Posted on 04/19/2025 5:39:14 PM PDT by dennisw
Sam's Club stores is axing all self-checkouts from its 600 stores — in favor of controversial new technology.
The Walmart-owned warehouse chain, often seen as Costco's biggest rival, is rolling out AI-powered 'Scan & Go' tech that lets shoppers skip the line and walk straight out the door once they're done shopping.
The move is controversial because it uses a network of cameras and sensors to track shoppers and their carts.
In addition, the checkout-free experience requires all customers to use a smartphone and download the store’s app.
This could pose a challenge to older shoppers who may struggle with technology.
The shake-up is aimed at reducing checkout wait times as it eliminates the need for an employee to check receipts at the exit.
Customers will scan the product barcodes as they go around the store, put the item in their cart and then pay for the items in the app when they are done.
Rather than go to a register, they exit through an airport-style scanner with AI cameras that analyze carts to make sure all items in there have been scanned and paid for.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sams and Costco member and in both on a weekly basis. We use Sam’s more for business- Costco more for personal use. Two gas fillups a week at Costco. I would probably buy more at Costco if their app was as good as Sam’s. Costco busy checkouts can’t compare to the convenience and speed of the Sam’s self checkouts and the app. In and out without having to wait in line or talk to anyone unless I want to. If you buy alcohol using the app you have to show ID at the door (your QR is red instead of black.)
We are plenty up to speed. We just choose not to be enslaved by technology. It is the Beast...
________________________________
Then I guess you are on someone else’s computer and you don’t own a phone, smart or otherwise, and no email accounts and of course you don’t shop online or use credit cards and etc. etc.
It’s not the purchases being tracked that I object to - Walmarts have facial recognition on their self check registers, and they tie that and your credit card to track the purchases. It’s the location tracking when I’m outside the stores that I object to. Google tracks me, my phone provider tracks me; not much I can do about that except take the battery out of my phone. Waze tracks my location, but that’s legitimate - they need to know where I am so they can serve up traffic conditions and speed trap locations.
Look at the permissions on your apps. How many of them that require it really need your location tracked, or your contact list to sell to third parties? Access to your microphone?
Tech savvy people know this and the ways around it.
More than that, it is, frankly, a bizarre idea for a “store” - a place where people congregate in perfect communion with their phones, to grab what is on the shelves while the PA system blares in their ears and get frisked while leaving. It’s sort-of like an Amazon where you do all the work.
Everyone knows that the stores make almost nothing off of what they sell. Now, your demographic information is even more valuable than that. It doesn’t sound like a long-term solution, to me.
It does sound like the leaner stores get, the more they are inclined to try reckless alterations that only appear to increase shoplifting.
Wow, my credit card statement says I bought 5,000 cases of pickles and 200 flat screen TVs last month.
I wonder where I put them.
“RFID chips “
Article: Customers will scan the product barcodes as they go around the store, put the item in their cart and then pay for the items in the app when they are done.
It just may mean the RFID chips aren’t quite ready yet.
“Then I guess you are on someone else’s computer and you don’t own a phone, smart or otherwise, and no email accounts and of course you don’t shop online or use credit cards and etc. etc.”
Pretty close... Never phone apps. no credit or checking cards, No Rewards discount cards, No online shopping, I do not do business with companies or organizations that absolutely require an online account, I do not use Kiosks like at Taco Bell, don’t go there anymore at all. I don’t buy Beer where they “scan” IDs. And I am right now working to get off the “normal net” TLD and go completely underground with alternets.
I am a techy, but big tech is hell bent on enslaving the world with technology. They plan to add us to the “Internet of Things” and I am using my knowledge against their efforts. As a techy I see the true danger with embracing this tech, we are enslaving ourselves with it out of pure laziness and”convenience”, and they are absolutely manipulating us into do it to ourselves.
I am not going full Amish, but I refuse to be lead by a nose ring by the technology Industrial Complex that is truly enslaving us. Instead of them working for us, they are making us work for them. Look at Microsoft as an example, they literally own their customers... I am using good tech to fight against the enslavement tech...
Will not ever shop anywhere that uses such technology.
We used Sam’s for years, but I prefer the Kirkland Signature brand products. And yeah, I fill my tank up there, too.
Hey ahh... I'm up to speed and I reject this. Haven't you heard? That's how the Chinese Gov. punishes their Citizens - social scoring through these apps. You really want to go there? I strongly advise everyone to reject this where ever it shows up. If possible.
And here is the big one... What they are doing right here is brainwashing and conditioning us into getting used to the idea of digital currency. This trend will spread and soon it will be mandatory and the only way available to shop at all. No way... Not going to support to help embrace this concept. It is the Beast.
“Haven’t you heard? That’s how the Chinese Gov. punishes their Citizens - social scoring through these apps. You really want to go there? I strongly advise everyone to reject this where ever it shows up. If possible.”
Absolutely, this is just the first step in Global Communist enslavement with mandatory technology.
In the UK it would be a knight in armor with a rubber chicken.
Why would you pay $1 a dozen for eggs? So many people raising chickens; eggs are WAY less than that. F’ing talk to people; make connections; starve the beast.
I use it at my Sam’s club now, and have for a couple of years. Real timesaver. For people who think it’s giving Sam’s too much info, they already have it. Most people would be astounded at the amount of detailed data they are generating whenever they’re shopping.
They have this at our local Sam’s. I love it. No waiting for alow checkers or slow customers in self check line.
I never go to Sam’s Club, but yes, that is a recipe for disaster.
People also remove the tags from items like $1.25 screwdrivers and do the same thing. I went into Walmart once just to see if it was true, and I found every single screwdriver without a bar code attached to it. I alerted a worker there and he thanked me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.