9to5Mac over the weekend reminded us that Walmart still refuses to accept contactless payment options – including Apple Pay – at its 4,500+ stores across the U.S., and despite endless complaints from customers, it doesn’t look as if it’ll be changing its corporate mind any time soon.
In addition to Apple Pay, Walmart doesn’t accept any other tap-to-pay method of payment, be it Google Pay or even tap-to-pay with credit or debit cards either. The discount retailer has NFC capabilities disabled on all of its payment terminals.
Walmart continues to be focused on its own Walmart Pay and Scan & Go payment options that can be used in-store and in the Walmart app. Unfortunately for consumers, those payment options are neither as convenient or secure as Apple Pay’s encrypted one-time payment tokens that can be used with just a tap of the terminal.
Walmart likely resistes using Apple Pay and other third-party tap-and-go payment systems due to the fact that those systems do not allow the retailer to track a customer’s purchasing habits like Walmart Pay does.
So that’s where we sit in 2025, more than 10 years after Apple Pay was first launched. While other US retailers have taken Apple Pay and other NFC payment systems to their breast, Walmart continues to shy away from the systems, at least 9in the United States. Oddly enough, the discount retailer has accepted Apple Pay in igs Canadian stores since 2020.
