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Walmart Now Lets You Pay With Phone At All 4,600 US Stores Via Walmart Pay (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Walmart will now let customers make purchases with their phone at all 4,600 of its stores in the U.S. The feature is called Walmart Pay and it works by letting the cashier scan a QR code on a customer's phone screen to complete their payment. The technology is different than Apple, Samsung, and Android Pay, which involves tapping your phone next to a payment terminal with NFC. The company wants to make shopping easier and faster, and with its own payment app, Walmart can get insights into consumer behavior, though it says it won't use the data without a shopper's permission. Walmart says no payment information is stored on users' phones or at registers -- card information is stored on Walmart servers. Note: Samsung Pay also uses magnetic secure transmission (MST) to make purchases. When a smartphone with Samsung Pay is held against a register with a magnetic stripe terminal, the phone emits a magnetic signal that simulates the magnetic strip found on the back of a credit or debit card.
i'm waiting for Apple Pay
One more fucking way to pay that isn't convenient everywhere. Fuck Walmart.
captcha: simplify (go figure)
let's make it easy for children and the brain dead to blow a small fortune on cheap crap they don't need
Walmart is the US's largest grocery chain by both number of locations and amount of food sold, but nice hipster rant against Big Company.
And using the Walmart Pay would be any different than using a credit or debit card how? One way you swipe a card to get your payment info. Another way you present a QR code that uniquely identifies you, looks up your payment info. Both ways process the transaction basically the same from that point on.
This isn't running the transaction through Google or Apple Pay like an in-game purchase would do, racking up large transactions mommy and daddy end up paying.
"Walmart can get insights into consumer behavior, though it says it won't use the data without a shopper's permission." ...and using Walmart Pay will be considered consent. But I guess the honest statement of "we will data mine the fuck out of all purchase information we can snag, and by using Walmart Pay you maximize our opportunity" doesn't sound so nice.
https://xkcd.com/927/
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"card information is stored on Walmart servers."
great plan, what could go wrong?
Honestly once they get enough data Wal-Mart should pair up with State Food Stamp Programs to pair QR Codes with Families in Need to get data on if Stamps are being properly used in the amounts given to an Individual or Family. It sounds invasive I know, but this is the perfect medium to gather this type of data. I don't know about the rest of you but I have seen enough single parents trying to wrangle 2 or 3 children and write a check, its a bottleneck in the Checkout process. QR Those Food Stamps and Alleviate Stress. But on the big picture it is a great way to throw targeted adds your way or automatically apply coupons found in Wal-Mart and competitor ads (More difficult but IT has a lot of time on their hands sometimes).
... and can't be used unless unlocked!
WalMart has had their Smart Shopper service around for a while - you scan in the receipt using the bar code at the bottom, and the system compares what you bought to sale prices at nearby stores, and refunds you any difference (to a WalMart gift card). It's a pretty explicit quid pro quo - they get the data on your purchases (not just one receipt, but over time, unless you're going to bother to create a new account for each shopping trip, which nobody is going to do), and you get some amount of cash back (usually works out to 2-3% of my purchase).
The payment app integrates that, automatically spending any gift card balance, and then charging your credit card.
Why would I want Walmart storing my payment info when I have a nice little card that does it for me? No one should be storing payment info, it just becomes a target for hackers.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Right, so I want to have an app for every store. One for WalMart, one for Bev Mo, one for Best Buy, one for Safeway, one for whatever else. I want to link a BANK ACCOUNT to it. You know that is how they do it - there are two points for these guys - 1) get out of the credit card fee, and 2) collect a lot of data on customers. With Apple Pay and Android Pay they get the credit card fee and they can't collect data since they get a pseudo card number. I do NOT want all these stores to have apps with access to my bank account. Way to much potential downside there...
What do you mean, you have them save your credit card info on their servers, which means their servers are a one stop shop for hackers.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Walmart has a better selection of Amy's(tm) organic frozen food that is less expensive than most of the other generic grocery stores in my city. The exact same frozen organic food items are available at Nature's Grocer and Whole Foods in my city but are more expensive. Why should I pay more for the same item at those other stores? Now granted there are some additional brands of frozen organic foods at Nature's Grocer and Whole Foods but given the increased cost I don't see a reason to shop there.
Well, I guess I'll burn some karma. It is still cheap garbage though. I try not to be elitist about this sort of thing but if you do your grocery shopping at Walmart you're eating the wrong stuff.
The grocery section of my closest WalMart looks pretty much identical to most grocery stores (i.e. ShopRite, Kroger, etc.), with a large produce section, etc. When it comes to organic products, they have a pretty decent array (although I don't see any reason to pay the organic tax). They don't have the wide array of excellent cheeses that my local Whole Foods offers, but that's not really their competition.
Why would you want to link a bank account to this app, or any app? Just use a credit card.
I was worried that shopping for pickles and 32-packs of toilet paper would actually require me to engage the muscles in my hand to reach into my pocket and pull out a credit card. Those things aren't exactly light you know. Well, they are light, but thank God I won't have to go through all that any more. I'll be able to just cruise past the checkout in my mobility scooter and wave my Consumers Cellular phone and be on my way.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I try not to be elitist about this sort of thing
If you have to exert effort to not appear elitist then you're an elitist so might as well own it. Back in the real world, Walmart's food prices are significantly below the supermarket chains and allow families to feed themselves with better quality food than what would otherwise be possible if they had to pay higher prices. The harsh realities of how poor feed themselves might not make for touchy, feel-good sentiments but it makes for full bellies.
I will first say that I don't shop at WalMart, but I do know:
1. They have plenty of fresh produce there, including a deli. Maybe not the older stores, but I think all the new ones probably do. One-stop-shopping and all.
2. Calories don't make people fat. Being fat is due to the body's inability to properly regulate fat storage. One of the major contributors to the process of fat regulation is insulin. What has the greatest impact on insulin in your body? Carbs, and in particular grains and sugars. Look at the amounts of these two things in the cheap foods that lower income people eat. (and it really extends to everyone, not just lower income people) Read the book Good Calories, Bad Calories. (or a more layman-friendly version of it called Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
The assumption is the quality of their grocery isle matches teh quality of all the other isles. I like the selection walmart has compared to the local grocery store. But I'd rather pay by ApplePay and not be bothered with their crap. I will just pay the old fashioned slow way if and when i have to use walmart. Hopefully they will realize they can fire a few more people by having us all move through their faster and give up on this idiocy, it's about the only language they understand.
You're a hipster classist who really does not know as much about nutrition as he thinks he does.
I have used Walmart pay several times and in spite of Walmart promises of faster checkout - it is slower to check out. By the time you unlock the phone, navigate to the walmart app, scroll down to get to walmart pay, verify your identity, scan the keypad, wait for approval, you could have scanned your debit card and be done with it. Walmart pay should at least have a widget to make eliminate a few steps.
the keypad even timeout on me a few times while getting to the app and had to get the cashier reinitialized walmart pay.
I wish my bank used samsung pay, it is so much faster and I have used it at walmart a couple of times using credit card with no problems..
Just open three more checkout lanes (real checkout lanes, self-checkout doesn't count). Walmart knows how many lanes they need open because they study customer traffic patterns, but their standard operating procedure is to open three fewer than what the data requires.
One more reason why the Walmart store experience is openly hostile to customers.
They sell the same stuff as the other grocery stores around here, just at lower prices. The produce is sourced locally where possible (like Kroger and Publix).
Why do you think they sell different stuff?
Or are you the typical cluefuck elitist who thinks that only organic overpriced stuff from Whole Foods is "healthy"?
Do you have ESP?
It's all about the Benjamins, although I don't suppose we can call them that if we're paying with a phone app.
It's all about the Tubmans.
Well, I guess I'll burn some karma. It is still cheap garbage though. I try not to be elitist about this sort of thing but if you do your grocery shopping at Walmart you're eating the wrong stuff. It is mostly crap I wouldn't feed my dog and while you might argue that other chains have similar content, the fact is that those other stores at least make an effort to have a few isles of healthy "hipster" foods. People of course claim that the cheap prices make it a good option for the lower income consumer but if you observe the majority of those consumers in the store... they don't exactly look starved for calories.
Any "Super" Walmart will have a full grocery, including the same produce from the same farms and distributors as other supermarkets in the area.
Frozen prepared food is still crap, even if it is organic.
I eat like a goddamn hippie and shop at walmart sometimes. They have the best price on pinto beans and dry whole milk out of all the stores along my route to work. They have a lot of garbage like any store, but they have excellent prices on staples. I go out of my way to shop at walmart occasionally since everyone else seems determined to charge a lot for basic items. Why are dry beans >$1/lb everywhere except walmart?
Man, you really need that seminar!
and they can't collect data since they get a pseudo card number
... why would you think that these software black boxes aren't using a SECOND Id to track people? Do you seriously think that Google and Apple are setting up payment systems because they're such nice people? Of course they're mining the shit out of that data.
I don't respond to AC's.
IMO the customer experience for Apple Pay is far superior to a QR code system like Walmart Pay. Presuming an iPhone 6, because that's what I have. On the iPhone 6, I hold the phone up over the NFC sensor, the phone wakes up and prompts me to authenticate via Touch ID, I do and it's done. For Walmart Pay or other QR code systems I'd have to wake up and unlock the phone, find and open the app, find the QR code scanner, hold the phone over the QR code. And my phone has to be online, so no good if I'm overseas in Airplane Mode (I've used Apple Pay in airplane mode).
And about those NFC pads... You know all those new Ingenico iSC 250 readers Walmart installed to accept EMV chip cards? They all have NFC built-in. Walmart simply disabled it.
End of Line.
The assumption is the quality of their grocery isle matches teh quality of all the other isles.
It does. I used to work for a major food distributor in the southwest, and we sold walmart the same bag of doritos, m&m's, and produce that we sold to other stores in the region. There really is no difference.
But people who say otherwise actually believe organic food is magically better for you simply because it costs more, even though it isn't. And in some ways is worse, such as increased risk of foodborn pathogens from cow shit based fertilizer vs the synthetic fertilizer used in modern agriculture. Some produce is worse than others in this regard, such as raw organic alfalfa sprouts, which have such a high risk of contamination that walmart refuses to carry them. Whole Foods doesn't seem to mind the risk though.
Anyway, this story is about a better way to mobile-pay, IMO. QR scanning rates higher than the "touch your phone to the pad" customer experience. At least it seems more reliable, in my experience. And scanners are always present at checkouts today... the specialized pads for proximity readers are not.
Smartphone based barcodes are often difficult for scanners to read. Scanners are primarily designed to pick up reflected light - the scanner transmits light, it bounces off the barcode, and the scanner receives the image. But a phone's screen is backlit with a pulse-width modulated array of flickering LEDs; flickering that is not in sync with the scanner's imaging sensor. They are not all engineered to read light transmissive screens. Some scanners have the option to turn off the light when reading a phone screen, which can help
The "touching a phone to a pad" experience depends largely on the technology of the phone. Samsung's MST is a pure hack, and whether or not it works depends entirely on the geometry of the heads concealed in the reader -- a reader that wasn't designed to read anything but a mag stripe on a card.
An NFC phone is very reliable because NFC readers are specifically engineered to read contactless devices. They are much more reliable than either Samsung's MFT or smartphone QR codes. Right now NFC is more secure than mag stripes, but less secure than EMV. They're much faster and more convenient than EMV or QR codes. The QR codes are probably more secure than NFC cards (for right now) and are probably on par with Apple Pay, but there's no way of knowing how secure any of the back end systems are.
John
My local Walmart doesn't have the selection of my local major chain -- but then I don't really need six different brands of capers, especially none of the six are actually the brand I'm looking for specifically.
Produce is, of course, by nature more variable than packaged foods. However, my Walmart has less selection of produce and poorer quality than any of the major supermarket chains around me - but it is cheaper.
Some of the produce issues at Walmart appear to be storage problems. For example, Walmart bananas frequently turn light brown overall a day or two after purchase -- it doesn't affect the flavor or texture, but it's a bit ugly. I suspect this is because they get exposed to excessively cold temperatures in the distribution centers, during transportation, or in storage at the store. At least one other major chains in the area have specially designed and isolated controlled climate rooms just for bananas in their warehouses, I suspect Walmart does not.
Some of the produce issues at Walmart seem to be that they buy a different "grade" of product. This is quite noticeable with russet potatoes ("baking potatoes"). Walmart's potatoes are wildly inconsistent from week to week. Sometimes they are all tiny, sometimes mostly huge and sometimes are all oddly shaped (for example, looking a bit more like dumbbells or curved). Sometimes they all have cuts on them, some "healed over" and some not -- the former may be from damage from farm equipment some time before harvest, the latter from damage during harvest or processing. Oddly, it seems that the defects vary from week to week (and I even open the boxes under the display areas so it's not just the customers have "picked over" the selection). It seems that Walmart buys "rejects" if they can find them. I almost never see such oddly shaped/damaged potatoes at any of three other local (chain) grocery stores I shop at, let alone entire displays and boxes full of potatoes with "this week's" defect. Oh, the Walmart potatoes also regularly have "bad spots" inside them, something I've only encountered VERY rarely in literally decades of eating baked potatoes about once a week from other sources but which I experience about 1/2 the time with Walmart potatoes.
Some of the produce issues at Walmart are freshness issues and I can't tell if these are the result of the product just not being purchased fast enough and sitting on the display too long (and not being purged) or something upstream - either buying produce that is already on its last legs or buying trailerfuls when it's cheap and storing it too long. I suspect the problem in some cases is upstream though -- for example, bulk carrots seem to sell pretty well and they are quite durable, yet the ones at the Walmart are often so rubbery and limp that if you pick up a typical sized carrot by the "fat" end and extend it out parallel to the floor, the other end will droop up to two inches. It's hard to imagine that in a fairly busy Walmart carrots would be sitting for a week or more "on display".
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
I was responding to Trailer Trash's (what an appropriate name for this topic!) assertion that "They sell the same stuff as the other grocery stores around here, just at lower prices." which isn't quite true in my area as quality of produce and selection overall are not as good at Walmart.
Agreed that any food product bought in any major chain store is going to be "safe" to eat almost all the time.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
Do they save your credit card information?
That depends on their payment gateway provider. They may just save an authorisation token that would only let Walmart receive the funds.
If someone steals your wallet with your credit card in it, they instantly have your credit card number.
If they steal your phone with a payment app, they need to unlock the phone first to use it, which can be remotely wiped or have its authorisation revoked.
My bank lets me use my phone for contactless payments. My credit card details aren't stored on my phone. The app won't respond to NFC unless the phone is unlocked.
Every time I use my card and sign for the transaction, that signature costs Walmart 5 cents above and beyond the card fee.
You don't want to. Walmart REQUIRES you to. This payment method is so Walmart can get out of paying credit card fee's and have sole discretion over whether to permit you to return something.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I just used it yesterday. It went through quickly, no real hangups. The hardest part was the glare on the pos made scanning the qr difficult. Based on how impressed the clerk was with it, I'd guess it was her first time seeing it used.
There is no printed receipt. The receipt is stored "indefinitely" on your Walmart account. Which can be viewed on your phone. If you've ever used their "savings catcher", it looks just like that.
I linked my cc to the app. Some were saying it linked directly to your bank account. I don't recall that being an option, but I already had cc on file from online purchases. It just had me verify that was the card I wanted to use.
This qr system has the potential to be safer than even the chip system. The safely of the physical pos system matters less because it's my phone sending my info. Presumably, the pos is only responsible for showing the qr and saying "thanks" when it's done.
Many of the recent compromises were due to pos that were compromised. Their website has had my cc saved for a while now without issue, hoping it stays that way.
No, they don't. Where are you getting the idea that this app requires connecting a bank account? You input a credit card or debit card number.
They sell the same stuff as the other grocery stores around here, just at lower prices. The produce is sourced locally where possible (like Kroger and Publix).
Why do you think they sell different stuff?
Or are you the typical cluefuck elitist who thinks that only organic overpriced stuff from Whole Foods is "healthy"?
Most Walmart brand food lately seems to be listed as organic. Not sure I'm thrilled with this since I'm fine with cheap and 99% as nutritious.
I prefer my payment method that can't be scanned if I don't take it out.
For the same reason why you'd store your payment information with Google, Apple, Samsung, Paypal, or any other payment service. Convenience.
Am I the only one who still pays for stuff with cash?
I don't use credit cards... because dept racks up fast.....
I don't use my debit card.... because this links directly to my account. I'm sure if walmart pulled 10,000 instead of 10.00 I'd get my money back... but it would take 3-5 business days and wouldn't cover bounced checks or late fees.
I don't use any of the reward cards... because I know what data mining is and I'd rather not have everything I ever buy linked to my name.
I pulled out cash at a whole foods a few days ago and I actually heard the fucker behind me 'sigh' .
I still can't believe people care so little about privacy anymore.
Have you been shopping recently? You don't swipe cards anymore, you stick them in and wait 30s.
I have bene known to buy vegetables on occasion. I know this is unamerican, probably a terrorist act, but I have done it. And frequently the Walmart I use in the Austin, TX area has been known to source vegetables that are as fresh or fresher than the higher priced and overfull grocery store across the street. This is a local statement, vegetables at Walmart do not seemed to be sourced from national sources (unlike say, Target, which does not have very good produce) and in my case they seem very fresh. This may not apply in your area.
Yes, I agree, Doritos are Doritos, provided they are Doritos and not store brand nacho corn chips. I would not trust Walmart with that latter thing. I will say that Walmart's aisle of brand name junk food is twice the size of my grocery store, with more variety. I can say that across the board for the store, there is more selection in general. Part of the issue is that my local grocery chain has very little competition.
And, since Walmart puts downward pressure on wages, it creates more poor people to need to shop at Walmart. It's the cycle of nature. Or something.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
In what way is trying to scan an image on my phone more convenient than using my credit card? I carry one all the time anyway, and it's less likely to need recharging at an inconvenient time than my phone. There are some places online that have my credit card information, for my convenience, but in those cases I can't just swipe a card and have them receive the money, like I do at Walmart and other local stores.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Either you missed a decimal point ("3.0s"), have a problem with your card - dirty contacts maybe - or your retail experience involves a retailer with a fucked-up IT system.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"