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

monstermash said:
SO, things may change in the future. That's an astonishing insight.
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I think things are changing now. Recently I went on a domestic trip to a conference that I had previously gone to last year. The food purchase area at the conference venue had a PIN pad attached to their standalone terminal which definitely supported contactless. Last year, that PIN pad was on the cashier's side of the counter and the cashier inserted for customers. (You probably could have used Apple Pay there last year but I'm not sure how much of a pain it would have been to convince the cashier to let you try.)

This year? The PIN pad was on the customer's side and they specifically had people wait until they could enter the amount on their end (which is necessary to enable contactless for some reason), assuming that people would tap their cards instead of inserting. Most people tapped their physical cards, of course, but the fact that it was made easy to do meant that Apple Pay was just as easy to use.

In any case, it'll be interesting to see what the stats are next year when Visa releases them.
 
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monstermash said:
SO, things may change in the future. That's an astonishing insight.

But here's the thing....even if 100% of people want NFC 100% of the time - their cards STILL work by inserting them. It's not as if Walmart is going to find itself unable to accept peoples' cards.

The vast majority of Walmart's customers will still shop there, unless some other retailer can provide what Walmart DOES provide, which is stores all over the place, with rock bottom prices.
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The networks will eventually require it, as in “either you enable tap or we won’t let you take cards at all”. They already did it in Canada and Walmart had to budge.
 
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lartola said:
The networks will eventually require it, as in “either you enable tap or we won’t let you take cards at all”. They already did it in Canada and Walmart had to budge.
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Sure. But that's not Walmart's decision - at that point, it's a requirement to do business. Totally different situation.
 
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lartola said:
The networks will eventually require it, as in “either you enable tap or we won’t let you take cards at all”. They already did it in Canada and Walmart had to budge.
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The best time to require it would have been back in 2015 along with the general liability shift (as in, "you need to support EMV and contactless or else you're still liable for fraudulent transactions"). Alternatively, they could have added a mandate along with the removal of magstripe scheduled for later this decade.

The fact that neither of those have been done makes me think a mandate from the networks isn't coming, or at least isn't coming in a timeframe that would matter much for overall adoption.
 
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monstermash said:
If I had to enter a pin every time I wanted to use my credit card, I'd get a new card.

It's bad enough that I get asked "credit or debit" after swiping or inserting my card. I mean, it's NOT a debit card. Can't you tell? I mean....dumb.
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Who was talking about PIN? I just said they need to stop taking the cards away at US restaurants. That doesn’t mean requiring a PIN. Mexico was chip+signature like the US until 2018 and they had wireless card readers at every restaurant that accepted cards since at least a decade before anyway.
 
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monstermash said:
The one article I cited earlier predicts fairly modest growth in NFC transactions. Maybe they're wrong...but I'm willing to go with it.
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It's possible for Apple Pay et al to not grow that much while contactless transactions with physical cards grows far more quickly. In fact, that's the likely scenario for the US as of now, and I wouldn't be surprised if the difference between mobile wallet and physical card contactless usage is a lot bigger here vs. other countries, too. After all, there's a lot less acceptance of customers running their own cards here, so it would follow that it would be a lot easier for physical cards to be tapped (even if an employee has to do it).
 
tmiw said:
The best time to require it would have been back in 2015 along with the general liability shift (as in, "you need to support EMV and contactless or else you're still liable for fraudulent transactions"). Alternatively, they could have added a mandate along with the removal of magstripe scheduled for later this decade.

The fact that neither of those have been done makes me think a mandate from the networks isn't coming, or at least isn't coming in a timeframe that would matter much for overall adoption.
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I was saying the networks will mandate contactless, not the wireless card readers. That being said, I agree that 2015 was a good time for them to get the wireless card readers at the same time as upgrading to chip, and that’s how restaurants in the rest of the world did it, but US restaurant owners were idiotic and didn’t realize that.
 
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coopguy, I think you need to see my linked YouTube video from Apple Explained on why Walmart won't take Apple Pay. It's more than just what you described: Walmart does not want to lose track of how customers spend their money at Walmart, something that Apple Pay prevents Walmart from doing.
 
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tmiw said:
It's possible for Apple Pay et al to not grow that much while contactless transactions with physical cards grows far more quickly. In fact, that's the likely scenario for the US as of now, and I wouldn't be surprised if the difference between mobile wallet and physical card contactless usage is a lot bigger here vs. other countries, too. After all, there's a lot less acceptance of customers running their own cards here, so it would follow that it would be a lot easier for physical cards to be tapped (even if an employee has to do it).
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The same happened in Europe. When Apple Pay started there, most people failed to see its benefits. They saw no advantage in tapping a phone or watch vs tapping a card. Most people had no idea about the added security of mobile wallets vs contactless cards. Also, contactless card limits being applied to apple pay too -at the beginning-didn’t help matters.
 
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monstermash said:
You can tap it.

But like tapping your foot, it just won't result in a transaction.

But it's OK, because you can INSERT your card and it works just fine. It's like magic!! In just a second or so, your transaction is approved!!

It's amazing to me that some people feel there is such a big difference between tapping a card and inserting it...but it is comforting to know that, in the U.S., it's just a small minority of people.
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When you use the Apple Watch app, the number that you use is rotated. If it gets skimmed, you don't need a new card. If you put the card in the reader and it gets skimmed, you need a new card. (Quite often when using Apple Pay, you don't even know your virtual card was skimmed. If it is, the card is rotated out, before the skimmers get a chance to use it.
 
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RalfTheDog said:
When you use the Apple Watch app, the number that you use is rotated. If it gets skimmed, you don't need a new card. If you put the card in the reader and it gets skimmed, you need a new card. (Quite often when using Apple Pay, you don't even know your virtual card was skimmed. If it is, the card is rotated out, before the skimmers get a chance to use it.
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Well, so what? Get a new card.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be in such fear of credit card skimmers. I mean......damn.
 
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RalfTheDog said:
When you use the Apple Watch app, the number that you use is rotated. If it gets skimmed, you don't need a new card. If you put the card in the reader and it gets skimmed, you need a new card. (Quite often when using Apple Pay, you don't even know your virtual card was skimmed. If it is, the card is rotated out, before the skimmers get a chance to use it.
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Actually no. What rotates is the security codes associated to it, not the number. The number aka device account number, is always the same. I know that because I see the same 4 digits on the receipt everytime I pay with my apple watch. They haven’t changed at all in the 4 years I’ve had my current apple watch.

That being said, apple pay still offers added security vs tapping a card, but people don’t easily realize that because they don’t physically see it.
 
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lartola said:
I was saying the networks will mandate contactless, not the wireless card readers. That being said, I agree that 2015 was a good time for them to get the wireless card readers at the same time as upgrading to chip, and that’s how restaurants in the rest of the world did it, but US restaurant owners were idiotic and didn’t realize that.
Click to expand...

Or they very well could have made the right call in not having wireless terminals. Note how much people seem to hate QR codes at tables for stuff like menus, for example. Or how early on in the EMV transition, a few restaurants did try wireless terminals, only to have to back away from that pretty quickly.

lartola said:
The same happened in Europe. When Apple Pay started there, most people failed to see its benefits. They saw no advantage in tapping a phone or watch vs tapping a card. Most people had no idea about the added security of mobile wallets vs contactless cards. Also, contactless card limits being applied to apple pay too -at the beginning-didn’t help matters.
Click to expand...

It's possible Apple Pay will grow more quickly there now that PIN is getting forced for tapping physical cards more often. Meanwhile, there's much less impetus for that to happen here given that tapping in general has no dollar limits and only requires a signature if anything at all.
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
I’d imagine when the supermarket is busy and you’re waiting for several people in from to pack their shopping and pay, that process of digging a card out, putting it in the machine and typing the pin must be tedious. So 2006 too. I’d probably just go to another store.

Do you have ‘scan as you shop’ in your supermarkets for faster shopping? That’s my preference and then upload the total at the end and pay at a designated checkout that’s unmanned.
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Tedious? Hardly…
 
monstermash said:
Well, so what? Get a new card.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be in such fear of credit card skimmers. I mean......damn.
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You must not spend much time out of country. It's not always easy or fast to get replacement cards when on the other side of the world. On top of that, when you get skimmed, you are forced to redo all your automatic payments and subscriptions. That can take a great deal of time. Nothing is more valuable or important than your time.
 
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LD517 said:
Tedious? Hardly…
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I would call that tedious. It's like the change to the subway systems. Before, you needed to pull out your metro card, swipe it as you walk through the gate, then quickly stuff it back into a shirt pocket, hopping it won't fall out. Now, just double press the button on your watch while you walk, then run it over the scanner as you hit the gate. You don't even need to slow down your stride as you hit it. While you are going through the gate, you can already be deciding if the local or express train will be faster based on the time of arrivals.
 
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lartola said:
Actually no. What rotates is the security codes associated to it, not the number. The number aka device account number, is always the same. I know that because I see the same 4 digits on the receipt everytime I pay with my apple watch. They haven’t changed at all in the 4 years I’ve had my current apple watch.

That being said, apple pay still offers added security vs tapping a card, but people don’t easily realize that because they don’t physically see it.
Click to expand...
At a minimum, just click on the button on your phone and get a new number.
 
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RalfTheDog said:
I would call that tedious. It's like the change to the subway systems. Before, you needed to pull out your metro card, swipe it as you walk through the gate, then quickly stuff it back into a shirt pocket, hopping it won't fall out. Now, just double press the button on your watch while you walk, then run it over the scanner as you hit the gate. You don't even need to slow down your stride as you hit it. While you are going through the gate, you can already be deciding if the local or express train will be faster based on the time of arrivals.
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Sorry but you’re just flat out lazy if putting your card in for 30 seconds is tedious and we don’t need a book on why YOU think it’s tedious 🙄
 
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