As someone who used to go to Walmart constantly, it was always a drag paying. I’m someone that used self-checkout most of the time because it was usually faster. Aside from old people holding up the line, to them self-checkout was like watching a NASA rocket launch, it was faster. However, the biggest drag is that I had to make sure my card was always on me. This was because Walmart always had to have me insert my card. Not tap it, since it had the chip, no. Always had to insert my physical card. Now, Walmart is accepting Apple Pay.

Every so often there is always news that comes right out of left field. Not like a Microsoft bad update, those are common as air. This was one of those stories. BGR is reporting that, “the company just announced that Near Field Communication (NFC) payments — tap to pay — are coming to certain stores starting next week, the only downside, though, is that a full rollout will take several months, as full tap-to-pay integration isn’t expected until mid-2027.”

Apple Pay is Coming to Walmart

According to the site, Walmart Pay was the only contactless payment option they accepted. Obviously, allowing physical cards. I always thought it was because they didn’t want to pay Google or Apple their percentage for using their card. However, it is more privacy driven than that.

With Walmart pay, you had to create a profile to use it. With Apple Pay, your information is anonymous. “This way, the company can’t target you with specific ads, nor sell that data to other companies,” BGR reports. “This practice has been fairly common for years, and, in 2012, The New York Times wrote a story about how Target used profiles like this, which could be as certain as knowing a woman was likely pregnant based on her purchases.”

This is the same situation people fall into when you use rewards cards at your local grocery story or pharmacy. Apple Pay will roll out to all Walmart and Sam’s Club stores by the end of 2026. They will be at all fueling stations by the middle of 2027. This makes sense that you have to create an online profile just to use their store “free public Wifi”. Expect to see Walmart Rewards Cards coming in the near future.