Target Just Says No To Apple Pay In Stores

For customers nurturing a dream that someday soon they will be able to use Apple Pay in Target stores — well, you might just want to keep dreaming, because reality is a long ways off from matching that particular fantasy.

Though social media was abuzz all week with rumors that Target was bitting the bullet (or Apple) and opening up its checkout counters in-store for Apple Pay, it seems that it was only a rumor. Target has now officially and explicitly just said no to Apple Pay in-store for now — via a released statement.

“We have no plans or work under way currently to make Apple Pay available in our stores,” said Target in the statement.

Sad news for Apple Pay/Target fans — though there is perhaps some cool comfort in knowing that Apple Pay is still open for business within the Target app. Target was, in fact, one of the first big retailers to accept Apple Pay within 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,” a spokesperson said.

Target technically has the ability to accept Apple Pay right now, since it upgraded all of its terminal to NFC compatible EMV terminals in 2015.  The retailer had intimated that it would be open to new payment systems in-store at the time. However, that open-mindedness seems to have translated into the desire to build a mobile product all on its own. Target has already announced its intentions to roll out its own mobile payments platform — likely sometime later this year.