In 2026, nearly all major stores offer tap-to-pay options. Even vendors at farmers markets often allow shoppers to buy things with a contactless wave of their mobile phone.
For years, there’s been one very notable exception to this trend: Walmart. Starting Monday, that’s going to change. The retail giant announced Friday that it will begin accepting tap-to-pay options at select U.S. stores, although it did not name which ones or in what areas.
Walmart said it plans to roll out the option to all of its U.S. stores, including Sam’s Clubs, by the end of the year and mid-2027 for gas stations.
“We want customers and members to have choice in how they pay, so they can check out in the way that works best for them,” the company said in a news release Friday.
Before, the seemingly unshakeable policy decision from the retailer had spurred a torrent of memes and complaints online.
“Walmart not taking Apple Pay just speaks volumes,” one user posted on X in January. “They are living in the early 2000s.”
“The amount of customers each day with full carts of groceries that end up walking out because we don’t have Apple Pay is really high,” another shopper posted on Reddit in April. “And half the stuff in the carts is cold stuff which gets thrown out.”
“Can’t they see that Gen Z don’t want to carry cards? Let alone cash,” the user added.
There is some truth to that. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank shows that shoppers under the age of 25 rarely use cash, building on prior findings that younger Americans strongly prefer to pay with their phones.
Why Walmart took so long to accept Apple Pay or Google Pay
Online, shoppers have speculated that Walmart simply did not want to update the checkout stations at its over 4,600 U.S. locations to accommodate contactless payment options. (Walmart already accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay in Canada.)
But experts suggested there was a likely another, more strategic reason: Walmart didn’t want to cede control of U.S. shopper data to other payment providers.
Retail analysts previously told Business Insider that it made sense for Walmart to risk not offering Apple Pay or Google Pay so it could steer customers toward its own payment methods — namely, the Walmart app and OnePay, the retailer’s latest fintech endeavor.
Both apps act as digital wallets that allow for contactless payments at Walmart stores in the U.S. A Walmart spokesperson hinted toward this when the blog MacRumors asked about Apple Pay last year, saying stores have “instead have implemented convenient solutions” and “invested in innovative technologies that go beyond payments.”
Money reported on Walmart’s reluctance to accept tap-to-pay in June, and the company did not respond on the record to several requests for comment.
Walmart reported disappointing earnings Thursday, and its stock price fell sharply. In a call with investors, the company said it has received nearly $3 billion of tariff refunds and that it plans to direct that money toward price cuts to help cash-strapped shoppers.
It remains to be seen if a combination of cheaper prices and more payment options can reverse the trend.
