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

PinkyMacGodess said:
And Krogers hates Apple Pay too. I can't remember how many people I have stunned when I use Apple Pay at a Meijers or other stores that support it. Some have freaked out, (almost) seriously.
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Ew. Kroger is buying Albertson's, parent of long-time Chicago grocery chain Jewel. I hope they don't pull the Apple Pay capability out of Jewel stores, just as I'm getting back to buying groceries in person.

Guess I can shop the fresh store nearby that's part of a small local chain. In fact, after the other big Chicago chain, Dominick's, got killed by Safeway, some stores became Mariano's (Kroger, again), but many got picked up by independent or small-chain fresh-market themed stores. Those are good too.

I mourn my formerly-excellent-before-Amazon Whole Foods, where I used to be able to get freshly butchered bison meat.

And on the Walmart front, I avoid them as I can, for what they have done to small-town America. When I'm traveling, I'll go out of my way to find an alternate chain (Piggly-Wiggly has a lot of stores in the rural upper Midwest, or Kwik Trip) or local, independent grocers (Grocerylan in Xenia, OH for instance. Why Grocerylan? Well, the current owners bought the Groceryland store, but not the name, and it was more economical to just remove the backlit letter 'd' off the store than to buy a whole new sign). All the stores I mentioned take contactless payments.
 
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lartola said:
But ymmv depending on where in the US you are. In Texas, for example, hardly any sit down restaurants have wireless POS so really the only ones taking apple pay are the ones with tablet-style devices on the tables (Chilis, Olive Garden) or the ones that offer an app (cheesecake factory, some restaurants on Open Table), which are just a very small minority of the restaurants in the region.
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When I was in Grapevine for a conference (pre-pandemic),  Pay was taken at some places but not all. Across the country, hotels and lodgings are still a big hold out on  Pay. I think Marriott and Double Tree take it now but I could be wrong.

In SoCal (LA/OC/San Diego), touch-less pay (incl.  Pay) is almost everywhere now. In NorCal, especially the Bay Area,  Pay is everywhere, too.

The only oddity I've yet seen was at the Sunnyvale Costco in September of this year, they don't take NFC at the gas terminals; it's literally 10-12min from  Park and doesn't take NFC payments or even Costco Pay (Costco's own gas NFC fob). --that one really threw me.
 
It is my udnerstanding that the new self checkout terminlas have the hardware for contactless payment but the feture is turned off and its just a matter of turing the feture on and pushing a firmware update.

I asked a NCR tech that was working on the on of the new terminals at my store and thats what he told me.

I guess when you are Walmart and have over 10,000 stores world wide a manufacture will setup a terminal how ever you request.

Whenever I get a complaint from a customer I tell them to call corpoarate and complain.
 
Reckless1 said:
In Los Angeles, I tend to avoid places that don't take  Pay, and on a more granular level, MasterCard (Apple Card). If I have to pull out my Ti Apple Card or another credit card (i.e., Visa), it's usually the last time I visit (sans Costco).

Plus, fewer and fewer ppl have used cash since the pandemic started so it was a natural fit. The only exceptions for me now are Costco ( Pay + Visa) and maybe a restaurant or two that I like (w outdoor seating). I always ask before I sit down, "Does this restaurant take  Pay?" and 90% or so of the time, they say "Yes" or "Yes, of course."

Most restaurants that take  Pay will often have you walk with them to the POS terminal to handle the transaction, takes no time a tall; others will bring you a small smartphone-with-a-receipt-printer-bolted-on portable POS terminal and you can handle it at the table. Those "Ziosk" terminals almost never take  Pay but only card + chip; I've only seen one that took  Pay. Nearly all of the food food trucks take  Pay but nearly all of the fruit carts are going Zelle or Venmo (cash is still king, though). Hell, even the little panadería down the street from me not only takes  Pay but has done so for years. Car washes now take  Pay (even the coin-ops) which is kind of nice. Even Target and Kohls take  Pay!

Walmart + Sam's Club aside, places that do not take  Pay are few(er) and far between. The last one I was at was Lowe's and they explicitly stated (w signage) "no tap or Apple Pay." I asked why, the rep said it's because they haven't updated their terminals yet. --That was only a few weeks ago.
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If I had to live in California, I would probably just kill myself and get it over with.
 
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bruinsrme said:
Not offended at all. I find it interesting that it’s such a big deal.
Having friends with businesses they are constantly complaining about bank fees for credit card use. On the same token the equipment the mention of the black box cost.
The only place I use contactless is at Costco.
The only reason why is because the card is out of my wallet to scan the membership code then a tap and back in.
Otherwise “the norm” is to slide in chip up.
Maybe it’s more generational than anything else.
It’s interesting to see the passion for it though and the call for a boycott of store a not offering tap.
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I think Europeans have had it so long alongside chip and pin, it’s just a natural part of shopping here now. I remember visiting the states a few years back and being surprised I was being asked to sign a receipt when buying something so the assistant could check my signature. We hadn’t done that since about 2006. Different countries and different rules and processes though I suppose.
 
Lowes and Home Depot don't take AP. Since I need to shop there I just suck it up and use my physical card with chip. And they know it. And since it's more often now self checkout. It's not like you're able to give complaint feedback to a human to relay that back to management/corp.
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
I think Europeans have had it so long alongside chip and pin, it’s just a natural part of shopping here now. I remember visiting the states a few years back and being surprised I was being asked to sign a receipt when buying something so the assistant could check my signature. We hadn’t done that since about 2006. Different countries and different rules and processes though I suppose.
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America does not have "rules" on the matter. Merchants and card issuers do.
 
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MacDaddyPanda said:
Lowes and Home Depot don't take AP. Since I need to shop there I just suck it up and use my physical card with chip. And they know it. And since it's more often now self checkout. It's not like you're able to give complaint feedback to a human to relay that back to management/corp.
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Like the employee at Lowe's or Home Depot gives a crap about anyone's feelings about Apple Pay. I mean, come on man. You're lucky if they will be willing to help you find the item you're looking for.

Even the manager will treat you as if they are deeply concerned about your feedback (maybe) and then call you an ******* in their mind as you walk away feeling satisfied with yourself.
 
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FloatingBones said:
Nonsense. Of course it has an impact. I have friends who will only shop @retail that supports Apple Pay, and the demographics of those people are extremely attractive to retail businesses. Walmart has precise estimates how much this impacts their bottom line.

If the pain gets big enough, they will embrace Apple Pay at the drop of a hat.
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I think Walmart is fine without your “friends “ 🙄
 
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Reckless1 said:
When I was in Grapevine for a conference (pre-pandemic),  Pay was taken at some places but not all. Across the country, hotels and lodgings are still a big hold out on  Pay. I think Marriott and Double Tree take it now but I could be wrong.

In SoCal (LA/OC/San Diego), touch-less pay (incl.  Pay) is almost everywhere now. In NorCal, especially the Bay Area,  Pay is everywhere, too.

The only oddity I've yet seen was at the Sunnyvale Costco in September of this year, they don't take NFC at the gas terminals; it's literally 10-12min from  Park and doesn't take NFC payments or even Costco Pay (Costco's own gas NFC fob). --that one really threw me.
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Not surprising. California has always been ahead of the game in contactless payments. The southern Gulf coast states from TX to Alabama seem to be the ones lagging the most.
 
BC2009 said:
I have always and will continue to refuse to use the incredibly INCONVENIENT Walmart Pay via a QR code in their app.

It is easier just to pull out my credit card and stick it in the reader than it is to unlock my iPhone, open an app, find the screen with the QR code and then let somebody try to scan the QR code on my phone — sometimes failing to do so and then they reach for my iPhone to take it from me so they can adjust the angle for the scanner. No thank you.

Compare that experience with double tapping the pill-shaped button on my Apple Watch and holding it over the reader. An action that draws delight to this day from people who are ringing me up at checkout. No FaceID or TouchID required just a double tap and a wave from my Apple Watch that has not left my wrist since I authenticated myself.

Today: bought honey from a local vendor via square. Dude was surprised when i just used my watch to pay and thought it was cool.

3 weeks ago: paying for parking, attendant said she did not think the watch would work. I said her reader had the correct NFC payment logo. Gave it a try and she was surprised at how easy it was and thought it was so cool.

A few months ago: somebody checked me out who was wearing an Apple Watch stopped me to ask me to show her how to get her Apple Watch to do that.

Such a great feature at the beach too since you can leave your iPhone behind and Apple Pay still works on Apple Watch with or without cellular.
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Cool story bro
 
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buddhistMonkey said:
I no longer shop at Walmart specifically because they don’t accept Apple Pay. I used to do the bulk of my grocery shopping there, and picked up a lot of non-grocery items when I made the trip, but I’ve since switched to Target and Trader Joe’s. I’ve only gone to Walmart once in the last couple of years, and it was recently, and I was irked to find that they were still holding out against Apple Pay. “Walmart Pay?” LOL, no, never.
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Ok 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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I'm a long time Mac user who doesn't use any Apple 'services' much less an Apple card.

Should I be ..mad? I also dont shop at Walmart.. that website sucks.
 
lartola said:
It’s the norm outside the US to have the waiter/waitress bring a wireless card reader to the table, but in the US that still doesn’t happen at any restaurants. None have the staff using wireless card readers at the tables. A few of them such as Chilis or Olive Garden have tablet-like devices on every table, and a few others such as Cheesecake Factory have an app, but the overwhelming majority offer neither of those two options and the staff must still take the patrons’ cards away from the table to process the card payments. It will take years for all those restaurants to bring payment to the tables.
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The devices are wireless…
 
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