Supermarket chain Jewel-Osco, for example, experimented several years ago with giving customers hand-held scanners. This is the fourth technology that large-scale retailers have seized on in their ongoing quest to simultaneously cut costs and make shopping easier for their customers, Paul Weitzel, managing partner at retail consulting firm Willard Bishop, tells Reuters. Meanwhile, the company says it can save $12 million on cashier salaries for every second it can shave off the typical checkout process. A trip to the big box theoretically becomes more enjoyable for shoppers if they can avoid long checkout lines. Walmart figures the new system will pay off for customers and the company alike. The test version doesn't allow customers to pay using their phones, which would let them skip the payment station, but mobile payment could be coming. The customers stop by the payment station, swipe a credit card, and - voila - they're on their way. Once they've got everything they need, the app sends data on the scanned items to a self-checkout station. Then, while cruising Walmart's aisles, they scan the bar codes of the items they pull off the shelves, and bag them as they shop. Is this the future of shopping? Here, a brief guide:įirst, shoppers install the Scan & Go app on their iPhones. If all goes well, the nation's largest retailer could begin rolling out Scan & Go nationwide. The company recently conducted a trial run with employees and their friends and families at a Walmart Supercenter in Rogers, Ark., not far from the retail giant's Bentonville headquarters. The program, called Scan & Go, lets customers scan their own goods with their smartphones then pass through a self-checkout line, and zip out of the store. Walmart is test-driving a system that could dramatically change the way Americans shop.
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