Walmart Self Checkout – The Good and the Bad

Walmart Self Checkout 2024

One of our ongoing threads in tracking Walmart Self Checkout. See Walmart – NCR Self-Checkout Being Replaced with Homegrown?  Walmart is a technology leader no doubt. In past years they have always been willing to test new iteration and even new payment methods (here is link on Affirm regarding latest BNPL Buy Now Pay Later capability.

Seems to be a magnitude of change coming. Biggest change might be walking away from NCR with its Fastlane POS and it’s self-checkouts. We wrote them up on their Whole Foods iteration and others like Lowes and Target have fled the roost.  We have first hand experience visiting and touring the main NCR facility in Bentonville (down the street from Store #1) and the elimination of the service component would be mega body blow for NCR.

Toshiba isn’t much better either…(see earlier story – Meanwhile the troubles for Toshiba continue to grow.)

In the news are many articles that make it sound like consumers hate self-checkout and that Walmart is in process of getting rid of all its SCOs.  We have some cheap land in Florida for sale too… Between click hungry “journalists” and AI reading too much into “faddish” trends fact is Walmart continues to increase the number of checkouts.  Here is article on LinkedIn and also here on kioskindustry.

Recent OMG News

• Walmart Customer Says No One Wants to Pay for Self-Checkout
• More stores are ditching self-checkout amid theft and customer …
• Walmart Just Announced Big Changes Coming to Stores and
• Walmart Is Saying ‘So Long’ to Self-Checkout and Removing Them …
• Walmart Nixes Self-Checkout at Select Stores – Yahoo Finance

From our recent Walmart Self Checkout writeup

Update December 25th, 2023 – Latest test in downtown Bentonville Neighborhood market is RFID(?) cart. This example from a local Neighborhood Market store is an opportunity for rapid checkout with a cart full of tagged purchases. We will all be interested to see how this test unfolds in the year ahead.  Meanwhile the troubles for Toshiba continue to grow.

What’s coming next? Optimization is moving from the counter to the upstream cart. Next stop is the shelf itself?

Thanks to Reforming Retail & Jordan for the tip.  Recommended highly subscription (we do…). Forget the sponsor-advertiser led “news portals”.

The good news is we have some more pictures of those Walmart self checkout units

Thanks to Scott Benedict who just happens to live in Arkansas.  Affiliate Partner at McMillanDoolittle | Top Retail Expert | Retail Merchant | Consultant | Educator | Author | Mentor | Speaker | Podcaster | Advisory Board Member | eCommerce Executive | RetailWire BrainTrust Panelist

 

Meanwhile over at Sam’s and Costco?

• Link to video — I had the privilege of sharing on stage at CES our news to converge those two priorities by delivering new levels of convenience by leveraging a first-of-its-kind application of artificial intelligence and computer vision technology, creating a seamless exit experience. This digital solution addresses a key member concern, waiting in line for receipt verification to exit the club, by allowing a member to simply walk out with their purchased items. 
• Alleviating Key Pain Point from Progressive Grocer — Currently running pilots across 10 Sam’s Club locations, the technology is used to seamlessly confirm members have paid for all items in their shopping carts – without requiring an associate to check members’ purchases before leaving the club. Before this technology, members were slowed by queuing at the club’s exit area to have Sam’s Club exit greeters review receipts. Members continue to say they want a faster and more convenient shopping experience and consistently rated the wait times at the exit – especially during busy periods – as a pain point in the shopping experience.
• Let’s not leave out Costco — Costco appears to be testing a digital ID scanning station at the front door of at least one of its stores. Shoppers spotted the tech at the store near Costco’s corporate headquarters in Issaquah, Washington.
• Buy Now Pay Later downsides according to Consumer Reports

Meanwhile Back In Colorado at Super Walmart January 2024 – New Checkout Units!

We visited the local super duper Walmart here in Denver and went thru the self checkout. The attendant let me know that the SCOs were brand news and literally were installed the night before.  The biggest change he thought was new additional charge for bags.  All the colors kind of remind me of a bag spilt skittles. Also camouflaged.