Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Businesses The Almighty Buck Android Cellphones Google Privacy Security Software United States News Technology Apple

Walmart Now Lets You Pay With Phone At All 4,600 US Stores Via Walmart Pay (cnet.com) 118

Posted by BeauHD from the mobile-payment-system dept.
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.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Walmart Now Lets You Pay With Phone At All 4,600 US Stores Via Walmart Pay More

Walmart Now Lets You Pay With Phone At All 4,600 US Stores Via Walmart Pay

Comments Filter:

  • no thanks.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    i'm waiting for Apple Pay

  • Fuck That (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06, 2016 @04:43PM (#52458563)

    One more fucking way to pay that isn't convenient everywhere. Fuck Walmart.

    captcha: simplify (go figure)

  • Usage is consent (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thoromyr ( 673646 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2016 @04:51PM (#52458601)

    "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.

    • How would using a plastic card be any different? Unless you use a different credit card every time or use cash for everything, the companies track you through your credit card number.

      Yes we should be wary of spying and tracking and youhaveit, but let's not delude ourselves that this technology isn't decades old already.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by crabbz ( 986605 )
        If Walmart Pay is (eventually) used in other stores then Walmart gets to track what you buy in those other stores too. If it isn't accepted in other stores then what's the point? Do we want a different pay app for every store?

      • I get it, we shouldn't call out the half-truths or misleading statements made by corporate mouth-pieces because it is nothing new and everyone knows they will do whatever they want anyway.

        Btw: what do you mean by "this technology"? Are you trying to say that QR codes are decades old? Or were you oblivious to the story and the comment you were responding to? Because you do realize (I hope) neither one was actually about what people normally call technology, right?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Apple Pay and Android Pay do not give the merchant the real credit card number. They use a tokenized deal that will be different and cannot allow them to track. So the big businesses don't like it. Also, the Walmart deal will be connected to your bank and not to a credit card. Thus, by causing some danger to you (by having this info available to be exfiltrated), they get out of paying the credit card processing fee. Yeah for Walmart, bad for the customer...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DogDude ( 805747 )
          I think you're incorrect. Just because a credit card number is tokenized doesn't mean that they can't still track you. You're being tracked across countless websites without a credit card at all. It's just another ID. I guarantee that Apple and Android aren't setting up payment systems for free. They're mining the shit out of all of their data.
        • Setting aside the legitimate security and privacy implications, if the vendor can avoid the credit card processing fee that is good for consumers. When you consider that grocers have a profit margin between 1 and 3 percent the credit card company is making as much as the retailer. And to cover the fee retailers have to raise prices for everyone. Even the threat of new competition has forced the credit card companies to negotiate better terms.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by starless ( 60879 )

        How would using a plastic card be any different? Unless you use a different credit card every time or use cash for everything, the companies track you through your credit card number.

        Yes we should be wary of spying and tracking and youhaveit, but let's not delude ourselves that this technology isn't decades old already.

        Except a phone can potentially provide a whole host of additional information ranging from contacts to photos. (Which one "agrees" to when installing the app.)

    • They already do this. I've worked on plenty of Walmart "basket" data from IRI and Neilson

    • Actually Wal-Mart appears to be less interested in data-mining you than are big grocers like Kroger, Ralph's, Safeway etc. You don't need a loyalty card to get Wal-Mart's best prices on groceries.

      While Wal-Mart could theoretically match your purchases with your debit card data, and maybe they do, you're welcome to pay cash and be anonymous. Compare with the many grocery chains that require you to pay a significant premium for anonymity (i.e. they require the use of loyalty cards to get anywhere near reasona

  • great plan! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "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 Al

  • 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 (

  • What a relief! (Score:3)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2016 @05:33PM (#52458917) Journal

    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.

    • 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.

      And by "credit card", you mean the insecure, expensive, fraud-prone payment mechanism created by a small number of monopolistic companies and their government cronies; you know, what arrogant rich people like you use.

      • Re:What a relief! (Score:4, Interesting)

        by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2016 @09:01PM (#52460091) Journal

        And by "credit card", you mean the insecure, expensive, fraud-prone payment mechanism created by a small number of monopolistic companies and their government cronies; you know, what arrogant rich people like you use.

        Naw, man. I use currency. I just figured that would be way to much work for your average Wal-Mart shopper, what with the counting and the gazintas and everything. Plus, those bills get heavy, you know, and the average Wal-Mart shopper has the muscle definition of a frond under all that avoirdupois.

        And before you ask me for a citation...

        http://www.peopleofwalmart.com... [peopleofwalmart.com]

  • walmart pay is slow (Score:5, Informative)

    by renegade600 ( 204461 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2016 @05:54PM (#52459055)

    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..

    • I wish companies would stop it with the proprietary crap and just get to a system which works universally the way Google Wallet used to, except without the effort of working around the geographical restrictions it arbitrarily imposed.

    • Same thing with the chipped credit cards, they are so much slower than swiping. You must stick it into the reader and wait, and wait, and wait.

      I don't see the "advantage" of the chipped cards at all. If someone steals it they just plug it in like I would and no-one will know it's not me unless they check ID (which almost nowhere does - I don't go back to places that don't check).

  • 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.

    • 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.

      Huh? How do you determine what the data "require," and how do you know they're opening three fewer than that? There's clearly a balance for WalMart - the more lanes that are open, the higher staffing costs are, but the higher customer satisfaction is. Fewer lanes, lower costs, but lower satisfaction due to longer waits. Are you saying that the data say "the optimal balance between cost and customer satisfaction is to have 12 lanes open," and WalMart then says "OK, let's open nine"?

      • Many stores adhere to a de-facto standard that there should never be more than three people waiting in line to get to the register.

        Target, for example, has employees monitor the checkout lines and opens extra registers if the ones that are open get too crowded. They'll also direct you to the shorter lines if they're simply imbalanced. Walgreens has a unified line for all the registers. But if there's more than three people in line, there's a hidden button for a cashier to press that will trigger an annou

        • I've heard similar calls at WalMart ("all register-trained associates to the front immediately," or something along those lines). I'm still puzzled by the OP's claim that WalMart is intentionally opening a sub-optimal number of lanes (and very specifically, three lanes too few).

    • Based on having an ex girlfriend work at the local Walmart, they are 3 short because 3 cashiers called in "sick". Just the local store had 100 hrs per week of missed time by employees. She was a cashier, scheduled 10hrs a week then called every day to work.

  • Every time I use my card and sign for the transaction, that signature costs Walmart 5 cents above and beyond the card fee.

  • 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 accoun

  • I prefer my payment method that can't be scanned if I don't take it out.

  • 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 who

    • Question is, how much is privacy in a certain area worth to you? I get 2% cash back by using a credit card. I get much bigger discounts by using a frequent shopper card at the grocery store. If I used cash, I would pay a lot more for my food, and I don't find the fact that the grocery store knows what I buy on an ongoing basis to be particularly intrusive.

      Think of it this way - would you let Walmart put a microphone in your living room that records everything that's said? Probably not. Would you do it

    • Credit card debt only racks up fast if you don't think of it as actual payment. Some people do have this problem, and should avoid credit cards, and some don't. I don't use debit cards online, but never had a problem locally. I normally don't really care if people know what I'm buying.

      For privacy purposes, the advantage of using traceable reward cards and credit cards is that it establishes a pattern. If I paid for everything with cash, it would be harder to find out information about me that I don't

Slashdot Top Deals

With your bare hands?!?

Close