Sam’s Club Debuts AI-Powered, Cashierless ‘Store Of The Future’

This past week, Sam’s Club in Grapevine, Texas, reopened after it had been heavily damaged in a 2022 tornado, and is now marketed as the company’s “store of the future.” This Sam’s Club location has no cashiers and self-checkout kiosks, but forces customers to use the store’s Scan & Go app – an app that allows customers to scan the barcode of the product they want and add it to their list, and when they exit the customer scans the app on their phone to confirm the purchase.

Sam’s Club President and CEO Chris Nicholas said during a session at Groceryshop symposium in Las Vegas earlier this month, “[The store is a] statement of where we want to go in the future.”

The Grapevine location is larger than a typical Sam’s Club in an effort to handle more e-commerce transactions and pick-up orders, and has double the reserved pick-up parking to accommodate this. Nicholas said in a recent interview innovation comes at a time of “rapid adoption” of its checkout-free technology.

Quartz reported: ‘The AI-powered store is equipped with a suite of cutting-edge technologies, including RFID sensors at the end of aisles for real-time inventory tracking, ensuring stock levels both in-store and on its app are updated. There’s also a robot that scrubs the floors, not only to keep the store clean, but also to assist with inventory checks.’

‘Additionally, computer-vision pallet scanners at loading docks are being used to streamline inventory management and make the supply chain more efficient,’ the outlet added.

Grocery Dive also noted:

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Workers stationed at the store’s entrance and exit will be able to help consumers figure out how to use the technology, Nicholas told Omni Talk. For members who need assistance, store associates with mobile point-of-sale systems can help with the checkout process, according to a Sam’s Club spokesperson.

There are three automated, receipt-verification “exit trusses” instead of the standard two at other Sam’s Club locations to help people more quickly leave the store, the spokesperson said.

Digitally-engaged members — people who use Scan & Go, the computer vision-enabled receipt-verification exits and shop online — spend three times as much and are more loyal, which leads to higher renewal rates, Nicholas said during the conference session. Chainwide, about 30% of Sam’s Club’s customers use Scan & Go regularly when visiting the company’s stores and half of its customers are digitally engaged. 

“What we find is that it doesn’t matter what generation you’re from — whether it’s Gen Z all the way through to the Greatest Generation — or what income level you are, or whatever your background is. Once you allow yourself to be connected to that digital ecosystem, you just never go backwards,” Nicholas said during the Groceryshop session. 

In the space where the checkout registers would normally appear, the store will instead have “inspiration spaces” with interactive displays where customers can view online-order items, Nicholas said. Shoppers can then scan a QR code to buy these digital-only products, which include a holiday tree and a Mercedes SUV, in the app. 

The store is also testing a new system that delivers food orders to an assigned cubby after customers place a Scan & Go order, a company spokesperson confirmed. In the cafe section, customers can find cubbies for quick order pickup. 

At the cafe, there’s a pizza robot that can make as many as 100 pizzas in one hour, the spokesperson said. 

Read more about the revamped location here.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

“Digitally-engaged members — people who use Scan & Go, the computer vision-enabled receipt-verification exits and shop online — spend three times as much and are more loyal, which leads to higher renewal rates” – well, at least he was being honest and did not say this is to fight “climate change” or something stupid.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Though we still have some work to get there, this is another sign and step closer to the coming mark of the beast system.

[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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