Sam’s Club opens new store without cashiers and registers

STATEN ISLAND, NY – Sam’s Club will open a new store near Dallas, Texas, this month and – in a first for business – there will be no cashiers at the registers.

“It’s sort of the physical manifestation of a journey that we’re trying to take forward as a company,” Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas told CNBC, emphasizing that the store will be a testing ground for Sam’s Club’s latest technology. “The idea is that over time we as a company will be 100% digital, and you have to prove that things work before you scale them.”

Shoppers will use a Scan & Go smartphone app to retrieve their purchases, and the area traditionally dedicated to checkouts will be used as an online display area, where items like Christmas trees and lab-grown diamonds will be purchased via QR codes can be.

According to the report, Sam’s Club employees also have four times more space to prepare e-commerce orders for pickup and home delivery.

The members’ club has historically been tech-savvy, with parent company Walmart using automated receipt verification technology at exits, eliminating the need for shoppers to show a paper receipt to an employee as they exit stores.