The Home Depot and H-E-B Finally Rolling Out Apple Pay in Stores

[zarmanto]

It blows my mind that Americans don't have tap everywhere. I hear stories of swipe and sign still existing and it really is astonishing.

There's a pizza joint near where I live that still has swipe and (digitally) sign... I make a point of pulling my phone out and looking at the cashier expectantly every time I show up for pick-up orders, before handing over my card for them to swipe. It just irks me, because the minimum modern standard is a chip reader, and they don't even have that.

 

[jimbobb24]

HEB? I just died and went to heaven!

 

[jz0309]

about time Home Depot!
now, Walmart, get your act together and come off your high horse

 

[Michael Scrip]

I can understand stores not wanting to pay the fees.

But at some point they must realize that credit/debit cards are the #1 form of payment these days and that the fees are a part of it.

Not many people walk into a Home Depot to buy a $2,000 lawn mower with actual cash.

💰

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Walmart is now one of the only major retailers in the U.S. that still does not accept Apple Pay

It’s even worse. They don’t accept ANY form of tap to pay, even with credit cards. Would not be surprised if credit card companies like Visa or Mastercard finally revolt and force Walmart to accept all form of tap to pay or they would stop processing them. (Or make them fully liable for any fraudulent transaction that may occur)

 

[ecschwarz]

Wait, so Apple Pay can’t be used in every store in America? In Denmark you’re able to use Apple Pay in every store, cafe, restaurant etc. and you have been able to for many years.

It’s the same here. Haven’t been anywhere in Denmark yet where Apple Pay wasn’t an option. Considering America always gets the new features first I’m baffled that Apple Pay is so fare behind.

Since this comes up in just about every "____ has added Apple Pay" article from folks in other countries, there are a few US-centric oddities that are the cause for this. Many merchants use the larger-screened terminals with custom software (to push their own store brand cards, loyalty programs, etc.) and in a lot of cases this software was set up years ago and didn't have contactless configured, even if the terminals are capable. If you're running the out-of-the-box software or use the smaller terminals (like what a lot of small businesses have and even chains in other countries), contactless just works (I noticed this on a few visits to Canada - few places used the larger Verifone mx915/925s or Ingenico iSC Touch 250s that have been common here.) When contactless is off, tapping physical cards and the various mobile wallets don't work, so this article could just be "Home Depot and H-E-B turned on contactless."

In some cases, like Home Depot, contactless was working (the older MSD contactless, not EMV contactless) around the time Apple Pay launched, but due to configuration issues, rather than fix it, they turned it off—at least that was the prevailing notion. I used to use an Amex at Home Depot with Apple Pay and it was fine, but I seem to recall Mastercards possibly having trouble?

Both of these reasons are mostly management not thinking it's a worthwhile endeavor and being cheap.

Additionally, there may be some other factors, such as pushing their own payment system—Walmart is still going down this path, Kroger tried, and Home Depot had a partnership with PayPal that may have also motivated disabling contactless. I think Walmart's long game is to get people to use the app and the incentivize direct ACH payments, going around credit card networks entirely.

As for fees, these are all considered "card present" transactions, so adding contactless doesn't have a higher transaction fee. In fact, Apple's cut of any transaction with Apple Pay comes out of the issuing bank's cut, which is not adjusted to the merchant.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Only like 7 years late. lol.

 

[j-beda]

Not to mention the benefits that come from moving customers through checkout faster. Plus you can only use this for smaller payments anyways (eg. < $100-200)

I'm pretty sure my Apple Pay transactions have a much higher limit than the "standard" contactless transactions. I think that they are the same as the limit for a chip-and-pin transaction here in Canada which is whatever the transaction limit of your card. I haven't encountered that limit as far as I can remember, but then again I don't often make multi-thousand dollar credit card transactions. I have encountered the "card-tap" limit when purchasing particularly amounts of stuff at the grocery store, at which point I need to insert the card and provide the PIN. This is one reason I have been doing more Apple Pay transactions.

 

[jayducharme]

I'm happy to hear this. I've gone out of my way to avoid Home Despot because of their lack of NFC. Our town's locally-owned hardware store, ironically, has had Apple Pay since it started and that's where I've been doing my business. At least now I feel better about heading to the Despot for things the local store doesn't carry.

 

[ResolutionNZ]

It blows my mind that Americans don't have tap everywhere. I hear stories of swipe and sign still existing and it really is astonishing.

It might seem backward, but it really is a good thing in practice. When everything is digital and electronic society grinds to a halt during natural disasters and we will never completely escape them.

 

[dominiongamma]

There's a pizza joint near where I live that still has swipe and (digitally) sign... I make a point of pulling my phone out and looking at the cashier expectantly every time I show up for pick-up orders, before handing over my card for them to swipe. It just irks me, because the minimum modern standard is a chip reader, and they don't even have that.

I wouldn’t bother dealing business with them, if they can’t accommodate the future of paying then they deserve to fail

 

[Eric_WVGG]

Home Depot's delay of NFC feels more about having a contract with a hardware and/or software suppliers that don't support tap-to-pay. Not concisely forbidding the method, but picked a vendor that wasn't supporting it.

^ this is correct

About 10-ish years ago, US payment terminals didn't even accept those little insertion chips, we were still using magnetic stripes like savages.

Getting chip readers rolled out required every merchant in America to upgrade their hardware, as well as every bank to issue new cards. Banks didn't want to issue more expensive cards for readers that didn't exist, and merchants didn't want to roll out readers for cards that nobody had.

Congress did something really clever (for once). They passed a law that basically said, "in the case of a fraud dispute, if there is an imbalance in technology (say, a user with a chip card, but the merchant doesn't read them; or a chip-less card from a lazy bank, and a merchant with a modern reader), then whomever had the inferior tech automatically loses.” This motivated the banks *and* the merchants to update all their gear overnight.

"What does that have to do with tap-to-pay and Apple Pay" When this enormous rollout of new terminals happened, because we were sort of "leapfrogging" technology, most of these terminals included tap-to-pay hardware, even though the new cards being rolled out didn't support it, because this hardware was coming from providers who had been selling to Europe for ages. Tap-to-pay gradually got enabled as banks figured out that people were prone to spending more with tappy-cards, and also there was that scare during COVID of physical touch in public.

However, a very small handful of merchants — really stupid and cheap ones, by which I mean Home Depot and Walmart — got the cheapest chip-reading machines possible, which didn't include tappy abilities. Additionally there's a whole thing about Walmart trying to kick off a proprietary QR-code reading standard.

So anyway, it looks like Home Depot has finally decided to roll out new terminals again, probably costing them more money than if they had paid just a little more for tap-enabled terminals back in 2014-ish or whenever.

 

[War833]

t sure where you go but around here, every table in the restaurants have a terminal to do everything on your own. Just as all the places are contactless (even Walmart though you have to use their app) so your 20 yr analogy is pretty dumb.

No it's not dumb - it's perfectly accurate when comparing to other modern countries. There are exceptions, but the lack of ubiquity in the US is astonishingly backwards.

 

[sharprichnorth]

In Canada, I think it's been years since I encountered any vendor, large or small, who doesn't accept Apple Pay.

 

[gsmornot]

Home Depot's delay of NFC feels more about having a contract with a hardware and/or software suppliers that don't support tap-to-pay. Not concisely forbidding the method, but picked a vendor that wasn't supporting it.

Unlike Walmart who is (was?) actively investing in an internal system and use their market power to minimize merchant fees.

Home Depot was the first place I used Apple Pay. When it was announced the first time years ago, everyone found out Home Depot was working. After a while, maybe 6 months, they turned it off and joined Wal-Mart who has machines and a provider that support NFC/Apple Pay. Wal-Mart wanted to avoid fees altogether. Credit cards of any form were the target, not just tap to pay but too late on taking cards, that cat was already out of the bag. So, now, here they are. I will say, Sam's, the wholesale wing of Wal-Mart, has a fantastic scan and go feature we use when we shop. Scan as you add it to the cart then pay on the app. I use a credit card to pay.

 

[IIGS User]

I can use Apple Pay at the local farmers market to buy cookies and eggs from the Amish, but I can’t use it in WalMart. 🤦

I avoid Walmart because of this. I rarely carry my wallet and all my payment cards when I shop anymore. It’s just a hassle.

If I need to go into Walmart I have to purposefully remember my payment card before I go in the store. My habits have shifted to the default being not needing a physical card to complete a transaction.

Whatever the reasoning is at Walmart, they need to catch up or keep up. They’re not the only or best game in town most places.

 

[QandnotU]

Merchant fees from banks.

The fee is the same if you're tapping a card stored in your apple wallet as it would be physically tapped or inserted on the terminal. Only the card type and where you're taking the payment (online vs in-person) dictates the interchange cost on that transaction.

 

[Imperial926]

In the UK I have only left the house with a phone for at least the last 4 years. Even France seems to have finally caught on except for some market traders.

 

[eduardodfj]

Meanwhile, here in Europe, I have used my Apple Watch and iPhone to pay, exclusively, since at least 2021. And I mean, even for a coffee or beer in a random bar.

 

[NervousFish2]

Hurrah! I will now be saving a lot of money at HEB

 

[ZZ9pluralZalpha]

^ this is correct

About 10-ish years ago, US payment terminals didn't even accept those little insertion chips, we were still using magnetic stripes like savages.

Getting chip readers rolled out required every merchant in America to upgrade their hardware, as well as every bank to issue new cards. Banks didn't want to issue more expensive cards for readers that didn't exist, and merchants didn't want to roll out readers for cards that nobody had.

Congress did something really clever (for once). They passed a law that basically said, "in the case of a fraud dispute, if there is an imbalance in technology (say, a user with a chip card, but the merchant doesn't read them; or a chip-less card from a lazy bank, and a merchant with a modern reader), then whomever had the inferior tech would automatically win the the fraud suit. This motivated the banks *and* the merchants to update all their gear overnight.

"What does that have to do with tap-to-pay and Apple Pay" When this enormous rollout of new terminals happened, because we were sort of "leapfrogging" technology, most of these terminals included tap-to-pay hardware, even though the new cards being rolled out didn't support it, because this hardware was coming from providers who had been selling to Europe for ages. Tap-to-pay gradually got enabled as banks figured out that people were prone to spending more with tappy-cards, and also there was that scare during COVID of physical touch in public.

However, a very small handful of merchants — really stupid and cheap ones, by which I mean Home Depot and Walmart — got the cheapest chip-reading machines possible, which didn't include tappy abilities. Additionally there's a whole thing about Walmart trying to kick off a proprietary QR-code reading standard.

So anyway, it looks like Home Depot has finally decided to roll out new terminals again, probably costing them more money than if they had paid just a little more for tap-enabled terminals back in 2014-ish or whenever.

Good summary of the U.S.'s long journey away from magnetic strips, but in the Home Depot's case I doubt it was a point-of-sale hardware holdup: the ones in my area have been using POS readers that support contactless cards (coupled to ~20" Dell touchscreens as self-checkout terminals), so clearly they've been plowing in enough money to support it... which makes their refusal until now all the more idiotic.

 

[Nekronos]

Sure, but you're on an Apple blog, so of course we'll focus on Apple Pay.

I think there's a difference between focusing on Apple Pay without distorting the substance of the news and what seems like to me like putting lipstick on a pig - the substance here is tap to pay, Apple Pay is included but it's not like these stores were only holding back Apple Pay, they didn't accept any tap to pay.

Highlight Apple Pay but this can be presented better. Just because this is an Apple oriented site doesn't mean news that pertains to Apple can't be presented holistically.

 

[Powerguru]

Fighting a category 5 hurricane never works.

 

[DesignTime]

Years too late for my business.

 

[zalusky]

Anybody remember when they turned it off in 2015 they responded by saying that soon they would be the largest user of ApplePay and then quietly never said anything ever again.