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ANALYSIS / OPINION:
Shopping minus the cashiers – minus the humans, even. That's where retail is headed, in large part of the Walmart-owned Sam's club opening of a new technologically savvy store that offers the option to check out without having to stand in line, without having to engage in contact with, without even having to remember what they came into the shop to buy.
Call it a cure for Busy Mom Syndrome – at least on the surface. But at the same time, there are glitches.
Before tossing out the humans completely in the machinery, one question to consider: Is not at least half the experience of retail therapy rooted in good customer service?
Somehow, clicking "buy" one handheld scanner just does not produce the same warm feeling as that cheerily chatting cashier. Besides, who likes to bag their own buys – especially if they're not getting a cut of the corporate savings?
Anyhow, Sam's Club Now, the latest Dallas rendition of the Walmart-owned Sam's club, is taking its store in a different direction, a leading direction.
The facility is open for inspection with a mobile checkout system that allows it to be scanned, and it can be scanned. flesh-and-blood employee. The convenience comes courtesy the outlet's newest app that gives customers the tools to simply select their products, scan them, drop them in their carts and pay for them on their phone. They can even select and pay for them in advance, then drive to pick up the store and go home.
But that's not all.
The Sam's Club Now will give you a new way to help you find your way to help you find your way around the world. Moreover, customers can simply input their shopping lists onto the app, and the mapping system will quickly compute the fastest way to navigate the store to find each item.
Ever wander around a massive grocery looking for something called liquid smoke? Right. Then you get the benefit.
The app also saves customers' shopping list and makes suggestions based on past purchases. So you do not forget that box of Cheerios, dontcha know.
One other facet of this Dallas store? Here's the somewhat creepy part. The store will include an estimated 700 cameras, recording every customer's every move – ostensibly, to help keep track of inventory and shopping habits, so as to make the whole A.I.-fueled buying experience better for everyone. Ostensibly, too – though this is not the angle that's being harped – to stop would-be shoplifters in their tracks.
"We're using all available technologies – including computer vision, augmented reality, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics," said Jamie Iannone, CEO of SamsClub.com, in a blog post.
Great. But what about this bunch of grapes and what are the vines of tomatoes, both sold by the pound? Hmm. About that.
Walmart, which used to offer Scan & Go to customers, just ended their service this April due, reportedly in part, to the challenge of weighing out from the cart.
"[A]"Supermarket News reported.", "Supermarket News reported."
You think Walmart shoppers have large carts of Sam's Club bulk buyers might buy.
Regardless, A.I. shopping is the way of the future. The money-savings is just too much trouble to disregard. Dallas is going to be the technology retail ground zero for Sam's Club, which already has plans to enlarge its offerings to select stores around the nation. Amazon, meanwhile, is 3,000 or so cashier-free stores in the next three years. And that means other brick and mortars will have to compete – or face the chopping block.
How shoppers react is still the unknown.
But here's a thought: It's a thing for companies to save money by cutting out the human staff. But how about passing along those savings to customers?
There may be some success-versus-failure of the A.I. retail system: Companies that can not afford to buy a product.
After hiring the online, with all the payday loans, and all the rest of the time stores instead.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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