Does HomeGoods accept Apple Pay? (renew!)
Apple Pay is being accepted around the world as a fast and convenient retail payment method. It’s accepted almost everywhere, and there’s little need to carry your wallet around.
But what about household items? Does HomeGoods also accept Apple Pay?
Does HomeGoods accept Apple Pay?
HomeGoods does not accept Apple Pay or Google Pay as a payment method. Instead, they offer PayPal and all traditional credit/debit card options. You can also use gift cards to pay at HomeGoods.
This article looks at the HomeGoods payment options: what they are, how they work and which options you can’t use at HomeGoods.
What are household items?
HomeGoods, a Framingham, Mass.-based home goods chain, was founded in 1992 as a small chain. It has now grown to have hundreds of locations across the United States. HomeGoods sells furniture, linens, culinary products, art decor, storage solutions and other home accessories.
HomeGoods has a related app called “The Goods,” which allows customers to view available products at a store location. Reviews for the app have been mixed.
As of July 2022, there are 866 HomeGoods locations in the US. The state with the most HomeGoods stores in the US is California, with 97. There is a similar sister company in Canada called HomeSense.
Despite popular belief, HomeGoods is not owned by Walmart. HomeGoods is owned by TJX Companies, a sister company to TJ Maxx, Sierra Trading Post and Marshalls (including HomeSense). The size of each store varies by location. Confusingly, TJ Maxx, Trading Post, and Marshalls all accept Apple Pay.
TJX Companies is an American multinational discount department store company headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.
As mentioned earlier, TJ Maxx and other sister companies accept Apple Pay as one of their payment methods. Customers will need to purchase Apple Pay-enabled smartphones online and in retail stores. Apple Pay customers get a 2% bonus on purchases.
Read: Does HomeGoods Have Squishmallows?
What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a mobile payment service from Apple Inc. that allows users to pay for purchases in stores or online. Customers need an Apple device to store payment methods in the digital Apple Wallet.
Apple Wallet (formerly Passbook) is a digital wallet that allows users to store digital wallet passes such as coupons, boarding passes, student IDs, government IDs, business credentials, resort passes, car keys, family keys, event tickets , transit cards, store cards, and most recently credit, debit, and prepaid cards that can be used with Apple Pay.
How do you pay at HomeGoods?
Payment options available at HomeGoods (online and in-store) include all major credit cards (Amex, Discover, MasterCard and Visa), rewards cards, gift cards and PayPal.
HomeGoods recommends PayPal and credit card orders placed will be processed immediately. Credit card payments for larger orders may require confirmation that the shipping address has been verified with the cardholder.
What is the HomeGoods app?
The HomeGoods app is called goods Available as a free download from the Apple Store, google play. The app allows shoppers to browse the store and preview new arrivals from their mobile phones.
Customers can use the app to shop and pay online, and manage online or in-store rewards. While customers have had very positive reviews of shopping with HomeGoods in-store, the app version of shopping hasn’t received the same positive feedback.
Read: Does Planet Fitness accept Apple Pay?
Why don’t some stores accept Apple Pay?
Investopedia article, Apple Pay vs Google Pay: How They Work By Karthik Raghavan (April 27, 2022) with commentary by Marguerita Cheng Apple Pay and Google Pay are both widely accepted mobile payment systems.
The observation is that Apple Pay might be easier to use, but Google has more features, and while Google acts as an intermediary and stores your card details on its servers, Apple has clearly stated that it will never track your transactions.
Apple Pay launched in 2014. Google Pay launched in 2018, replacing Google Wallet, which debuted in 2011.
Both Google Pay and Apple Pay allow shoppers to make online purchases directly from apps or websites. The entire checkout process is handled automatically, using pre-filled default values, requiring only PIN or Touch ID verification to complete the transaction.
“The biggest breakthrough mobile payment systems offer is their security, and both Apple and Google have employed some very neat tricks in this regard,” the article states.
Importantly Apple states that it will never track your transactions. It doesn’t even store your card details on its servers or on your device. All Apple does is transmit your card to the bank, authenticate with the bank, and then receive and store the DAN that the bank sends back.
This means that Apple is positioning itself as a separate payment medium. This means that while fingerprint-scan security and the ability to remotely disable your phone provide solid protection should someone gain access to your Apply Pay phone, you’ll have to resolve this with your bank, not Apple.
This approach means Apple has to negotiate transactions with banks and get them to sign up for its service, a task that limits the number of cards that can be used with Apple Pay.
The fact that they don’t track transactions prevents Apple from monetizing users, so Apple charges the banks it works with for each transaction.
When Apple Pay and Google Pay first came out, several major retailers refused to accept them.
A consortium of vendors called Merchant Customer Exchange (Rite Aid (RAD), CVS (CVS), and Walmart (WMT)) tried, but failed, to create a competing alternative called CurrentC.
Today, both Rite Aid and CVS accept Apple Pay and Google Pay. Walmart continues to reject the system and instead offers its own, called Walmart Pay, which functions similarly to Google Pay.
summarize
HomeGoods doesn’t offer Apple Pay as a payment option, and while the company clearly lists the payment methods they have available, they don’t explain which payment options they don’t offer.
Apple Pay (and Google Pay) have a complicated history, and it still can’t be assumed that even the bigger chains will offer them.
However, all retail outlets, including HomeGoods, continue to offer a variety of familiar payment methods.
