Apple Pay now available in Lowe's home improvement stores

AppleInsider

Home improvement retail giant Lowe's now accepts Apple Pay in its U.S.-based locations, beating its main competitor -- Home Depot -- to the punch.

If you're planning to visit Lowe's soon, you can now pay with your iPhone or Apple Watch. After years of holding out, the hardware store accepts contactless payments, including Apple Pay.

Recently, Lowe's employees took to Reddit to talk about the change. Many employees were relieved to hear the change, noting that they were frequently asked why the retail giant hadn't yet implemented the technology.

Reddit user DarrenAronofsky noted that all stores should be able to accept Apple Pay by December 20, but only at the main checkout registers and the assisted self-checkout registers (ASCO). Specific departments like lumber and garden will not have contactless payment method options.

As MacRumors points out, Lowe's has beaten its largest competitor, Home Depot, in being first to offer tap-to-pay payment methods in store.



Read on AppleInsider

Xed

1) 

2) I don't see Google Pay and Samsung Pay noted.

3) I hope Home Depot follows suit soon.

robin huber

Not so much “beaten.” I have stopped shopping at Home Depot after being told numerous times that they would “never” accept ApplePay. Each time the employee way emphatic—even angry—in the response. They seem to have been inculcated with some kind of hostility towards Apple. My local Ace Hardware not only takes ApplePay, but gives an extra 1% cash back. I go there now. 

Xed

robin huber said:

Not so much “beaten.” I have stopped shopping at Home Depot after being told numerous times that they would “never” accept ApplePay. Each time the employee way emphatic—even angry—in the response. They seem to have been inculcated with some kind of hostility towards Apple. My local Ace Hardware not only takes ApplePay, but gives an extra 1% cash back. I go there now. 

Ace HW is great for the 3% back and being close to me, but I do find their prices for many items are higher than Lowes and HD, and there are of course selection limitations. 

If you read the Reddit link you can see that Lowes employees have to answer the question a lot and hate that Lowes hasn't included *Pay services when they're so commonplace now. Perhaps that the resentment you're noticing at HD.

bonobob

Even though I know they don't take Apple Pay, I always try and then complain when it doesn't work.  If they can be annoying to me, I can return the favor.

At my local Lowe's, the garden shop, prior to this announcement, took Apple Pay, while the main registers did not.  Exactly the opposite of what's being announced now.

Xed

bonobob said:

Even though I know they don't take Apple Pay, I always try and then complain when it doesn't work.  If they can be annoying to me, I can return the favor.

You know there isn't one employee in your local Lowes that has any say in the corporate decision. Why actively make an hourly employee's day worse?

hmlongco

Silly, but been avoiding L/HD mostly because of their refusal to do tap-to-pay. At least L has seen the light.

macxpress

It still amazes me how merchants still refuse to accept Apple/Samsung Pay. It's just ridiculous in today's world. 

Xed

macxpress said:

It still amazes me how merchants still refuse to accept Apple/Samsung Pay. It's just ridiculous in today's world. 

I find that it's a rare case that they don't these days, with a couple big holdouts that are well known.

I remember when Apple Pay launched almost a decade ago with very few large retailers accepting it, but many smaller ones already having the ability but usually not knowing it untilI use it. They'd usually tell me some form of it doesn't work, be surprised that I'm using my iPhone, and even with repeated use at the same place with the same person not understand how to do it. By that I mean they'd have to hit a series of buttons to complete the transaction so they can accept payment, whether that meant inserting or swiping a card, but when you add the Apple Pay option to the mix that normal procedure seemed to confuse them. I even grabbed many of the free Apple Pay stickers Apple would give away online so I could hand out to businesses that offered it to help bring about awareness. Oddly, I still get people who say they've never seen the Apple Watch used for that and didn't even know that was an feature.

Then there were people on this very forum that were claiming it sucked because adopting wasn't yet universal, as if such a brilliant, new tech would just be ubiquitous overnight. It's so funny to look back and see CVS with their CurrentC flop that was never going to work and Google's simplistic and insecure setup that would pass your CC data through their servers. Apple was the only way this was going to work and I'm glad to see Google and Samsung adopting it.

bonobob

Xed said:

bonobob said:

Even though I know they don't take Apple Pay, I always try and then complain when it doesn't work.  If they can be annoying to me, I can return the favor.

You know there isn't one employee in your local Lowes that has any say in the corporate decision. Why actively make an hourly employee's day worse?

Yeah, I know, but it wastes time, thus money, and the execs don't like that.  

ihatescreennames

Xed said:

macxpress said:

It still amazes me how merchants still refuse to accept Apple/Samsung Pay. It's just ridiculous in today's world. 

 Oddly, I still get people who say they've never seen the Apple Watch used for that and didn't even know that was an feature.

Funny you mention that. Just last week I paid for our entry to a science center using my watch and the girl working the register commented she had never seen anyone pay with an Apple Watch, she was surprised. 

That night we ordered take-out. Again I paid with my Apple Watch and the hostess, shocked, said she had never seen anyone use Apple Pay with their watch. She had seen people use their phone and then told me she has a Series 4. 

It’s surprising to me that people that run a cash register on a fairly regular basis still don’t see Apple Watch used for Apple Pay. I use mine all the time, almost exclusively, for payments. 

sethm1

Lowes should. Given our local store pretty much got rid of all the cashiers except on the garden dept, they need to make it easier for us pay. I shop less any ways at lowes when they starting charging for bags. They also have less help than Home Depot. What I also thought funny, was 2 months ago I stopped by my local Lowes as the Home Depot not on my home. It seemed all the employees were over 65. Thats not a crack at the age given I’m 62, just seemed weird to me. Would not be surprised if in 2024 they announce closing all stores.

cyberdine 101

I am happy Lowe’s is finally taking Apple Pay. I always complained to the cashier every time. They always seemed to agree with me. Costco! On the other hand is  pissing me off at the gas pump ⛽️ Costco does take Apple Pay in store. But! Does not at the gas pump. You cannot use the phone. You have to use the physical card. Or! Just recently they enabled the laser scanner on the pump. So you can use the QR code in Costco app. Which is a little inconvenient. With Apple Pay, double click! Tap and pay. The Costco app! Unlock the phone. Find the app, open the app, wait for it to load. Wait for the ad to finish, go to your account and then scan the QR code. Yeah! A little inconvenient. 😤

MplsP

Xed said:

robin huber said:

Not so much “beaten.” I have stopped shopping at Home Depot after being told numerous times that they would “never” accept ApplePay. Each time the employee way emphatic—even angry—in the response. They seem to have been inculcated with some kind of hostility towards Apple. My local Ace Hardware not only takes ApplePay, but gives an extra 1% cash back. I go there now. 

Ace HW is great for the 3% back and being close to me, but I do find their prices for many items are higher than Lowes and HD, and there are of course selection limitations. 

If you read the Reddit link you can see that Lowes employees have to answer the question a lot and hate that Lowes hasn't included *Pay services when they're so commonplace now. Perhaps that the resentment you're noticing at HD.

The local hardware store may be more expensive but they often have the big box stores beat in convenience and customer service and that’s worth paying extra. Ironically they often have a better selection, too.

MplsP

Really happy they started taking ApplePay. The one advantage of using a credit card is they could swipe the card if you didn’t have your receipt, now I’ll have to start saving my receipts.

chasm

The rest of the first world smiles, amused, at the notion that some places in the US either don’t take contactless payments, or that some clerks there have never seen someone pay using a phone or watch …

the1maximus

Home Depot offered it for a VERY brief time many years ago, but pulled it without any reason. 

wood1208

One more reason to avoid Home Depot. Customers are the one who make the difference. Go to Lowes Home Improvement instead of Home Depot and you can force the good change.

jellybelly

the1maximus said:

Home Depot offered it for a VERY brief time many years ago, but pulled it without any reason. 

I recall the same thing.  

Replacement card readers were mandated and then given an extension to implement. The replacement readers had the function to accept upcoming embedded chip and an upgrade to stripe swipe protocol for security and data that made it easier to issue refunds and collect more data for targeted marketing and ( with an option for anonymized data or not for the merchant—almost always not anonymized by merchant ). 

At that time many big box stores including CVS were waiting on Walmart consortium to bring something Walmart and consortium were hyping to the market.  

My CVS Store upgraded their readers that were multifunctional including ability for Apple Pay— on by default and overlooked for a while as well as Home Depot and both eventually turned the feature off in the card reader and Visa Mastercard software. 

As I mentioned, this was around the time that card readers were being replaced en masse by a deadline to satisfy Visa and MasterCard as well as bank’s desires to adhere to the new protocol that was both an upgrade to the stripe data exchange and coming embedded chip in end of the card. 

Progress is almost always lumpy. 

tomkarl

bonobob said:

Xed said:

bonobob said:

Even though I know they don't take Apple Pay, I always try and then complain when it doesn't work.  If they can be annoying to me, I can return the favor.

You know there isn't one employee in your local Lowes that has any say in the corporate decision. Why actively make an hourly employee's day worse?

Yeah, I know, but it wastes time, thus money, and the execs don't like that.  

Do you honestly think that corporate executives know anything about the time wasting annoyances that customers put hourly employees through?

Xed

tomkarl said:

bonobob said:

Xed said:

bonobob said:

Even though I know they don't take Apple Pay, I always try and then complain when it doesn't work.  If they can be annoying to me, I can return the favor.

You know there isn't one employee in your local Lowes that has any say in the corporate decision. Why actively make an hourly employee's day worse?

Yeah, I know, but it wastes time, thus money, and the execs don't like that.  

Do you honestly think that corporate executives know anything about the time wasting annoyances that customers put hourly employees through?

Execs, as a general rule, don’t care. Just watch John Oliver’s segment on dollar stores for an all too common example. 

I think it would be best to write a letter, start a petition, or if one wants to blast a company publicly do so on social media — which has countless times made companies change course overnight — not to some hourly employee working week to week to support their family.