Sam’s Club opening cashierless store
A soon-to-open Sam’s Club store will eliminate fixed checkout in favor of app-based shopping and payment.
According to a CNBC confirmed by Walmart via email, Sam’s Club is opening a pilot store in Grapevine, Tex. (part of the Dallas metroplex) in mid-October 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. The two stores will run in tandem.
[READ MORE: Sam’s Club preps to open first cashier-less location]
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 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% digital engagement as a business, and you’ve got to prove that things work before you scale them."
Read more CNBC coverage here.
Sam’s Club parent Walmart has not yet piloted a fully frictionless store, but has piloted a store design that replaces traditional, in-person checkout lanes with self-checkout kiosks.
Based in Bentonville, Ark, Sam’s Club is a subsidiary of Walmart Inc. and operates nearly 600 clubs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
