Later this month, Sam’s Club will reopen a tornado-damaged store in Grapevine, Texas that will feature displays of online-only products where the checkout lanes would be in a typical store, as well as 4X more space for associates to assemble ecommerce orders, according to CNBC and confirmed by the retailer.
Member customers will need to use the Sam’s Club Scan & Go app to record their purchases as they walk through the store. The displayed online-only products, which will include a Mercedes SUV, a 12-foot Christmas tree and a five-carat lab-grown diamond, will have QR codes to take customers to the products within the app.
“It’s kind of the physical manifestation of a journey we’re trying to go on as a company,” said Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas in the article. Indeed, the retailer has long served as a testing ground for new technologies and services, both for the club and its parent company Walmart. In 2024 alone, Sam’s Club has:
- Launched display ads in the Scan & Go app via its Member Access Platform retail media network;
- Crowdsourced product development for its Member’s Mark private label brands;
- Piloted a combination of computer vision and digital technology, backed up by AI, at store exits to replace associates looking at printed receipts or auditing cart contents; and
- Raised store associates’ wages to average over $19 per hour.
Nicholas told CNBC that there will be no change to the number of associates working in the Grapevine store, but that some would be assigned to new roles.
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