Wow it’s about time Walmart did this…
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I was just there a couple of days ago and had to pull out the credit card. So annoying. Glad they are finally getting this!
I was there the other day trying to use Apple Pay, I totally forgot they didn’t support it. The cashier had to tell me no Apple Pay.
Nice. Once Home Depot gave up on that alternate consortium, I was hoping this was coming.
I always thought Apple Pay is just like a credit card? So long as the machine/gadget can accept credit card “wave” i.e. NFC, it will work. I use Apple Pay every where in Malaysia. It boggles my mind that Walmart does not support it. Does it mean you can’t wave a physical credit card on their machine too? You have to swipe???
Yep, I did the last time I visited a store. I normally order groceries and other items from Walmart online, and either have them delivered or use curbside pickup. I hate shopping.
Interesting! I’d not have expected one of the biggest retailers in the world to be using old tech - but on the other hand, I get it now - it cost a lot of money to replace it for every check out at every store.
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And Walmart is notoriously cheap. They pinch the pennies every chance they get.
It’s because they were trying to kill Apple and Android/Google tap to pay to keep them out of the transaction.
First they were the ringleader of an alternative payments consortium. It fell apart. Merchant Customer Exchange - Wikipedia
When that failed, they spent a bunch of money on Walmart Pay hardware and software. You’d scan a QR code to pay and maybe just via proximity more recently. It wasn’t the worst idea, but Apple and Google were never going to let it activate via NFC so it felt less convenient.
It might still be considered a success internally if it gave them leverage to negotiate the processing fees for this new rollout, heh.
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I suspect the motivation is more that they were hoping Walmart Pay could compete with Apple Pay. Or at least that they would not have to share fees with Apple Pay for Walmart customers.
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In 2012 Walmart launched “Pay with Cash” that allowed their “underbanked” customers to order online then pay for their purchase at a local store.
According to some sources WalMart may still have more cash customers than the average US retailer. Perhaps that has allowed them to wait until now to accept ApplePay, etc?
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Some people avoid credit card because they had a habit of overspending. And these days with Buy Now Pay Later, it made things worse for these people. I personally know 3 of my friends who rather use cash than credit card. Here, with a payment gateway called DuitNow (translated to Cash Now), customer can scan a QR code or have the cashier use their scanner gun and scan our QR code in the phone to have cash transferred to the register. That made everyone happy!
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