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Lowe's Retail Stores Now Accept Apple Pay
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I choose Lowes over HomeDepot 90% because they supported Military discount first, and it's just better organized in there, and they hire retired professionals (HomeDepot might too, but that's not been my experience.)
But... There are a lot of times (and it's increasing more and more) where I don't have my wallet with me, and if I need to stop at a store to pick something up, I'm stopping at place where I can pay, and I always have my phone.
Right, sziehr was suggesting it’s time for that to change to encourage adoption of tap to pay.
I am one of the people that will switch.
I have an Ace hardware close to me that accepts Apple Pay and if I think they'll have what I want I get it there. I can walk to it in 5 minutes.
If I can't get it there Home Depot and Lowes are the same distance from me, but Home Depot takes less driving time to get to, about 2-3 minutes. (15 minutes vs 12)
Normally, that time is worthwhile to save.
With Lowes accepting Apple Pay, my financial security outweighs the time savings and I will start shopping there.
So Apple Pay isn't a non-starter, but it's definitely a significant factor for me. If Lowes was 15 minutes further away that might not make me change but 2-3 minutes is an easy decision.
Also: moving my business to Lowes may sway Home Depot to adopt it if their sales numbers start to decline in comparison to Lowe's.
For me, I will now absolutely move from Home Depot to Lowe's based on this. For someone who goes to the hardware store once every a month or less, it's easy for me. To me, when stores disable contactless payment, they show me they don't value my privacy, convenience or personal info.
Home Depot is user-hostile after allowing Apple Pay (well contactless payment) in late 2014 and then shutting it off as soon as Apple Pay caught on. I remember I used it at Home Depot during Christmas time in 2014 then they shutoff contactless payments the following March.
Home Depot supported contactless payment 10 years ago, but they disabled it virtually overnight when Apple launched Apple Pay. Home Depot instead announced support for CurrentC which was a poorly planned "competitor" to Apple Pay that a lot of retailers loved because it promised an end to credit card fees. It was basically wrapper around ACH bank transfers, meaning customers would have to grant full access to their bank accounts, and would lose out on all the advantages of credit cards (actual credit, ability to dispute transactions, fraud protections, etc). There were also security related and anti-competitive related accusations made against MCX, the company behind CurrentC. It was such a mess that a small number of retailers started accepting CurrentC in late 2015, but most gave up with it after roughly a year.
Home Depot has steadfastly refused to accept contactless payments ever since then, even though most of the other retailers that initially jumped onto the CurrentC bandwagon started accepting them shortly after giving up on that venture. I'm still somewhat miffed that Home Depot still hasn't re-enabled contactless payments since they used to accept them. To this day the Home Depots near me pretty much all have hand written signs on their self-checkout systems saying they don't accept Apple/Google or any other contactless payments.
The closest Lowes to me is a few miles further than the closest Home Depot. Given this news I may very well start opting to head to Lowes as my first hardware store, at least for the time being.
I'm sure they are.
And when you have two penny-squeezing titans used to getting their way and having everyone else wilt... any agreement isn't likely to happen.
So weird reading this from the UK. I normally go out with just my phone and watch. Hardly use my physical card anymore because EVERYWHERE accepts contactless and therefore takes Apple Pay.
In my case, my Apple Card offers better rewards than my other cards. Sure, it isn't a big difference, but I'd rather get that extra .5% and know I got the improved privacy/security of Apple Pay. If I have an easy choice, I'll pick the store with Apple Pay every time.
And let's be honest, if I can pay at a gas pump or vending machine with Apple Pay, there isn't any reason for a major retailer to have figured it out by now.
Why would one do that? Chip and tap are both secure.
This is great. I have only shopped there once and found it on par with what I typically look for at home depot.
Home Depot is honestly the only place I regularly shop that doesn’t take apple pay at this point.
Walmart I shop at once per year if that
Home Depot is honestly the only place I regularly shop that doesn’t take apple pay at this point.
Walmart I shop at once per year if that
Probably more to do with your local Lowes/Crime rate. Nothing is locked at Lowe’s near me.
Hooray! As a frequent shopper to the nearest Lowes store 2 1/2 miles away, this is yet another First World Problem solved and annoyance done away with. It's about time, but it's good news indeed.
That really depends on location, I’m in CA and find it more often than not, but in the more rural areas it can be hard.
When I bought my car a little over a year ago I used Apple Pay for part of my down payment, when he had my wife’s car in for service a few months ago, their CC system still used modem dialup, different dealer…
How on earth do all retailer stores in the US not support Apple Pay? It’s bizarre how behind the US is with payment.
Lowe's home improvement stores across the United States have finally started accepting Apple Pay. Apple Pay has been available in the Lowe's app and the Lowe's website for some time, but the company has been a longtime Apple Pay holdout for its retail store locations.
On Reddit, Lowe's employees said in late December that they had received a memo about the upcoming Apple Pay and contactless payment rollout, which was set to begin on December 20.
A Lowe's customer on the MacRumors forums said that he was able to successfully use Apple Pay at two different Lowe's stores in Texas, confirming the rollout.
The Lowe's employees on Reddit said they were glad to hear about the rollout due to the number of customers asking to use contactless payment options. There have also been many complaint threads from Lowe's customers about the lack of Apple Pay on Reddit and the MacRumors forums.
Lowe's has more than 2,000 stores in the United States, making it the second largest home improvement store after Home Depot. Accepting Apple Pay could lure customers to Lowe's over Home Depot, as Home Depot does not accept the payment technology at this time.
Article Link: Lowe's Retail Stores Now Accept Apple Pay
I understand all of this will they/won’t they is background bull**** business that these companies will play around with until it’s no longer financially or publicly viable for them to ignore. That’s fine; but as long as I have another low-impact solution to the “problem” that is right in my pocket, it just doesn’t push the needle for me.
I always have my wallet on me when going to a store, I always have my CCs, I always have my Apple Watch, and I always have my iPhone. So if a business doesn’t take AP, fine, the extra 5 seconds that it takes to whip out my CC isn’t going to kill me.
A lot of the mom and pop stores that I shop at don’t have contactless payment. And that’s fine with me. I won’t snub them because of it; I just use another form of payment (usually cash if I have it).
My family loves to eat at Mellow Mushroom for pizza. It’s a chain, but they have some of the most delicious pizza around. They don’t take Apple Pay in the restaurant (that I know of), so I just use my CC. I’d rather eat there than some other janky establishment that takes AP.
It seems that you guys are taking issue with AP acceptance as more of a matter of “principle,” which is fine. I respect that.
My sister paid the full price of her Honda a few years ago using her AMEX card via Apple Pay on her Apple Watch.
This is great news.
I almost shop exclusively at Lowe's to begin with.
One less reason to head to HD, as they still require us to upload a copy of the DD-214 to let them verify with a third party. Said third party should be able to tell without such personal document.
I almost shop exclusively at Lowe's to begin with.
One less reason to head to HD, as they still require us to upload a copy of the DD-214 to let them verify with a third party. Said third party should be able to tell without such personal document.