Walmart is trying another tack to eliminate lines at cash registers by testing Check Out With Me, an approach enabling store employees to accept payments in store aisles.
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In the lawn and garden departments at more than 350 stores across the U.S., Walmart associates may complete customers’ purchases on the spot using a mobile device that scans items, accepts card payments and prints receipts, Walmart said in a blog post. Customers enrolled in Walmart Pay may opt to receive an electronic receipt.
A Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location stands in Brasilia, Brazil, on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to close 269 stores, including its experimental small-format Express outlets, in a push to streamline the chain that will affect 16,000 jobs. The effort includes the closing of 60 money-losing stores in Brazil, a country where Wal-Mart has struggled. Photographer: Lula Marques/Bloomberg
Lula Marques/Bloomberg
The process aims to save customers time, Walmart said in the blog post.
The move underscores Walmart’s determination to streamline store operations with new technology.
Walmart has recently expanded the number of stores that support Scan & Go, a tool developed for its Sam's Club subsidiary enabling shoppers to scan their own items as they roam store aisles. Walmart shoppers in Arkansas, Texas and Florida can now scan items with Walmart’s mobile app or one of the store’s hand-held scanners and pay at a kiosk with a credit card or Walmart Pay, eliminating the need to unload and reload a shopping cart.
Last year Walmart began testing the use of robots in 50 stores to manage inventory by checking the number and price of items on store shelves.
Kate Fitzgerald is an Arizona-based senior editor for American Banker and longtime payments reporter. Fitzgerald began her journalism career at the... Read full bio
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