Target shoppers will have to keep dreaming of the day they’ll be able to pay with their iPhones.
After rumors spread on social media over the weekend that Target planned to finally add Apple Pay to its checkout counters, the company came out with an official statement today saying it doesn’t plan to embrace Apple’s contactless payments anytime soon.
“We have no plans or work underway currently to make Apple Pay available in our stores,” said Target in the statement.
Even though the company doesn’t plan to accept Apple Pay in stores, it was one of the first major retailers to embrace Apple Pay in its iOS app.
“We continue to offer Apple Pay for online purchases in the Target app. And while we are exploring mobile wallet opportunities for our stores, we have no updates on our plans to share at this time,” the spokesperson said.
When Target upgraded its terminals with chip card support in 2015, the company said it would be open-minded about payment services. Target now plans to create its own mobile payments platform, which supposedly will launch later this year.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
14 responses to “Target thumbs its nose at Apple Pay”
Not surprised. An intern or customer service rep tweeted out they are bringing Apple Pay to Target and everyone takes it as truth.
If people only realized some person on twitter isn’t official.
Sad world we live in when facts are second place to “getting the story out”
And some ‘journalists’ don’t triple-check ‘facts’ anymore
Doesn’t Apple Pay use the same contactless system as regular Visa and MasterCards? You can use it everywhere in Australia
Target does not use contactless terminals in their stores. The chip readers they use often fail.
I’ll never understand. I can’t remember when I last inserted a card. Do normal cards have contactless over there, or only a handful
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Contactless cards are a security risk and not popular. The process of dipping a card is much slower than the old swipe. Ugh! Only the hip stores like Whole Foods, Starbucks, and small shops offer Apple pay which will also accept other contactless forms of payment.
No it doesn’t.
Here it does. Everywhere I can use a card, I can use Apple Pay, same in the UK. Maybe the American system is different.
Well, I will NEVER set foot in a Target again. After their fraud incident in the Christmas season of 2014, they should have been the first retailer on board with Apple Pay. Clearly, they don’t give a damn about customer security, so I don’t give a damn about shopping in their stores.
Target doesn’t want Apple Pay. It’s too secure.
The issue is at the store POS Target can’t track you when using Apple Pay, it’s essentially the data equivalent of a cash transaction. When you use a credit, debit, or EBT, card your puchases can be linked and your identity and purchase merged with third party data combined to create a customer profile. On-line, since you identify yourself as part of the log-in or transaction, acceptance of these token based tenders isn’t a data gathering issue. Make no mistake Target isn’t accepting Apple Pay or Google Wallet, because they can’t track you not because of cost or anything technical. Why can’t the “so called” press call them out on this?
Don’t shop at Target so don’t care! Target is a horrible store run by horrible people!
Don’t have this problem in BC Canada. Target blew their attempt to take over Canada so bady, they sold everything off and vanished. Good Riddance.