Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.

Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.

Apple Pay Walmart Feature
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient payment technologies available in the Walmart app, including Walmart Pay and Mobile Scan & Go.

Walmart Pay allows customers to scan a QR code displayed at checkout to pay for their purchase with a payment card stored in the Walmart app. Scan & Go allows Walmart+ members to save time by scanning barcodes on items while they shop, rather than having to scan all of the items at a self-checkout register later.

The spokesperson said the following statement still stands:

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. 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, providing a truly touchless shopping experience.

Apple Pay launched more than 10 years ago, and it was accepted at more than 90 percent of U.S. retailers as of 2022, according to Apple. Some other major Apple Pay holdouts in the U.S. have reversed course and started accepting it over the past few years, including The Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, and Texas grocery store chain H-E-B, leaving Walmart as one of the country's only major retailers not to accept Apple Pay.

Walmart has accepted Apple Pay in Canada since 2020.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Walmart

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Top Rated Comments

sziehr Avatar
13 weeks ago
The entire plan for them is to get you to ACH / DEBIT card to them so that they can pay 0 fees. They want you the customer to take on all fraud risks and thus have no fee to the vendor.
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Stromos Avatar
13 weeks ago
Walmart: Give us access to your bank account and then you can fail to load the barcode in the Walmart app because the building is a farady cage. That's so much easier than tap to pay!
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
13 weeks ago

They don't want to pay credit card fees if they can help it. Their entire statement avoids that simple fact.
Walmart also cannot track customer purchases as easily as they can with Walmart Pay.

Walmart is large enough of a company that they can easily push back against customer requests to be able to use Apple Pay.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
flyingember Avatar
13 weeks ago
They don't want to pay credit card fees if they can help it. Their entire statement avoids that simple fact.

Their Scan & Go tech worked to pay by card at Sam's Club last time I used it. If they turned that off they did so on purpose. They could easily integrate it with Apple Pay but choose not to.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Capeto Avatar
13 weeks ago

The reason is Walmart cannot track customer purchases like they can with Walmart Pay.

Walmart is large enough of a company that they can easily push back against customer requests to be able to use Apple Pay.
Ding ding ding! It’s all about being able to collect data on you and your purchases.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GMShadow Avatar
13 weeks ago
Remember when they were part of that hilariously bad CurrentC scheme and tried to get a bunch of other retailers in on it?
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)