight up didn't accept cards of any kind and that was a car garage and a little food shop I sometimes get a roll/coffee from. The car garage shut down now and the owner who took it over accepts cards and Apple Pay (should your bill be <£100).

Every other business I've been to accepts Apple Pay. I thought if you had an NFC terminal then you accept Apple Pay. Since getting an iPhone i very rarely carry cash and unless I'm buying something over £100 then I use Apple Pay. It's everywhere (99.9% of places). I've even seen homeless people accept donations through Apple Pay
 
I do my best not to shop there but I hope they implement true contactless payments in the near future for those who do.
 
At least in US and Canada you can use Apple Pay. Here in UK no signs of Apple Pay. Why does it take so long to introduce here?
 
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poorcody said:
It's funny, I stopped shopping at Walmart many years ago, and the straw that broke the camel's back was lack of Apple Pay.

I pretty much use Apple Pay everywhere now, and I avoid places that don't take it. It's so much more convenient than cards and cash, especially in the wintertime when you have gloves on. My lone holdout is Lowes and Hope Depot, but I started going to a local hardware store that takes Apple Pay for most things.

I know it costs the companies extra fees, but for people like me, it makes a difference.

It seems like almost all small businesses take it now since they all use POS systems like Square and such that have long supported it.
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They are building an Ace Hardware not far from the house which takes Apple Pay. I am looking forward to having a hardware store closer and as a bonus, one that takes Apple Pay.
 
krspkbl said:
I've only been to two businesses that straight up didn't accept cards of any kind and that was a car garage and a little food shop I sometimes get a roll/coffee from. The car garage shut down now and the owner who took it over accepts cards and Apple Pay (should your bill be <£100).

Every other business I've been to accepts Apple Pay. I thought if you had an NFC terminal then you accept Apple Pay. Since getting an iPhone i very rarely carry cash and unless I'm buying something over £100 then I use Apple Pay. It's everywhere (99.9% of places). I've even seen homeless people accept donations through Apple Pay
Click to expand...
You guys are well ahead of us. Small businesses are more likely to accept it than large business. Our largest grocery chain, largest general retail (WalMart) and largest hardware stores are still no. They were together trying to create a system to compete with Apple Pay but it failed and they are still upset about it. We are still waiting for gas stations. Exxon will take it via their app, Costco will take it at the pump, and a few other brands have started adding readers at the pump but we have more to go.
 
That’s why I don’t shop there. Money hungry company that wants to steal your data and everything about you. Target is the way to go cus they have Apple Pay
 
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