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SAM’S Club has made a significant checkout change at one of its brand-new locations.
The warehouse retailer said the move would help streamline the process for customers as they pay and exit the store.
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Sam’s Club is notably owned by Walmart, which has been experimenting and adjusting traditional and self-checkout areas in recent years.
Customers have seen most Walmart locations with predominantly self-checkout kiosks open and very few cashiers this year.
The same can be said for Sam’s Club, and while this has upset some customers, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion has confirmed that they’ll be taking a massive step further from traditional checkouts, per a recent earnings call.
McMillion noted that the newly-finished Sam’s Club in Grapevine, Texas, about 22 miles northwest of downtown Dallas, has no traditional checkouts.
The Sam’s Club location could do this in part because of an AI tech update that automatically verifies receipts when shoppers exit.
It was rolled out at 120 locations in April and keeps shoppers from having to stop and have it looked over by employees.
“Boldly, our Sam’s team also eliminated traditional checkouts, so our members can use Scan & Go and the new computer vision exit technology to exit the club faster,” he told investors.
“Just imagine a 150,000 square-foot Sam’s Club with no traditional checkouts.”
Based on McMillion’s comments, Walmart and Sam’s Club executives are confident in Scan & Go’s ability to eliminate long lines and help shoppers pay for merchandise more efficiently.
BONUS FEATURE
Scan & Go is a feature offered to Sam’s Club and Walmart+ members who have the mobile application for either chain.
Through the app, Scan & Go lets customers scan merchandise as they place it in their cart while shopping.
This generates a single barcode for all of the items, which can then be scanned at the self-checkout kiosk.
After getting a quick verification from a nearby Sam’s Club or Walmart employee, customers can walk out with their purchases.
This part, of course, wouldn’t happen with the Sam’s Club AI exit tech.
What is Walmart’s Scan and Go?
Walmart’s Scan and Go was made to save time for shoppers
Walmart’s Scan and Go system was created to help customers scan items as they shop, pay, and leave without waiting in long checkout lines.
The retailer describes the new system to be done in a few easy steps:
- Customers first need to have the Walmart app downloaded on their phones with their location access enabled.
- On the Store Mode landing page, shoppers must click the Scan and Go option.
- Customers can scan each item and place them in their carts as they shop.
- At the end, they’ll be prompted to view the cart to make sure the quantity on the app matches the ones in their carts.
- Shoppers will press “Check Out” and head to a self-checkout kiosk.
- They’ll be prompted to scan the provided QR code at the register and confirm their payment method.
- Once the transaction is complete, shoppers can leave the store without worry.
The feature effectively saves customers time and effort in scanning each item at the kiosk while also preventing long lines from building with how long that process typically takes.
While Sam’s Club might be moving to eliminate cashiered checkouts in future store locations, Walmart isn’t quite there yet.
WALMART WOES
Earlier this year, the retail giant gave managers at select locations the choice to block off certain self-checkout kiosks for Walmart+ members and Spark drivers to make the process more efficient.
It would, in theory, allow Walmart+ members to get the full benefits of Scan & Go and the most out of their $98 annual fee for membership.
The result was many complaints from regular customers, who had self-checkout lines backed up even further than before, as some locations allegedly blocked off at least 60% of self-checkouts for members.
Walmart has also tested a 15-item or less limit in self-checkout areas at some locations.
This, too, has seen significant blowback, with some claiming their local store left customers who had more than 15 items nowhere to checkout after all cashiered lanes were closed for the day.
Walmart’s CFO also recently warned of price hikes as the costs of several key items are expected to rise.
Earlier this month, Sam’s Club released its Thanksgiving meal deal that feeds 10 but is a little more expensive than nearly identical offerings from competitors.
