Walmart will start accepting Apple Pay and other tap-to-pay methods at select U.S. stores and Sam’s Club locations beginning Monday, August 24, the retailer confirmed. It’s a reversal that’s been a long time coming.
For years, Walmart pushed its own QR-code-based payment system, Walmart Pay, and kept contactless card and phone payments off its terminals — a stance that put it at odds with nearly every other major U.S. retailer. Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kroger, and the Texas grocery chain H-E-B all backed away from similar holdouts years ago. Walmart was one of the last big names still resisting.
The rollout starts small. A limited number of stores go live this week, with the company saying tap-to-pay will reach every U.S. Walmart and Sam’s Club location by the end of 2026. Gas stations are on a slower track, expected to get support by mid-2027. In a statement, Walmart framed the move around convenience, saying it wants shoppers to be able to check out “in the way that works best for them.”
What’s less clear is why now. Walmart hasn’t detailed what changed internally, whether this ties to broader point-of-sale hardware upgrades already underway, or whether declining engagement with Walmart Pay played a role. The company hasn’t released usage figures for its own app-based system in some time, which makes it hard to say how much pressure was self-inflicted versus competitive.
For Apple, this closes one of the more visible gaps in Apple Pay’s U.S. retail footprint — one that’s been a recurring line item in “where you still can’t use Apple Pay” roundups for the better part of ten years. For shoppers, it mostly means one less thing to think about at checkout. Whether it meaningfully dents Walmart Pay’s usage, or simply adds another option alongside it, should become clearer once the full rollout is complete later this year.
