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Walmart Is Finally Adding Apple Pay After More Than a Decade of Holding Out
Joshua MorrisWalmart is finally adding tap-to-pay to its U.S. stores. Beginning August 24, select Walmart and Sam's Club locations will start accepting contactless cards, phones, and watches. The company plans to have it in every U.S. Walmart and Sam's Club by the end of 2026, with fuel stations following by mid-2027. That means Apple Pay and Google Pay will finally work at Walmart.
This shouldn't feel like a major technology announcement in 2026. It does because Walmart spent more than a decade deliberately resisting it. Apple Pay launched in 2014, and Walmart wasn't merely slow — for years it refused NFC payments entirely. You couldn't use Apple Pay, Google Pay, or even tap a physical contactless credit card at a U.S. Walmart register.
The history goes back to CurrentC. Walmart was one of the major retailers behind the Merchant Customer Exchange, which developed its own QR-based mobile payment system before Apple Pay existed, aiming to reduce interchange fees. When Apple Pay arrived, several MCX retailers disabled NFC payments their terminals had previously supported. CurrentC never really went anywhere — its accounts were shut down in 2016. Walmart launched Walmart Pay nationwide that same year, still using QR codes. It works, but it requires the customer to participate in Walmart's payment system rather than use the wallet already built into their phone or watch.
Walmart remained remarkably committed. As recently as January 2025, a spokesperson reiterated no plans to support NFC, focusing on Walmart Pay and Scan & Go. Even at the beginning of 2026, Walmart was still one of the last major U.S. retailers holding out while Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, H-E-B, and others had already moved. There was never really a technical reason — Walmart stores in Canada have accepted Apple Pay since 2020.
That is what makes today's announcement interesting. Walmart isn't replacing Walmart Pay. It is finally accepting that its own payment system doesn't need to exclude everybody else's. Customers who like Walmart Pay can keep using it. Sam's Club members can keep using Scan & Go. People carrying a contactless card can tap it. Someone wearing an Apple Watch can use Apple Pay.
That is how payment systems should work. I don't want every retailer to require its own app, account, and proprietary checkout process just so I can give them money.
There is also a privacy difference that has always bothered me. Apple Pay uses tokenized device-specific account numbers rather than handing the merchant the actual card number. Walmart Pay lives inside Walmart's own application and is tightly integrated with purchases, receipts, and the customer's Walmart account. Walmart has never said tracking was the reason it resisted Apple Pay, so I don't think it is fair to state that as fact. But controlling the payment experience clearly gave Walmart a tighter relationship with the transaction than simply accepting NFC. Now customers finally get to choose.
A year from now someone will tap an iPhone at a Walmart register and probably never think about it. It took Walmart almost twelve years to get there.