Walmart and Sam's Club open checkout to contactless tap to pay

Walmart will start accepting contactless cards, phones and smartwatches at the terminal from 24 August 2026, ending a long-running refusal to support mainstream NFC wallets. Coverage reaches all US stores and clubs by the end of 2026 and fuel sites by mid-2027. What changed Walmart has added contactless "Tap to Pay" acceptance to its US checkout estate. From 24 August 2026 the capability switches on at a first tranche of Walmart stores and Sam's Club locations, with the retailer committing to complete rollout across all US stores and clubs before the end of 2026 and across its fuel stations by the middle of 2027. Shoppers can present an eligible contactless card, a phone or a smartwatch instead of dipping a card or opening the Walmart app. Walmart, Sam's Club and OnePay cards can also be provisioned into digital wallets. The retailer frames the change as additive: cash, card and Walmart Pay remain available, and Sam's Club keeps Scan & Go. The significance is historical rather than technical. Walmart spent a decade steering customers to its own closed-loop tools and was a backer of the failed CurrentC consortium; this reverses that position and removes one of the last large US holdouts from NFC wallet acceptance.