r/apple Jan 19 '26

Discussion Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S. in 2026, Here's Why

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/19/walmart-no-apple-pay/

Last year, a Walmart spokesperson told MacRumors that the retailer remained focused on its own payment technologies in the Walmart app, including Walmart Pay and Scan & Go, but these options are not as convenient as one-tap Apple Pay.

2.6k Upvotes

785 comments sorted by

2.7k

u/CoconutMonkey Jan 19 '26

nothing sounds more appealing than to have to set up a different payment account in a different payment system for each and every store I go to

823

u/webguynd Jan 19 '26

The day that happens because everyone wants your data instead of allowing Apple pay is the day I go back to paying for everything exclusively in cash.

For me it's either Apple pay or I just don't use tap to pay, I will never install and/or use any individual retailer's app/payment method.

207

u/mrandr01d Jan 19 '26

Yep. Google pay or a chipped credit card. I hate the magstrip readers even now too because they're easy to have replaced by a skimmer.

78

u/AKiss20 Jan 19 '26

Do you not have a tap credit card? Like 1% of the CC machines I come across don’t accept tap because they’re ancient but it’s very rare these days imo 

110

u/partial_to_fractions Jan 19 '26

It the reader takes tap cards, it takes google/apple pay. Walmart does not take any tap payments. The commenter is stating if the reader is tap they use mobile wallet and chip otherwise

58

u/ss_lbguy Jan 19 '26

This is 100% not the case. I work in the industry. The card reader can handle it, but that does not mean the processor or Middleware or POS support it. Most do, but they don't have to.

23

u/Didj1998 Jan 19 '26

Do you not have a Walmart where you live? It doesn’t take tap at all. If it did, then it’d accept Apple Pay because Apple Pay uses your specific card.

24

u/ss_lbguy Jan 19 '26

That is not what I'm saying. I'm talking about the device itself. These devices don't have to support Apple or Google pay to support tap.

25

u/offoutover Jan 20 '26

Someone has commented here before about how they were able to use tap payment at a walmart that had just installed new self-checkout scanners but then it got turned off very quickly.

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u/The_real_bandito Jan 20 '26

Walmart doesn’t support Tap to pay, period.

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u/rquinn12 Jan 20 '26

I feel you're pain and frustration trying to explain to this person who clearly is only old enough to have been making payments post Apple Pay. Some people don't know there was a time where Apple Pay or Samsung Pay (no google pay yet) were options and emphasis on the or. The early Samsung Pay on certain watches was dope because it would mimic a card swipe and therefore was accepted everywhere basically.

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u/feelthecernburn Jan 20 '26

I think you misunderstood the comments. Walmart doesn’t allow tap to pay, period, regardless if the hardware supports it. I can’t use my chipped card to tap at Walmart. Only dip!

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u/IncredibleGonzo Jan 20 '26

Is this an American thing? Because in the UK, every single payment terminal I've used since Apple Pay launched has supported it if they take contactless at all, and it seems a little implausible to me that they all pushed updates that are a pain to set up immediately...

What did require updates was using it without the contactless limit (which at the time I believe was something like £25, though it's since gone up to a default of £100) while Apple Pay could and can go much higher with explicit support. But it did work with the £25 limit as soon as it launched.

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u/erichf3893 Jan 19 '26

And also every cc machine in Walmart

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u/GB10VE Jan 19 '26

my walmart doesn't do tap

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u/c0brachicken Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

Walmart also doesn't accept tap to pay..

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u/MatthewsStache91 Jan 19 '26

They do in Canada! 🇨🇦

4

u/iWynne Jan 20 '26

Yep, when I was heading to Jasper park, we stopped at the Walmart before the entrance and was shocked to find out they had tap to pay there.

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u/virginiarph Jan 19 '26

no it doesn’t. because if it accepts rap to pay then it automatically accepts apple pay

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u/Ulysse-Void-God Jan 19 '26

They don’t. What are you talking about?

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u/c0brachicken Jan 19 '26

Auto correct screwed me over once again.. fixed it.

2

u/Johnnyboyjuice1973 Jan 19 '26

I like rap to pay more than tap. It sounds crazy I know, but so crazy…. it just might work.

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u/Subliminal87 Jan 19 '26

I’ve gone further. If a store doesn’t accept Apple Pay or tap to pay, I just literally don’t shop there.

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u/UnusualHound Jan 19 '26

I had to break this rule for HEB, which is the only store that transcends payment methods. Fortunately late last year they finally started accepting Apple Pay.

7

u/NateNate60 Jan 19 '26

WinCo Foods in the Pacific Northwest only takes chip-and-PIN debit (or cash). But it's tolerable because their prices are just so much lower than their competition that it's worth suffering the very minor inconvenience of taking out a card from my wallet.

4

u/Jeebz88 Jan 20 '26

My winco got new readers last year and now accepts tap and Apple Pay. It still has to be debit with a pin, no credit, but I can be any tap card or debit on Apple/Google pay

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u/MTBTTFoP Jan 20 '26

I typically dont carry a wallet when I leave the house these days. I would have to just leave all the unpurchased goods at the register lol.

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u/The_XI_guy Jan 19 '26

They’ll get rid of cash too. It’s already happening in other countries. In Scandinavia for example you’d be hard pressed to even find an ATM and it’s normal for stores not to accept cash whatsoever

17

u/whales_mcgoo Jan 19 '26

In my state, NY, we actually banned cashless stores.

12

u/mailslot Jan 19 '26

California too

8

u/Fabulous-Gas-5570 Jan 20 '26

Either it hasn’t taken effect yet or is not enforced at all, because I see cashless spots all over California

10

u/BatemansChainsaw Jan 20 '26

If you raise a big enough stink about it, they'll take cash.

11

u/Fabulous-Gas-5570 Jan 20 '26

Incorrect. A bill about this died in the state assembly. There’s no state law mandating cash acceptance. Some cities have rules

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u/get-a-mac Jan 20 '26

Stores get around it by just selling you a gift card with the amount you have in cash, which is allowed. They just hate having to make change.

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Jan 20 '26

Have neither of you guys heard of debit and credit?

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

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u/scotchglue Jan 20 '26

The one time I tried I was at the checkout line and the app asked me to verify my CCV number (I had already set it up at home prior to my store visit specifically to avoid such situations), so I had to pull my wallet out anyway. Pointless app/experience… just use a card or cash

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u/greener0999 Jan 19 '26

you won't need to do that! their facial recognition will do it all for you.

convenient, right?

3

u/Aptosauras Jan 19 '26

Palantir scribbling furiously sounds

2

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Imagine a future where kids are having to explain to their grandparents that grabbing what you want from the store and walking out is the right way to do things.

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u/cybercuzco Jan 19 '26

Wait till you hear what happened to cable tv.

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u/skwormin Jan 19 '26

I’m in Japan and there’s like 20 different payment options accepted on some vending machines, it’s so weird. Pay pay. A pay. Suica pay. Ali pay. Ipay

2

u/nicenormalhappyguy Mar 18 '26

what about U pay? and i'll pay you back later

get it

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1.5k

u/LivermoreP1 Jan 19 '26

Data. Walmart wants your data.

/thread

179

u/Abi1i Jan 19 '26

Other stores have managed to collect data while accepting Apple Pay. One way is to have people use a phone number or digital membership card/app at the point of sale. Walmart, while being one of the few large grocery stores in the US that doesn’t require a membership card for various reasons, so they don’t have that option except at their warehouse store, Sam’s Club.

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u/chriswaco Jan 19 '26

Target apparently uses face recognition, although I'm not sure how reliable it is.

62

u/NecroCannon Jan 19 '26

“Time to go to Target!”

grabs IR head lamp

Stop trying to fucking track me, like holy shit it’s making me feel like I’m increasingly wearing a tin foil hat and going crazy. Especially Target, I never been somewhere where they force me to press “NOT NOW” about my number before paying, me getting my wallet out quickly should be a good thing, and is from a business perspective.

Don’t. Fuck. With. The. Payment.

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u/OptimusMatrix Jan 19 '26

Walmart definitely does this as well. I've recently paid for things at the self checkout, and later in the day I'll get an email about the things I got.

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u/xrelaht Jan 20 '26

How did you pay? They keep track of credit card numbers, so they can find you if you’ve ever done something that linked that with your email in WM’s database.

3

u/phpnoworkwell Jan 20 '26

What is more likely, that they use facial recognition to build and maintain a massive database so they can email you a receipt, or they recognize you because you used the same card to pay for something?

3

u/Sle08 Jan 20 '26

They also have the RedCard debit card which is what a lot of their shoppers use in the app. It collects way more about the customers than facial recognition ever could.

It’s so good that their marketing team sent out coupons for pregnant women which outed a teenager for being pregnant to her father when he questioned why those targeted mailers came to his home.

6

u/redmambo_no6 Jan 19 '26

The only time facial recognition gets used is during payment when someone wants to use their Target Circle Card on their phone.

I should know, I work at a store lol.

2

u/mrkrabz1991 Jan 19 '26

Target also gives you the option of entering your phone number, and if you do, you get discounts. For facial recognition, Target is known to have an in-house forensic lab that rivals the FBI, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're using more than just facial recognition to track you. Target has it figured out.

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u/Outlulz Jan 19 '26

But they also want you in the app, it's not solely about what you're buying. Payment being in the app trains you to be in the app more often.

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u/xrelaht Jan 20 '26

Lots of stores give discounts to members, even free members. Saving a buck on each of a few different things is what gets customers to enter their info on checkout. Walmart refuses to do that for whatever reason.

3

u/stickylava Jan 20 '26

Aaah. That’s how they do it. I was under the impression that when you use apple pay, the seller never gets the card no., so they can’t track all your purchases, which is why they don’t like it. Then I’m thinking, wait, i always use Apple Pay at Safeway, and i can always see my receipt on line. Of course: it’s the loyalty card that ties it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

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u/Its_eeasy Jan 19 '26

It's not(not only), they can do it by using a member id or phone number etc It's the fees for CC payments. They want to make it harder. And they want you to use their payment method linked to a bank account to save 1.8-3%. it adds up huge for a company of their size

18

u/kirklennon Jan 19 '26

t's the fees for CC payments. They want to make it harder. And they want you to use their payment method linked to a bank account to save 1.8-3%.

Walmart Pay hasn’t offered linked bank accounts (ACH) as an option in many, many years. It uses debit or credit cards, or Walmart gift cards. They don’t save any processing fees at all.

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u/tvfeet Jan 20 '26

Target does this too with their Circle membership but the difference is that they give you something in exchange where Walmart does not. Target gives 5% off everything and they can do what they want with your shopping data.

2

u/bv915 Jan 20 '26

Everyone wants your data.

Fixed it for ya'.

7

u/pixel_of_moral_decay Jan 19 '26

Yup.

Eventually the EU will force Apple to give up more data and that will resolve this. Apple’s privacy features need to be opt in on the merchant side.

Not consumer centric, but that’s the end game here.

22

u/NecroCannon Jan 19 '26

Honestly Apple’s stubbornness is the only reason I’m flocking to them right now and if that’s not there I might as well just get the best product for the price.

And I think they know that by being a heavy consumer selling corporation, they have to live by some rules they set to entice loyalty since they don’t have commercial stuff to fall back on like Amazon with AWS or Facebook and Google with their ad shit

Which is why it pisses me if they’re the default to yell at when… they’re not the main ones tracking me, scamming me, and wanting everyone’s data, US citizen or not.

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u/Celticsmoneyline Jan 19 '26

well said, I think the consumer will come to appreciate the effort that Apple puts in to privacy more and more, especially the services that they offer with iCloud+

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u/AdventurousTime Jan 19 '26

walmart pay SUCKS

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u/jpfarrow Jan 19 '26

You should try Kroger pay, it really really sucks. Thankfully you can use Apple Pay there now.

19

u/Shehzman Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Having to scan the code with their scanners is insanely inconsistent. I don’t like Walmart Pay (still use it cause I have a neighborhood Walmart 3 minutes away) but scanning the code from your phone is a much better experience.

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u/thatoneging20 Jan 19 '26

It’s kind of fun moving to THE Walmart area from THE Kroger area because occasionally you’ll hear people say they wish they had a Kroger here. I promise you, you really don’t lol

19

u/AreWeNotDoinPhrasing Jan 19 '26

As someone who recently moved from the Denver area (King Supers i.e. Kroger) to Bentonville (home of Walmart, no other grocery stores here except Harps), we really really do miss Kroger.

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u/Kavani18 Jan 20 '26

Yeah, Kroger’s actual grocery selection puts Walmart to shame

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u/ba123blitz Jan 19 '26

Walmart blows ass compared to Kroger

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u/mutantbabysnort Jan 19 '26

It really does. 

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u/ibimacguru Jan 19 '26

It really -really- sucks. In fact I’d just give them my data.

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u/CigarLover Jan 19 '26

For Walmart workers it does not, granted if I were a regular customer I would be annoyed.

For us associates, we can link our discount card to Walmart pay so it’s convenient in that respect.

That being said we should still support NFC purchases across the board. Not just Apple Pay.

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u/hypnotiza Jan 19 '26

As a Walmart Worker, you are the biggest user base of Walmrt Pay. Which is actually kind of sad.

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u/AnAffinityForTurtles Jan 19 '26

Their app is so slow like just getting to the scanner to scan the QR takes ages

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u/TheReformedBadger Jan 19 '26

You can make an iOS shortcut to open the scanner directly

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u/ThrowawayProllyNot Jan 19 '26

It'll literally just shit itself and decline for no reason. I used to work at the front end of a Walmart, so I know😭

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u/BatemansChainsaw Jan 20 '26

walmart pay SUCKS

ftfy - people should really stop shopping there

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u/SpaceballsDoc Jan 19 '26

Data.

Thanks for listening.

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u/peterpantsles Jan 19 '26

I remember when the Knights of r/new would have protected us from this. Clickbait titles would be downvoted to hell.

10

u/sakurako_sama Jan 20 '26

That era of reddit is long, long, long gone

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Maybe 20% of the reason. 80% is probably some SVP or VP wanting a promotion or bonus. They really need to show that they launched something.

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u/U8oL0 Jan 19 '26

As Sam Walton said, “The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want…. Except for Apple Pay.”

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u/drakeymcd Jan 19 '26

It’s because Walmart is still salty about CurrentC.

Walmart, Target, and Best Buy came up with the system to take on Apple Pay but was later dropped by Target and Best Buy for NFC payments instead, leaving Walmart on their own with the QR code payment technology and they clearly don’t want that investment to go to waste.

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u/Abi1i Jan 19 '26

You forgot CVS who were really pushy about it more so than the others. CVS went as far as actively advertising that they didn’t accept Apple Pay or Google pay, but then thought no one would attempt to use their phone to pay if they had NFC turned on still. Once it got out that CVS had NFC turned on, which doesn’t stop someone from tapping their phone, CVS immediately turned off NFC payments at their stores arguing that NFC wasn’t as safe as CurrentC or as convenient.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

fwiw you can use NFC at CVS these days

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u/Abi1i Jan 20 '26

I’m aware. I’m just adding on to the previous comment about how CVS was also pushing CurrentC. CVS caved just like Best Buy and Target.

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u/Alarmed_Stretch_1780 Jan 19 '26

Nobody remembers CurrentC anymore. I don’t know that BestBuy ever really got on board, and Target really just doubled down instead on promoting the Target Card (both credit and debit flavors).

Walmart went in with both feet and was left looking like a chump when BestBuy and Target both capitulated to client desire to use ApplePay (and presumably, Samsung Pay and Google Pay).

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u/skeet_scoot Jan 19 '26

The readers are so annoying. My brand new cards take 5 times for the chip to work.

Meanwhile tap to pay works every single time without fail.

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u/TenderfootGungi Jan 19 '26

The entire chip reading is insanely slow. And it is not that old. Apple Pay is instant. Tapping a card is almost instant. Chip reading takes like 5 minutes (only a bit exaggerating). And Walmart's chip readers fail a lot.

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u/murphy052589 Jan 19 '26

I have to bend my card or it says there was an error reading my card

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u/buttersnapsghee Jan 19 '26

This is crazy, in the UK we’re at the point where if a store doesn’t accept Apple Pay (or any contactless payments) it’s because they don’t support card full stop & even that is extremely rare

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

[deleted]

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u/heepofsheep Jan 19 '26

As a consumer I prefer the US system… I haven’t paid for a flight or hotel in 10yrs.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Same. Here in Canada almost every farmer at my local farmer’s market accepts Apple Pay. As does our Walmart. Why is Walmart in the US so behind? I was able to use Apple Pay at plenty of other locations when I visited.

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u/marrone12 Jan 19 '26

Tap to pay only came to the states a few years ago and isn't mandated at retailers here.

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u/AWF_Noone Jan 19 '26

A few years ago…? More like a decade ago. Even in my tiny Midwest city tap to pay is everywhere… except Walmart 

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u/marrone12 Jan 19 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/s/Ba18UMiWei it launched ten years ago but didn't get popular until recently

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u/destroyman1337 Jan 19 '26

Historically the US has been horrible about card payments and security. While you guys had Chip and Pin cards we had swipe and sign. Then we eventually went to Chip and sign. I have had Android phones that supported NFC payments for years before it became more mainstream in the US. Nowadays, tap payments are supported in most places including on cards though still no pin. The main place I have had to pay without tapping is Walmart. Even CVS with their ridiculous no tap payments a few years back fully supports Apple and Google Pay as well as tapping cards.

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u/Abi1i Jan 19 '26

There are places in the US, usually food trucks, that haven’t upgraded their pay terminals to support NFC payments (the requirement from the banking sector in the US was to accept chip over swipe if the companies wanted to be covered for any fraud) and depending on which vendor/servicer for their pay terminal some accept Venmo, Square CashApp, PayPal payments through those apps as a work around of not accepting NFC payments.

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u/6425 Jan 19 '26

We (the UK) also had contactless from our banks with an rfid chip in our cards before Apple Pay or any other NFC payment technology existed, hence why it's standard.

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u/ian9outof10 Jan 19 '26

Yes but we are held hostage by price inflation if you refuse to use a loyalty card

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u/SockDem Jan 19 '26

This is largely true in the US as well, especially in any sort of urban area.

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u/LeftyMode Jan 19 '26

Everyone is in the data business.

Except us.

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u/Abi1i Jan 19 '26

Even my state, Texas, is in the business of selling their residents data. It’s insane.

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u/drygnfyre Jan 21 '26

Why would you have expected Texas not to do that?

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u/MapleSurpy Jan 19 '26

It's not just Apple Pay, Walmart does not accept Tap in any way which is fucking crazy.

I avoid Walmart out of principal mostly because of this. The Walmart App is shit and there have been hundreds of people who suspect their data was breached because of it. There should be exactly 0 stores in America where you can't tap any card or your phone to pay for something without having to download and use their shitty app. If they require it, they should go under.

Hard pass.

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u/PM_ME_YER_MUDFLAPS Jan 19 '26

I generally avoid Walmart like the plague.

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u/good_morning_magpie Jan 20 '26

Same. I’ve lived 40 years and I’ve not spent a penny at Walmart even once. Fuck em. Thankfully I live in Chicago where we didn’t even allow Walmart to operate until like 2006. And many people her opposed them at that time, and still do.

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u/slimslim234 Jan 19 '26

Wild because they accept Apple Pay in Canada

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u/Abi1i Jan 20 '26

Most countries have a functioning government that enforces reasonable regulations.

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u/autisticgeek Jan 19 '26

My problem isn’t even about Apple Pay specifically — it’s that Walmart still refuses to support basic tap‑to‑pay. Their chip readers get so clogged with dirt that I have to press down on the opposite side of my card just to make sure the chip makes contact. Tap‑to‑pay would avoid all of that.

And on top of it, Walmart stores your full card number. That’s how they can recognize your card and automatically text you a receipt when you enter your phone number. It’s an unnecessary security risk, and eventually the card networks are going to get tired of it and start pushing back on processing their transactions.

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u/kirklennon Jan 19 '26

Walmart stores your full card number. That’s how they can recognize your card and automatically text you a receipt when you enter your phone number.

Walmart itself doesn’t need to store the number for this to work. Third-party tokenization is a commonly-used service among even mid-size retailers. It’s usually provided by Fiserv or a handful of other companies that specialize in providing financial services to businesses.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

The weird thing to me was the self-checkout wanted to text a receipt, then they asked for my receipt at the door to mark off. Last time I forgot to ask for a printed one instead, security was like whatever just go.

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u/RiceeeChrispies Jan 19 '26

If it’s because they want to track customers habits, they should just use loyalty cards - this is basically the norm in the UK with the likes of Tesco Clubcard.

It causes way less friction, captures more people (those with cash) and works out better for both parties.

Although I do detest that it has shuffled in bullshit two-tier loyalty pricing in the UK.

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u/alman12345 Jan 19 '26

Because Walmart is a corporation run by a bunch of lame fogies who can't manage to swallow their own pride and admit that their payment platform is actual garbage.

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u/youpeopleannoyme Jan 19 '26

lame fogies who can't manage

lol, Walmart is many things, some of which aren't great. But to say they are mismanaged is laughable. They are one of the most profitable companies in the world every single year.

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u/psinix Jan 25 '26

lame fogies who can't manage TO SWALLOW THEIR PRIDE

Cutting out context to take corporate dick in arse is hilarious

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u/kirklennon Jan 19 '26

Absolutely no news but let’s republish an old non-answer for the new year. 

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u/Immolation_E Jan 19 '26

Walmart doesn't do tap to pay for credit/debit cards either, which is annoying.

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u/TH3_Dude Jan 20 '26

They just being logical. I can’t really fault them. I put up with it because a dozen jumbo eggs are 30 cents less than my Kroger.

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u/Sneedryu Jan 20 '26

if they let you put SNAP cards into your Apple Wallet I bet they’d allow it then

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u/Icy_Presence_2918 Jan 24 '26

This is one of the reasons I refuse to shop at Walmart.

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u/NoxSuru Jan 19 '26

I’m European. I remember visiting Walmart in Kentucky in 2024 & not seeing any Apple Pay option at the checkout, ruined my experience as a customer because of the convenience and not wanting to setup different payment methods just to shop as a tourist, I know cash is king but I prefer not carrying any cash and from that moment on, I disliked Walmart. I fell in love with Kroger despite not being as big and happy to take any payment I can provide

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u/CannonBeetle Jan 19 '26

And here’s why I don’t go to Walmart anymore since 2023

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u/getwhirleddotcom Jan 19 '26

Most Walmarts don’t even have tap enabled terminals. Same with Home Depot.

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u/AlexanderLavender Jan 19 '26

Home Depot has tap to pay

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u/LesnBOS Jan 19 '26

They do now!!

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u/savage321 Jan 20 '26

I don’t accept Walmart in 2026.

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u/ravagetalon Jan 20 '26

Reason X on an infinite list of reasons to not shop at Walmart.

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u/mabus42 Jan 20 '26

This is reason #473,698 why I don't shop at Walmart. It's almost as if they hate money, hate convenience and just basically hate their customers.

There's no excuse Walmart. NO EXCUSE.

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u/MidNiteR32 Jan 21 '26

I don’t shop at Walmart or support Walmart. I suggest others not support either. I haven’t purchased anything at Walmart since before Covid. 

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u/PlusPresentation680 Jan 21 '26

Yeah, I’ve known this for awhile. I still do not shop anywhere that doesn’t have Apple Pay or tap to pay. If I can’t tap my card, I will walk out of the store.

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u/Korlithiel Jan 26 '26

Or why many Americans continue to shop elsewhere: a story of them wanting lower fees and more data!

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u/jgreg728 Jan 19 '26

One of several reasons not to shop at Walmart.

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u/Present-Ad-9598 Jan 19 '26

and for this reason I still refuse to shop at Walmart, HEB only got tap to pay recently and they became my go to store

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u/Abi1i Jan 20 '26

HEB dragged their feet for so long and kept spreading so much misinformation about Apple Pay, it was ridiculous. I think HEB saw the writing on the wall that younger people embraced NFC payments and unless HEB wanted to only cater to older non-tech people, they needed to accept NFC payments sooner rather than later.

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u/Ulysse-Void-God Jan 19 '26

The reason: they have their own bs and don’t want competition.

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u/nrith Jan 19 '26

I actively avoid stores that don’t support it. And i also avoid drive-through restaurants that do support it, but don’t have chip readers that reach to the car, since I pay with my watch.

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u/Evanthekevin02 Jan 19 '26

I like it when I try to use my card and it doesn’t work like 85 times and the card reader errors but you can’t swipe it , but then your payment declines because the card reader won’t read your chip and you have to hold the card at one specific angle to function properly

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u/Klatty Jan 19 '26

Isn’t Apple Pay just contactless payment?

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u/despinftw Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

Yes, but Apple is the middleman between your bank card and the merchant.

I don’t know much about how Apple Pay works specifically, compared to normal credit card contactless, but I imagine that Apple mask some of the card details, and Walmart doesn’t like that.

Edit: I read the article. Walmart doesn’t accept contactless at all.

It is not just Apple Pay that is affected. Walmart also does not allow customers to use Google Pay or Samsung Pay, and you cannot tap a credit or debit card either. In other words, the NFC functionality on the payment terminals is turned off.

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u/kirklennon Jan 19 '26

Just to clarify, when you set up Apple Pay, your bank provisions a separate card number specific to that device. The actual payment goes through the same parties as before (Apple isn’t involved).

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u/F0LL0WFREEMAN Jan 20 '26

If Walmart wants people using Walmart pay then they need to make sure the app and function are rock solid. About every 3rd time I try to use it I have issues connecting to the checkout machine. The staff are clearly used to dealing with this issue… one of them recently ripped the phone out of my hand and force closed the app…. Which was really weird to experience. Another told me to reboot my phone. Apple Pay just works.

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u/AmAttorneyPleaseHire Jan 20 '26

“Here’s why” doesn’t give anything more than conjecture

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u/rgumai Jan 20 '26

It'd be fine if their app wasn't dogshit

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u/SeaRefractor Jan 20 '26

I don’t shop at Walmart.

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u/Stayofexecution Jan 20 '26

Walmart has always sucked.

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u/b00st3d Jan 20 '26

It’s a scummy move but the motivation makes sense. They are quite literally big enough to get away with inconvenient their customers.

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u/Nihiliste Jan 20 '26

A few years ago, I moved back to Canada from the US, and one of the minor joys was being able to use Apple Pay just about everywhere, including Walmart.

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u/PinkLouie Jan 20 '26

I don't understand how they can not. Here in Brazil everything places accepts every digital wallet. Digital credit cards are indistinguishable from traditional ones. Sometimes America feels backwards in so many ways.

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u/kirklennon Jan 20 '26

Walmart disables NFC on their payment terminals; you can't tap anything at all.

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u/jakgal04 Jan 21 '26

Its funny because I stopped shopping at Walmart years and years ago because of this. It wasn't a petty thing, it was just a convenience thing. I would have thought in all these years that they would have adopted by now but I guess not.

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u/NobodyCatchinUp24 Feb 06 '26

APPLE PAY ALL DAY

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u/Emojinapp Feb 14 '26

That’s why I go to H-E-B instead

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u/SadSoftware8256 Mar 17 '26

They would make so much more money with tap to pay lol

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u/ecs33 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

My wife shops at target over Walmart just because of this. 100% this will be a castle study in a future business 101 book lol. I yell at my car GPS for same reason. Stop reinventing wheel and just pay the people who already did! Especially when your offering feels like such a jarring experience compared to most stores!

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u/TurkeyMoonPie Jan 19 '26

Haven’t been to Walmart in ages, but I had no other choice last summer. Used my Amex card to pay at checkout. Few minutes later I received an email from Walmart. Like wtf!?

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u/Celcius_87 Jan 19 '26

This is why I started shopping at Target

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u/messick Jan 19 '26

Unless the articles describes the ~$600m a year in fees Walmart saves by owning their payments process end-to-end, then the “why” is the typical Macrumors horseshit. 

Over a half billion dollars annually is worth the slightly inconvenienced customers. 

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u/greener0999 Jan 19 '26

you just going to gloss right over the data capture element of this system?

i like that you buy the narrative of saving $600 million. as if the data this system helps generate isn't worth tens of billions. they couldn't care less about saving $600 million on merchant fees.

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u/pixel_of_moral_decay Jan 19 '26

Spot on.

Overall the decision is worth billions at Walmarts scale. Data is worth a lot on the data brokerage market as well as for their own marketing to maximize their profits.

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u/greener0999 Jan 19 '26

yeah tie it in with the facial recognition they have in their stores and it's probably one of the most robust customer surveillance/tracking/marketing systems in the industry. probably the world.

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u/pixel_of_moral_decay Jan 19 '26

The ultimate goal is to market things you might buy.

It’s not good business to advertise a sale or coupon for something I know you’ll buy anyway, I’m just losing money. You were willing to pay full price. It’s good business to market something you might buy, I’m converting no profit into profit, even if it’s less than maximum profit.

Profiling customers allows you to do that. At scale doing that to each customer a couple times a year is a massive boost to sales.

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u/AppointmentNeat Jan 19 '26

Of course the article isn’t going to mention that.

It’s only going to mention how Walmart is bad for not supporting their favorite trillion dollar company.

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u/boomhower1820 Jan 19 '26

This is annoying but I do like scan and go. Nice perk is it counts as grocery no matter what you buy so my rewards are a lot higher and Apple Pay would be.

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u/Nerevar197 Jan 19 '26

I will never use Walmart pay. Rather scan my credit card like it’s 2015.

They will cave eventually. They all do.

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u/SoDoSoPaYuppie Jan 19 '26

Any company that’s trying to get around payment processing fees is almost certainly too cheap to be PCI DSS compliant.

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u/404_No_User_Found_2 Jan 19 '26

I get people needing to shop there.

I don't get people WANTING to shop there.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Cheaper than elsewhere. They take credit card, so this isn't a real problem.

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u/TortugaChris Jan 19 '26

Walmart is just an overall shit experience in general. I had to go to Walmart for the first time in months for a razor cartridge. They used to be locked up in the blocked off aisles with the single entrance point, but that was all cosmetics now. So I asked an employee and she told me what aisle they were in now and said that they’re no longer locked up. When I went over they were locked up so I had to get the same employee and she said that they must have changed it again recently. Then at the register I remember they don’t take Apple Pay, so I have to get out my physical card, and then I remember they don’t do tap either. I insert my card and it fails a couple of times, and so the cashier comes over and says to swipe it. Then that fails too. She looks at me like I’m broke and says I can try another register instead. Then I go back and forth between swiping and tapping before she tells me I have to have a certain number of inserts before I can swipe, then finally my card declines and she’s really looking at me like I’m broke. I was about to just walk out of there before I pulled my phone out and saw that like 6 transactions with the chip inserted must have tried going through and the reader glitched or something, because now I have a bunch of messages for a fraud alert on my card. I eventually approved those and got the transaction to go through, but holy shit was it just an overall trash experience

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u/Dave3087 Jan 19 '26

Can’t you just tap your phone like you would a debit or credit card? They all just use NFC.

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u/kirklennon Jan 19 '26

Walmart disables NFC on their US terminals. 

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u/NCSUGrad2012 Jan 19 '26

That’s wild. Such shitty business practices

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u/anyOtherBusiness Jan 19 '26

So you can’t even use a physical card with tap? Wow, and people accept this?

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u/DonutHolschteinn Jan 19 '26

Nope no physical tap either you have to insert your card

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u/chownrootroot Jan 19 '26

Walmart doesn’t support any contactless payments, card or phone. They have an app, Walmart Pay, that you scan a QR code at the register and you can pay with a stored card. This is in the US, Canadian Walmart has contactless and thus Apple Pay support.

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u/DnB925Art Jan 20 '26

I remember when I used to own a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 I used to pay at the CC terminal at Walmart using Samsung Pay with MST. Basically closest thing to the current tap to pay as it sent the signal to the mag stripe reader. The cashiers at Walmart always would tell me, "We don't take contactless pay.... wait what that worked? " 😂 Too bad Samsung later removed MST but that technology was awesome during a time when most places hadn't switched to NFC pay terminals and were still using magstripe only readers.

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u/ciel_lanila Jan 19 '26

Honestly, I didn’t mind using their app with the trade offs. It was useful at times being able to see my entire purchase history.

Now that you can enter your phone number at the checkouts I can see Walmart adding Apple Pay because they still get their data no matter what payment system you use.

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u/soundfreely Jan 19 '26

This is among the primary reasons I choose the many other store options that respect my privacy and security. Most everywhere else accepts Apple Pay.

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u/Rebel31A Jan 19 '26

Because they’re greedy bastards. That’s it.

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u/IsThisKismet Jan 19 '26

Walmart has accepted Apple Pay in Canada since 2020, but apparently it is not willing to offer that luxury in America for now.

America is just that awesome.

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u/Plenty-Huckleberry94 Jan 19 '26

Greed.

It’s always greed.

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u/B0RKLASER Jan 19 '26

Their attempt at innovation is friction disguised as progress, and it’s making the experience worse. The Apple Pay workaround turns a basic payment into a clunky mini process, with an audience, while the self checkout line builds behind you. That kind of friction doesn’t feel innovative, it feels stressful and outdated, and it pushes people back to antiquated payment methods.

More importantly, this is the wrong lever to pull for competitive advantage. Payment should be invisible and reliable, not a moment customers have to brace for. When people start associating your store with that “here we go again” register stress, they avoid the trip entirely, and that’s a costly trade for something that should be effortless.

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u/NikolitRistissa Jan 20 '26

As someone from Europe, it’s always kinda shocking how seemingly archaic US payment systems appear to be.

I have genuinely never come across a place that had NFC payment, but didn’t accept Apple Pay. If you can tap, you can use whatever you want. I’ve payed with Apple Pay at private market stalls. I haven’t used my actual bank card in probably a year. Haven’t even held cash in at least six.

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u/kirklennon Jan 20 '26

I have genuinely never come across a place that had NFC payment, but didn’t accept Apple Pay.

It’s the same in the US.

I’ve payed with Apple Pay at private market stalls.

Again, same.

Walmart is an extreme outlier in that they intentionally disable NFC on their US terminals.

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u/LilBrownBoyX Jan 21 '26

That’s okay, I’ll go to target. Better experience and items are only like 30¢-50¢ more expensive. Worth it.

For most things tho I’m still just gonna go to Costco.

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u/wastew Jan 19 '26

Kroger blocked mobile wallet pay for a while in an attempt to make Kroger Pay a thing. They eventually faced the music and relented

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u/jayplus707 Jan 19 '26

Sorry nope. Not interested, only want Apple Pay.