Walmart finally accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay

Walmart is rolling out Apple Pay and Google Pay at its US stores. The company had refused for years, insisting shoppers swipe a card or tap a physical token. Now the NFC readers can read the phone wallets. The rollout is coming in the fall.

The reason is simple: the tap-to-pay readers are already in the walls. Walmart spent big on them years ago and kept the door shut to mobile wallets because it wanted to push its own app and a proprietary tap card. The hardware works fine for Apple and Google — the payments network is the same — but the company had to flip a switch in its backend. It finally did.

Why this matters for us: la migra card is one less thing to lose, and one less app to juggle at the register — a small win for the people who just want to tap and go without standing in line.