A soon-to-open Sam’s Club store will reportedly eliminate fixed checkout in favour of app-based shopping and payment.
According to CNBC, Sam’s Club is opening a pilot store in Grapevine, Texas this month that will be the Walmart-owned warehouse club retailer’s first full-time frictionless store.
Customers will shop and pay for purchases using Scan & Go, a feature of the Sam’s Club app which allows members shopping in-store to use their mobile devices to scan items as they shop, complete payment and skip the checkout line entirely. Sam’s Club has also been testing frictionless shopping via its Scan & Go app in an innovation lab store called Sam’s Club Now since 2018.
In addition to displaying products in the aisles, in the front-of-store area where checkout terminals would normally be located, Sam’s Club will display large items such lab-grown diamonds and Christmas Trees, with QR codes which customers can scan to obtain more information or purchase online for home delivery.
The store, which is reopening after being shut down for about two years following a tornado, will also reportedly offer four times as much space as a regular Sam’s Club location to fulfill curbside and home delivery orders.
“It’s kind of the physical manifestation of a journey we’re trying to go on as a company,” Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas said to CNBC. “The idea is that over time, we will be 100 per cent digital engagement as a business and you’ve got to prove that things work before you scale them.”
