{"id":43418,"date":"2026-01-20T02:31:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/technologies\/walmart-maintains-apple-pay-ban-in-u-s-stores-for-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T02:31:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:31:46","slug":"walmart-maintains-apple-pay-ban-in-u-s-stores-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/technologies\/walmart-maintains-apple-pay-ban-in-u-s-stores-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart maintains Apple Pay ban in U.S. stores for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dataconomy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Walmart_still_blocks_Apple_Pay_in_US_stores.jpeg\" alt=\"Walmart maintains Apple Pay ban in U.S. stores for 2026\" title=\"Walmart maintains Apple Pay ban in U.S. stores for 2026\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Walmart Inc. does not accept Apple Pay and other near-field communication (NFC) payment methods in its U.S. stores as of 2026, marking it among the last major retailers to omit support for Apple\u2019s contactless platform. The retailer disables NFC features on its updated payment terminals, directing customers toward its proprietary payment systems.<\/p>\n<p>The company has maintained its stance since launching Walmart Pay in 2016, a QR code-based system that operates through the Walmart app. Walmart Scan &amp; Go, available to Walmart+ subscribers, also does not support Apple Pay; this platform allows users to scan items via the Walmart or Sam\u2019s Club app and finalize purchases at self-checkout.<\/p>\n<p>Walmart\u2019s strategy facilitates data collection on purchasing patterns and trends, which the company utilizes for targeted advertising and marketing. Using Walmart Pay or Scan &amp; Go links transaction data directly to a customer\u2019s Walmart account, providing the retailer with comprehensive purchasing profiles. Apple Pay\u2019s privacy features, which include not sharing card information with retailers, limit this data collection.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to a common theory, Walmart incurs no additional fees from Apple for accepting Apple Pay; businesses pay standard card processing fees regardless of whether a transaction is contactless. Apple typically charges fees to issuing banks.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement last year, Walmart promoted Walmart Pay as a more convenient solution than Apple Pay, citing its touchless payment functionality for any smartphone and investments in technologies like Scan &amp; Go. Walmart indicated its focus on internal solutions, stating, \u201cWe 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 &amp; Go, which allow Sam\u2019s Club and Walmart+ members to bypass the checkout altogether, providing a truly touchless shopping experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other retailers that previously did not support Apple Pay, including Kroger, Home Depot, and H-E-B, have since adopted the payment method. Walmart\u2019s Canadian locations generally accept Apple Pay.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Featured image credit<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walmart Inc. does not accept Apple Pay and other near-field communication (NFC) payment methods in its U.S. stores as of 2026, marking it among the last major retailers to omit support for Apple\u2019s contactless platform. The retailer disables NFC features on its updated payment terminals, directing customers toward its proprietary payment systems. The company has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technologies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}