Mobile checkout coming to more stores

The Scan & Go system Walmart introduced last fall in Northwest Arkansas and Atlanta has been expanded to six new markets.

The Associated Press reported this week that Walmart’s Scan & Go program, initially available in about 70 stores in two markets, has been expanded to 200 stores in new markets including Dallas, Houston, Austin, Denver, Portland and Seattle.

The system enables shoppers who download an app to scan items with their smartphones and then pay at self-checkout terminals by scanning a code that displays on their smartphone screen.

To call attention to the service, Walmart positioned corrugate displays near the entrances of select stores that explained the service on tear pads and offered Scan & Go bags for sale. The key selling point of the service is the ability to "skip the checkout line," a perennial sore spot with shoppers that Walmart has attempted to address over the years with improved labor scheduling.