The year is 2026 and Walmart still doesn’t accept Apple Pay at any of its stores in the United States. This makes it one of the last remaining major retailers to not support Apple’s contactless payment platform. It’s a limitation that’s once again going viral on social media.
Here are a few reasons why Walmart doesn’t support Apple Pay …
No, Walmart doesn’t accept Apple Pay
There’s one important thing to note: Walmart doesn’t accept any form of NFC payment in the United States. It’s not just a limitation on Apple Pay. The retailer doesn’t take Google Pay, Samsung Pay, or even let you tap your contactless physical card to pay. This story also focuses on the United States. Most Walmart locations in Canada, for example, do accept Apple Pay.
Walmart Pay
First, Walmart has its own contactless payment platform called Walmart Pay, which it launched in 2016. Walmart Pay, however, isn’t an NFC-based tap-to-pay platform like Apple Pay. Instead, it’s based on a QR code infrastructure.
To use Walmart Pay, you have to add a debit or credit card to the Walmart app on your iPhone, then scan a QR code at checkout to pay with your iPhone. It’s not nearly as convenient as Apple Pay.
Scan and Go
Walmart also has its Scan and Go platform for Walmart+ subscribers. This allows people to use the Walmart or Sam’s Club app to scan items as they shop, then go to self-checkout to finalize their purchase without having scan all their items at once. Apple Pay also isn’t supported when using Scan and Go.
Data collection
... continue reading