Home Depot Is Slowly Rolling Out Apple Pay Support

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac:

According to multiple 9to5Mac readers and reports across social media, Home Depot has also recently started rolling out Apple Pay support. Home Depot has been a major Apple Pay holdout, resisting pressure from its customers to add support for Apple’s tap-to-pay platform. Notably, Lowe’s — Home Depot’s biggest competitor — began rolling out Apple Pay support last December. It certainly seems possible that this move by Lowe’s put pressure on Home Depot to change its strategy.

Home Depot hasn’t commented on this change in policy, and the details of the rollout aren’t explicitly clear. It appears to be a very gradual rollout that started at a small number of locations over the summer and has recently picked up momentum. Your mileage may vary for the time being, though.

I could be completely wrong, but I don’t think Home Depot was ever opposed to Apple Pay. I just think they bought into a weird point-of-sale system that didn’t support it. They’re weird terminals. And I suspect what’s happening now isn’t a come-to-Jesus moment regarding Apple Pay in particular, but a replacement of those crummy POS terminals with new ones that do support Apple Pay.

Walmart is still the biggest Apple Pay holdout by a wide margin, and the company has shown no signs of changing its tune.

With Walmart, I do think it’s strategic that they don’t support Apple Pay. I think it’s wrongheaded though, and they’ll change their minds sooner (probably) or later. Walmart, just a few years ago, was spearheading the dumbass CurrentC “pay via QR code” system. Apple Pay, from a user’s perspective, is just a private way to pay via credit or debit card — no more, no less. Whatever strategic reasons Walmart has to oppose it — which I think boil down to wanting customers to instead use a Walmart-proprietary digital payment system — aren’t worth it.

★ Wednesday, 9 October 2024