Walmart's iPhone Scan & Go pilot program to expand to more than 200 stores
Walmart shoppers at more than 200 stores will soon be able to use their iPhones to scan items and pay at self-checkout counters, as the retail giant has announced an expansion of its Scan & Go pilot program.
The Scan & Go program, which commenced near Walmart's home office of Bentonville, Ark., last year, currently runs in about 70 stores across the United States. The coming year will see the program expanded to more than 200 stores, though that is still only a fraction of the retailer's more than 4,000 U.S. stores, according to Reuters.
Scan & Go currently only works with devices running Apple's iOS. Walmart representatives say, though, that an Android-compatible version should be available soon.
Using Scan & Go, Walmart customers scan bar codes on items they want to buy while they're shopping. The app ? compatible with iPads, iPhones, and iPods ? keeps track of their planned purchases, as well as the total cost. Customers then take their items to a self-checkout lane, where they pay, instead of going through a traditional register. The app currently provides users with both an electronic receipt and a paper one. Users still pay in the usual manner, with cash or a credit card, and Walmart has declined to comment on the possibility of mobile payment integration.
The number of self-checkout lanes in Walmart stores will increase as the retailer expands the Scan & Go pilot. The pilot expansion will see Scan & Go growing to more than a dozen new markets, including Denver, Phoenix, Omaha, Dallas, Austin, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wyoming, Montana, Seattle, San Jose, and Portland.
The Scan & Go program, which commenced near Walmart's home office of Bentonville, Ark., last year, currently runs in about 70 stores across the United States. The coming year will see the program expanded to more than 200 stores, though that is still only a fraction of the retailer's more than 4,000 U.S. stores, according to Reuters.
Scan & Go currently only works with devices running Apple's iOS. Walmart representatives say, though, that an Android-compatible version should be available soon.
Using Scan & Go, Walmart customers scan bar codes on items they want to buy while they're shopping. The app ? compatible with iPads, iPhones, and iPods ? keeps track of their planned purchases, as well as the total cost. Customers then take their items to a self-checkout lane, where they pay, instead of going through a traditional register. The app currently provides users with both an electronic receipt and a paper one. Users still pay in the usual manner, with cash or a credit card, and Walmart has declined to comment on the possibility of mobile payment integration.
The number of self-checkout lanes in Walmart stores will increase as the retailer expands the Scan & Go pilot. The pilot expansion will see Scan & Go growing to more than a dozen new markets, including Denver, Phoenix, Omaha, Dallas, Austin, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wyoming, Montana, Seattle, San Jose, and Portland.
Comments
If Apple had made Passbook into a better version of this, except for any store, we'd have a revolution on our hands.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
If Apple had made Passbook into a better version of this, except for any store, we'd have a revolution on our hands.
If I don't have iPhone I would just buy iPod Touch just for this when my preferred Superstore support it. Love express check-out.
Eh, I don't shop at Walmart.
Do the require weighing the items at the checkout? or some sort of verification of the number of items?
How long before someone scans a less expensive item with the same weight as a more expensive item in order to pay the lower price but get the more expensive item? I would imagine the developers must have considered items such as that - and maybe even have some sort of spot check system or cameras etc.
If and when RFID is more prevalent to the point of being included in barcodes on products from the OEM - then you could have a system where anything you place into a cart is detected by a unit attached to the cart - your total displayed - and when you get to the check out could even have a separate detector double check. I believe some places (perhaps not in the US) are already testing this. You could then even place items into reusable bags in the cart - making the express checkout truly express.
there might always be exceptions such as gift cards and items that are priced by weight such as produce that are outside this system - although in the case of produce they could tag each item with an actual bar code specific to that item - much like the deli prints out a barcode after weighing an item.
Personally, I don't think we'd use it. We rarely use the self-checkout registers because we take advantage of Walmart's price matching, which means that you bring in a current ad from a competing store, show it to the clerk, and they then manually change the item's price to that of the competing ad. Self-checkout also slows you down if you scan coupons (many don't work on the scanners, and have to be manually entered) and buy alcoholic beverages. And exactly how is an iPhone supposed to scan produce that first needs to be weighed?
You know what I would use? An option where Walmart - heck, all retailers - could email me an electronic receipt, especially if it were in a format that could be input into a spreadsheet or database (CSV, etc.). Help me track my spending, track price changes over time, that sort of thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by coffeetime
You know what I would use? An option where Walmart - heck, all retailers - could email me an electronic receipt, especially if it were in a format that could be input into a spreadsheet or database (CSV, etc.). Help me track my spending, track price changes over time, that sort of thing.
That's old school. If they do anything it would be to let you review your purchases online. Lowes or Home Depot already does something like that. They have ads featuring the fact that they remember what color paint you bought x years ago and whatnot. Retailers already capture and mine that information, they might as well let consumers share in the benefits.
It's like public transit - you may not want to ride the bus or train (or use this app), but because it's there, many folks will use those services and leave the roads (checkout counters) free. Roads will never disappear and can only get so wide.
I'm glad for any progress that makes my life easier - whether I'm directly using the service or benefiting indirectly.
This is actually nice. I hope this makes to one of the Walmart we have in town.
people actually shop at that dump?
Quote:
Originally Posted by zagatosz
Yeah great the company that has destroyed wages in the retail industry, gets to see if it can increase its profits and fire more workers. Until Walmart starts paying workers a living wage I will never spend a dollar at their stores.
Dig it!
Shopping at Walmart is like eating your own leg for dinner....i.e., no future in it!
Walmart/Target are undermining the very fabric or American society! All for the so-called "duty to shareholders. It's immoral.
Actually, the company is following the market. So if more people like you stop shopping there, they will go out of business. However, more people want the cheapest price.
I refuse to shop there for many reasons.
The truth is that you can write down the theft but you can't write down payroll, so although this will increase theft, it will still probably be within acceptable limits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by coffeetime
You know what I would use? An option where Walmart - heck, all retailers - could email me an electronic receipt, especially if it were in a format that could be input into a spreadsheet or database (CSV, etc.). Help me track my spending, track price changes over time, that sort of thing.
Please, for restaurants also. Unless I need it to write off for work, I don't need 3 copies when I leave!
Take your pro-capitalism memes elsewhere. There is no free market.
Why do you think people work there? Because they want to? Because they believe in Walmart? Hell no. They work there in desperation for employment.
Capitalism has never been, and never will be, self-regulating. All you need do is look at a small sampling of interventions against pollution and labor abuses to grasp the actual facts. Freedom only exists in how free industry and capitalism is in abusing the environment and people to the fullest extent allowed by law.