Sam’s Club sees success in removing checkout lanes at one store, but it’s still just a test

Removing the checkout lanes, so far, is just an experiment at the store in Texas that serves as a testing ground for the Walmart-owned retailer’s new technology. Sears said the company has not decided to take all registers out of all clubs, though he added that taking a group of investors to that club may have created a misperception that that was the plan. He said some customers may still need or want a checkout lane.

The company also plans to bring this same checkout experience to a Tempe, Arizona Sam’s Club opening in early August, as well as some stores undergoing remodels, according to a Sam’s Club spokesperson.

“As we remodel clubs, just like we did in Grapevine, we will look at the member base, we will talk to them, we will look at the environment, and we will make those decisions,” Sears said. “I also think if we fast forward into the future, if you go far enough, there probably is no register. It’s just a matter of timing and how you navigate through that.”

The Grapevine location incorporates both the retailer’s Scan and Go technology as well as exit arches that use computer vision to scan items in customers’ carts to avoid manual receipt checking. Both are used at other locations throughout the country, but those stores still offer registers as a payment option alongside Scan and Go. Sam’s Club members have been using the Scan and Go app since 2016, which allows them to scan the barcode of each item in their cart, and then pay within the app. However, it’s become more popular in recent years, with Sam’s Club saying in 2024 that it has seen a 50% uptick in Scan and Go adoption over the last three years.

But what makes the Grapevine location different is that it replaces registers with a large, open space where the retailer can promote general merchandise, including products only sold online. The company is making a bet that Scan and Go could eventually replace the traditional in-store checkout experience entirely. In concert with the exit arches, the wholesale retailer hopes to save customers time spent waiting in lines at the registers and at the exit.

“We took all those associates who were manning cash registers that had a physical barrier of the belt in between them and the member — we removed that barrier and now they’re engaging with the member,” Sears said.

Analysts say that Sam’s Club move reflects the broader uncertainty retailers have around how customers will react to taking away the checkout lane entirely — even as they embrace mobile points of sale.

“Do you try to lean into a more efficient technology but still leave an option there for someone who either doesn’t like it or needs the help?” said Scott Benedict of Benedict Enterprises, a retail consultant and former Walmart executive.

A good chunk of Sam’s Club members are already familiar with Scan and Go and the exit arches: Scan and Go made up 35% of Sam’s Club’s sales last quarter, up six percentage points from a year before, according to Sears, and 75% of members now walk through Sam’s Club exit arches that rolled out last year.

“That is tremendous growth in a technology that is nine years old,” Sears said. “Covid accelerated Scan and Go because everyone was concerned about that human-to-human contact, and it’s just continued since then.” Competitors have also started to invest in the technology: BJ’s has had a similar app since 2021, and Costco’s CEO last month suggested the retailer was testing its own scan-and-go technology.

Forcing it on all members, however, would risk alienating some of Sam’s Club’s member base at a time when membership is growing. “The wholesale club format is kind of having a wonderful renaissance; you take a risk of, while everything is going wonderfully, alienating a potential segment of the population that just isn’t aligned with that as their sole checkout process,” he said. “That’s the thing that’s a little bit scary.”

The company uses mobile checkout devices for members who prefer to pay in cash or don’t want to use Scan and Go, the Sam’s Club spokesperson told Modern Retail.

Brad Jashinsky, a retail analyst for Gartner, said he would recommend Sam’s Club try it out in stores that have lower app adoption as well as those with higher app adoption, to ensure the system is successful when scaling up.

If successful, Jashinsky argues replacing the register could be beneficial as it would “eliminate a lot of the physical infrastructure and all the maintenance that goes into the self-checkouts, allowing the company to offload that into just app updates that scale, because the customer is bringing their own device.”

The extra space could help Sam’s Club further its e-commerce ambitions, getting more customers onto its app and cross-promoting its online business. Anne Mezzenga, co-CEO of Omni Talk and former marketing head for Target’s concept stores, said the extra space for promoting online items could help Sam’s Club increase its revenue by “extending the aisle” within the stores.

“There’s so much more that people just don’t know about until they see it in a club environment,” Mezzenga said. She also credited Sam’s Club for giving its technology teams the opportunity to test concepts in live stores, despite the risks involved. “Not a lot of other retailers are willing to give their teams the runway to really test this out and learn it.”