Target Says it Has No Plans Underway to Accept Apple Pay in Stores

Target currently has "no plans" to support Apple Pay in its stores, a company spokesperson confirmed to MacRumors today.

Regarding a since-deleted AskTarget tweet that said Apple Pay was "awesome" and suggested support was forthcoming, the U.S. retail giant said "the information shared with this guest was incorrect."

We have no plans or work underway currently to make Apple Pay available in our stores.

We continue to offer Apple Pay for online purchases in the Target app. And while we are exploring mobile wallet opportunities for our stores, we have no updates on our plans to share at this time.

Target has been one of the most notable Apple Pay holdouts since the iPhone-based payments service launched in October 2014.

In May 2015, Target CEO Brian Cornell said the retailer would be "open-minded" about supporting additional payment systems like Apple Pay after implementing chip-and-PIN card support. Target began supporting chip-and-PIN cards in October 2015, but it has yet to accept Apple Pay in its stores.

Last month, Target confirmed it plans to launch its own mobile payment service in its stores this year. An earlier report said the retailer was leaning towards using QR code technology for the wallet app, rather than NFC, enabling customers to purchase goods by scanning a code at checkout akin to Walmart Pay.

Target was a founding member of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium of retailers that planned to launch the indefinitely-postponed payments platform CurrentC. A number of MCX members have since reversed course and began to accept Apple Pay, including Best Buy and pharmacy chain Rite-Aid.

Target does support Apple Pay in its shopping app for in-app payments.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Tag: Target

Top Rated Comments

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ck2875

38 months ago

"We'll catch up with the 21st century soon!"

— AskTarget (@AskTarget) February 12, 2017 ('https://twitter.com/AskTarget/status/830864855334866944')

the U.S. retail giant said "the information shared with this guest was incorrect."

Seems about right.

Rating: 14 Votes

EricNau

38 months ago

This is about the dumbest thing ive read all morning? please to explain why you would change all your life shopping to a store that used Apple pay? Unless your getting a kickback or something, all your doing is giving apple even more money and driving up costs of products for the rest of us.
FYI, just use cash. It works EVERYWHERE!

Apple Pay is more secure than the chip-and-sign technology currently supported by Target. For a retailer with their security record, I would have thought they would value security a little more.

Now, using cash is just about the silliest thing I've heard all morning. Why would I voluntarily forgo the free built-in purchase protections provided by my card? Free extended warranty, return protection, theft insurance, price matching, etc. Plus, free cashback. Not to mention, cash is just about the least secure payment method available. If you lose it, it's gone forever; if it's stolen, it's gone forever; if you pay cash and the merchant swindles you... it's gone forever.

Rating: 10 Votes

Mlrollin91

38 months ago

You would think they would have been first on board back in 2014 after their hacking. It makes no sense. Use the more secure payment method available. Chips are just a pain because they are so slow.

Rating: 10 Votes

ugahairydawgs

38 months ago

Too bad, I would likely start shopping at Target again if they weren't so hostile toward Apple Pay.

You pick your stores based on how receptive they are to Apple Pay?

Everyone wants a piece of the pie. Apple didn't create Apple Pay for any sort of reason other than profit and the stores aren't trying to stonewall for any reason other than they don't want to hand this market to Apple.

That said, I wouldn't use Apple Pay in Target anyway unless they added support for the Debit RedCard.

Rating: 5 Votes

Böhme417

38 months ago

Credit and debit Cards with chips are not slow. In Canada, I've been tapping to pay for over 5 years.

They are in the US. It's a crapshoot wherever you go. Target is very slow at processing chip cards. Asian restaurant down the street from me... very fast (and they also take apple pay).

Rating: 4 Votes

Derekuda

38 months ago

This is a bummer I was planning on switching all my shopping needs to Target when I first heard they were going to accept Apple Pay. I just thought my local store hadn't switched yet, I didn't realize they were only going to use it in the app. Guess I'll stay shopping at Walmart and Walgreens

Rating: 4 Votes

ghostface147

38 months ago

Walmart doesn't offer Apple Pay either.

Rating: 4 Votes

Kaibelf

38 months ago

That's a shame. I honestly have been using them less and less because I just don't trust their infrastructure anymore, and I don't want to be hounded (sometimes rudely) to save 5% on their dumb card.

Rating: 3 Votes

EricNau

38 months ago

It's cute that you have bought into all those "security" lies, but keep on believing them. All it takes is a single hack to drain your entire debit account or ruin your identity or credit score. Im sure Mastercard, Visa, Discover and AMEX love that your putting free money into their pockets as well as driving up prices for merchandise as retailers "pass on the fees to you".
Any person who has ever taken a Dave Ramsey class can give you infinite reasons why cash is always best.

This simply is not true. One "hack" can be a hassle (as Target demonstrated for us), but it cannot ruin your credit score. And if you're using a credit card, it can't empty your bank account, either. On the other hand, if cash is lost/stolen, that's not reversible.

Dave Ramsey isn't in the business of providing advice that's useful to this discussion. His entire rational is based on the assumption that people spend more responsibility when they pay with cash; it's an over generalization and leads to bad advice (like when he says to use debit cards over credit). When it comes to credit cards that man needs a tin foil hat.

Rating: 3 Votes