As the issue of tariffs and an escalating trade war continues to be a cause of severe uncertainty with regard to the price of goods, competition amongst retailers has ramped up significantly. Subsequently, consumers are now becoming increasingly desperate for budget friendly options when doing their shopping and as such, retailers are now scrambling to find new and creative ways to draw in customers, as well as to retain their existing ones.
Sam’s Club, the popular warehouse club chain, has recently announced it will be making a rather controversial change to all of its stores with the aim of increasing the efficiency and convenience of the average shopping experience with the chain.
Sam’s Club axes self checkout in all stores
The Walmart owned warehouse club giant appears to be leaning in to the increased dependence on technology and AI that has been taking the world by storm as of late. In pursuit of this, the warehouse club will now be rolling out a new AI-powered ‘Scan & Go’ system at all of its stores in lieu of the usual self checkout counters. This ‘Scan & Go’ technology will allow customers to skip out on the lines at checkout and simply leave the store without having to conduct any sort of physical transaction.
Whilst this may sound magical, the controversy of this new tech lies with the fact that the store will be using a network of cameras and sensors that will track the products shoppers add to their carts. Furthermore, in order to be able to use this system, shoppers will also need to have a smartphone with the store’s app installed on it.
There is no doubt that this system could prove to be quite useful to the younger cohort who are tech savvy, however, the older generation of shoppers might find this new-age shopping experience to be a bit of a hassle. Sam’s Club has made this surprising change with the aim of reducing the time shoppers spend waiting at checkout. The implementation of this system would also eliminate the need for an employee to be posted at the exit to check receipts.
How does this ‘Scan & Go’ system work?
The way this system works is quite simple: the shopper will scan the barcodes of the products they want to purchase as they place them into their baskets or carts. They will then pay for it directly for it through the app and then exit the store without having to wait in any queues. The shoppers who use this system, will however, exit through a scanner reminiscent of the ones found at airports. This scanner will use its AI-powered camera to ensure that all of the products the customer is leaving with has been properly accounted for and paid for.
“This is one of the fastest, most scalable transformations happening in retail today,” Sam’s Club President and CEO Chris Nicholas claimed at the retailer’s investor day on Friday.
“We’re investing with intention — in our fleet, our associates and the member experience — to become the world’s best club retailer.”
“My hope is that Sam’s Club, when you shop, feels like what it’s like to shop in the future, this is a glimpse of that,” Nicholas also stated previously.
Sam’s Club is the direct competitor to Costco Wholesale as both retailers have adopted the membership based business model. Walmart founded Sam’s Club in 1983 in a bid to compete against Costco who had opened its doors under the name of Price Club in 1976. The Walmart-run warehouse chain appears to have been successful in its competition against Costco as it recently beat out Costco in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index, making Sam’s Club the nation’s new favorite for warehouse clubs.