Sam’s Club debuts cashier-less store in race for the future of shopping

Sam’s Club is taking its “Savings Made Simple” mantra one step further — unveiling its first store with no cashiers.

Set to open in Dallas in November, a new “Sam’s Club Now” store is nixing checkout lines and installing 700 cameras in the name of ease and efficiency. Shoppers interact almost entirely with the company’s Scan & Go app to search for products, add them to the receipt as they go into the cart and to pay on the way out.

Analysts say Walmart is smart to try out the model through its membership-only chain where much more is already known about customers and their preferences. Plus, techsavvy shopping experiences may well be where the industry is headed.

“We’ll use all available technologies — including computer vision, augmented reality, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, just to name a few — to redefine the retail experience,” said Jamie Iannone, SamsClub.com chief executive and executive vice president of membership and technology.

As they contend with e-commerce giants and shoppers increasingly moving online, brickand-mortar retailers are looking to technology as one key to streamlining the customer experience. Perhaps the most recognizable example comes in the form of the country’s six Amazon Go stores, which also do away with cashiers and check out lines.

At an Amazon Go shop, shoppers don’t even have to scan their items — cameras and sensors blanketing the store track customers as they move. The convenience comes at a price because those cameras catalog shoppers’ choices and compile data on their habits and spending. Shoppers may not realize the extent of the data collected or its privacy implications. Most would never expect to have hundreds of cameras trained on them as they pick out a sandwich.