“Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning to offer its own way for shoppers to pay with their smartphones in its stores, setting itself up as a competitor to Apple Inc. and other companies that already have rolled out mobile-payment technologies,” Sarah Nassauer reports for The Wall Street Journal. “The retail behemoth is adding a feature to its existing mobile app so consumers can pay at the register with any payment information stored in their Walmart.com account, including gift cards, debit cards or credit cards. The retailer plans to release the payment capability to its 4,600 U.S. stores in the first half of next year, company executives said on Wednesday.”
“Daniel Eckert, Wal-Mart’s head of services for the U.S., said the retailer decided to build its own payment system because the other options either only work on particular smartphones or only allow users to pay with a select group of credit or debit cards,” Nassauer reports. “About 75% of Wal-Mart shoppers own a smartphone, he said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Wal-Mart = Android. Just sayin’.
Nassauer reports, “With the new system called Walmart Pay, shoppers use Wal-Mart’s app and camera feature to scan a QR code at the register which then connects to the payment cards on file in their Walmart.com accounts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Kludgy, basic, and antiquated. Hey, it’s perfect for Wal-Mart!
“Wal-Mart’s offering marks a definitive move away from the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, a band of retailers and restaurants that joined together in 2012,” Nassauer reports. “Mr. Eckert said the retailer remains committed to MCX and the CurrentC app, and said in the future, Wal-Mart’s app could integrate other mobile payment systems like CurrentC and Apple Pay as a form of payment as it does now with credit cards.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Eventually, Walfart will add Apple Pay capability, if they ever want to, you know, cater to consumers with disposable income and the proven will to spend it, as any smart retailer obviously should.
Until then, iPhone and iPad users can at least use Apple Pay in Target’s app, which is good since Target is Wal-Mart for Apple users anyway (better merchandise, much cleaner stores with better layouts, significantly less fat on display, far fewer body odors, way more teeth, etc.). Target should wise up and recognize this opportunity by turning on Apple Pay capability immediately.
Apple Pay is accepted in over a million stores. And counting.
Where to use Apple Pay apple.com/apple-pay/where-to-use-apple-pay/
The ‘Walmart app’ they speak of is CurrentC and highly stupid the MCX will only let its member use CurrentC, I think it was RiteAid and CVS where using Apple Pay and then had to turn it off
The exclusivity period expired a few months ago. They are no longer required to disable ApplePay, so they now have it on. I’ve been paying with ApplePay at RiteAid and CVS for months now. Works as advertised (i.e. no effort whatsoever — just authenticate with your fingerprint and it’s done).
I was pleasantly surprised Oct 1 when I was out of town on Business and had no choice but to shop at a Rite Aid and my ApplePay worked! I have since used it several times at Rite Aid as well.
My only complaint … they have to scan a barcode on my iPhone for my Plenti card, and every time I do that it triggers ApplePay on my iPhone as I pass it past their POS terminal so the cashier can scan the bar code. It’s a bad complaint I know, but it seems like their POS terminals might be too sensitive.
Hopefully sometime soon, Plenti will work on ApplePay just like Walgreen’s loyalty card does! (Cashier asks for Walgreen’s loyalty card, wave iPhone at reader, put thumb on home button, cashier totals order, wave iPhone at reader, put thumb on home button, DONE!)
My local Kroger had ApplePay working beautifully but then subsequently turned it off. I’ve asked my store manager and sent an email to corporate to turn it back on and have been informed they’re working on it. For those who want ApplePay in Kroger do what it takes to get it.
The limitations with this system are;
1. You need Wal-Mart’s app installed.
2. You need to be connected to the internet.
3. You need to have your payment information on file with Wal-Mart.
None of this is required to use ApplePay.
Just to clarify, “your payment information” means direct link to your Checking account!
So archaic!
And this system requires *your phone* to scan the QR code they raise??? I get ticked when I have to launch an app so *the store* can scan in the loyalty bar code.
Have they *seen* some of the crappy cameras on cheap Android phones? Slow to start, slow to focus, even slow to capture. And then your *phone* needs a network connection to use this? I know people who don’t have data plans, and at least 2 mega stores in my area have poor or no reception in several sections including the checkouts. Expect lineup times to double.
The only people who would use this are those who can’t afford better phones. And those are the least likely to actually have enough funds in their checking account to use this system regularly. The only upside to this would be to promote fiscal responsibility and not put yourself in too much debt using credit, but that’s a very small upside since after a couple uses people will just stop using it.
This just screams epic failure.
I have an iPhone but cannot use Apple Pay since my iPhone does not support it. That’s a big limitation for the iPhone.
No. that is only a big limitation for older iPhones.
Your statement makes it a limitation for all iPhones, which it clearly is not.
You ‘could’ buy an Apple Watch. Any iPhone newer than a 4S will work with the Watch.
Of course, if you’re using the Watch ONLY for that, it’s rather an expensive way to use ApplePay.
All hardware falls to the wayside.
Apple’s system requires biometric authentication which is what they feels is the only secure method for making sure you are spending your money.
That’s not a limitation. That should be a REQUIREMENT!
YOU ARE THE LIMITATION… UPGRADE!!!
Um the retailer that can’t stop hackers from stealing their customer’s payment information….no thanks!
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/walmart-moneycards-still-being-hacked-030314.html
True… but if they connect the WalMart account to some kind of rewards program, you can bet people will use it. Starbucks does this very successfully.
And Starbucks is currently ( succesfully ) using a QR code system.
But which device is presenting the QR code, and which is scanning it?
All the stores I go to with separate loyalty programs, I present the QR code and the teller scans it.
In this Walmart-backed system *they* present the code and *you* have to scan it. Although it sort of makes sense given how they designed their system, that design is totally 180° backwards from a convenience perspective. And security (or any feature, really) that sacrifices too much convenience means it won’t be used much. That’s why smartphone NFC was a failure or at most a niche until Apple Pay came along.
That DOES seem strange. It seems that relying on a customer’s hardware to do the scanning is a cost saving thing and fragile.
Why outfit all stores with QR code readers and maintain them when you can just get the customer to bring the hardware to the store.
While I get WHY they’re doing this ( I kind of get why they’re doing this ( off-loading OCR processing to the computer that comes into the store ) but it does seem strange.
Buying cheap poorly built crap usually costs more in the long run. Shopping at Walmart is like throwing money away.
iPads, Apple TVs, iPhones, and iPods are not “cheap poorly built crap”.
I guess it’s nice they sell Apple gear. But, you don’t really need Walmart to buy Apple stuff. There’s plenty of other stores in town where you can buy the same Apple gear for the same price.
So Walmart selling Apple gear is not really a unique reason to shop at Walmart. Unless Walmart has run all the other stores in town out of business. If that’s the case, then you should buy one Apple product from Walmart. Then use use that device to order every other Apple product directly from Apple.com, for the same price as Walmart.
If Walmart was the only place to go in town, I would buy online. Actually, I never buy Apple products from anyone but Apple.
@trinkey You do know they (Wal-mart) sells the iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod and other Apple products, right?
Not everyone who goes to Walmart is low income. I go there occasionally, and I don’t consider myself low income. That being said, people like me who sometimes want to go to a real store instead of ordering online should be the type of customer that Walmart wants. Maybe if I could find what I want in a store, I wouldn’t be giving Amazon and Newegg so much of my money. If Walmart won’t embrace Apple Pay and chip cards, then I just won’t go there at all for anything. I’m not interested in payment systems whose sole goal is to track my purchasing habits to find a way to make even more money off of me.
I ALWAYS use my AmX at Walmart. If they had Apple Pay, I would use that. But since AmX takes a higher percentage, this is my way of protesting.
That’s actually a great idea 🙂 The next time I go to Walmart, I’ll use a credit card instead of my debit card, or I will run the debit card as credit. Piss on Walmart Pay!
This is a waste for Walmart, but, really, I don’t care and neither should you.
Everybody goes to Walmart, rich, poor.
This will end up costing Walmart big dollars, but they can blow it off for years and years.
Target couldn’t sell their way out of a wet paper bag in Canada. That’s why we sent them home crying for their momma. Too many companies underestimate Canada and we like it that way.
I like Apple Pay but… nobody uses it. You cannot claim McDonalds and Walgreens. I mean it needs to be everywhere. I don’t even bother with it anymore.
Yes Walgreens!
APPLE PAY™ IS HERE.
We’re in a transition where chip cards are becoming ubiquitous in the USA and retail companies are dragging their feet catching up. Having morons like Samsung enable the decrepit old readers to limp along another year or two doesn’t help.
” significantly less fat on display, far fewer body odors, way more teeth, etc.)”
Every once in a while MDN has to remind us of it’s middle school mentality by writing something like this. It is very sad that this site continues to behave like a bunch of middle school bullies and mockers. Time to grow up and stop insulting people you don’t even know very well.
Apple users buy Apple equipment because of it’s overall quality, not because of a false and arrogant superiority complex that makes them think they are better than everybody else.
An apology would be a good start.
Just sayin’……..
No thanks. I’ll pass. I’ll just go to Walmutt if I need to buy an enema bottle or something to kill off fungus and stuff.
Here is Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, on Mad Money. The link points to an interview after WMT got crushed 10 percent in one day and the stock was down 30 percent within a few months. At 8:27 Cramer asks about the stock being taken to the woodshed and McMellan basically says “Oh well. I guess I should of communicated better…” If my company just got crushed because of “a miscommunication” I would be fuming out the ears pissed-off, not giving off a vibe like life is one big fat fairy kiss bonanza and I just made a minor boo-boo. McMillon seems clueless and their decision not to accept Apple Pay will hurt Walmart. Why would they thwart their most affluent customers?
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/14/wal-mart-ceo-speaks-out-to-cramer-this-was-coming.html
Walmart Pay
*Clunk*Bang*Clunk*
Speed up the check out system so Wally World can close even more checkout lanes at busy times!