Wal-Mart Is Testing Mobile Checkout - Polidicks

[url]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772804577623721217119252.html[/url] [quote=Wall Street Journal]Employees at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are testing a new checkout system that allows shoppers to use their mobile phones to scan items as they walk through stores and pay at self-service kiosks, skipping the cashiers' lines. Called "Scan and Go," the new mobile-payment application is the retailer's latest attempt to reduce long checkout lines; the company says it spends $12 million per second on cashers' wages in the U.S. The new system doesn't allow customers to pay with a mobile device, but is meant to make scanning easier for them. The trial comes after Wal-Mart's chief financial officer, Charles Holley, announced plans in March to add more self-checkout lanes, where shoppers scan and bag items without the help of cashiers. About 1,600 of the more than 4,500 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the U.S. include a traditional self-checkout option. Wal-Mart confirmed it has asked employees to test the mobile self-checkout in one store in Arkansas. The service is not yet available to customers. Retailers have been testing self-checkout lanes for more than a decade in an attempt to reduce labor costs and speed up transactions, but not all chains have been happy with their experiences. Companies including grocery chain Albertsons LLC and Swedish housewares giant IKEA Group are starting to eliminate self-checkout, citing lost revenue, theft and lack of interaction with customers. Many shoppers also complain the self-service systems are balky. This week, Wal-Mart sent an email to employees asking them to try out the Scan & Go mobile checkout system at a supercenter near its Bentonville, Ark. headquarters. The company said it would videotape testers for an hour and they would receive $100 and a $25 Wal-Mart gift card so the company could get feedback from "real people on whether this new system is user-friendly," according to a survey emailed to employees that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The mobile application comes out of the retailer's Silicon Valley tech shop, called @WalmartLabs, which has redone the retailer's web site. Analysts say an in-aisle mobile-scanning system could function as a loyalty program for Wal-Mart, which doesn't issue discount cards to customers in exchange for the ability to collect data about their shopping habits. Such programs have been very successful for grocery stores in attracting and retaining customers. The scanning program could serve a similar function by allowing Wal-Mart to collect data on what customers buy and how long they spend in stores, and to send shoppers coupons for competitive products in real-time as they scan items. "If you scan an item of peanut butter and immediately a two-dollar-off coupon pops up to buy a competing brand's peanut butter, Wal-Mart can change customer's behaviors right there in the aisle," said Evan Schuman, who runs the retail technology blog StorefrontBackTalk. Still, he said, there are risks. "This is a fairly new technology for retailers and there's potential for all kinds of fraud and theft," he said. Apple Inc. recently faced criticism over a similar mobile-checkout service after police arrested a shopper at the Apple Store on New York's Fifth Ave., contending he had shoplifted a pair of $141 headphones. A security guard said he observed the customer removing the item and concealing it in an Apple shopping bag, according to a New York City Police Department spokesman. Eric Shine, an 18-year-old college student, said he had thought he had paid for the headphones using Easy Pay, a mobile-payment system Apple launched last November that allows customers to scan a product's bar code, pay for it on their phones and walk out the door without the help of an employee. Mr. Shine said Friday that after he was stopped by the security guard, he realized the Easy Pay mobile system hadn't completed the sale. He said he plans to contest the charges—criminal possession of stolen property and petit larceny—in court in October. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.[/quote]

It would be nice if it had a variant of the anti theft scan that you have to go through before you complete the purchase. You go through it to make sure you bought everything, and if it says you didn't you can go back and try again.

Wal-Mart collects, stores, and sells data on our buying habits, AND they get to fire cashiers to save money. Everyone wins!

[quote]the company says it spends $12 million per second on cashers' wages in the U.S.[/quote] Considering that that's 1.036 trillion dollars a day I'm interested in knowing what ass they pulled that out of

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;37489792]Considering that that's 1.036 trillion dollars a day I'm interested in knowing what ass they pulled that out of[/QUOTE] Actually thats 345.6 Billion a day, assuming cashiers work 8 hours a day.

[QUOTE=Remscar;37489986]Actually thats 345.6 Billion a day, assuming cashiers work 8 hours a day.[/QUOTE] Wal-mart super centers are open 24/7

[QUOTE=Jetblack357;37490012]Wal-mart super centers are open 24/7[/QUOTE] Yea and 3rd shift has hardly any cashiers

Well if my math correct, Wal-mart has 6 billion cashiers working at any given time in the US. They should be commended for helping fight unemployment. Bravo Wal-mart!

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;37489752]Wal-Mart collects, stores, and sells data on our buying habits[/QUOTE] I don't see how any of that is a bad thing

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;37489792]the company says it spends $12 million per second on cashers' wages in the U.S.[/QUOTE] Even though this is bullshit the whole premise of it is wrong. Wal-Mart is worried about losing money because they have to pay their cashiers but the amount of money they gain is trivial. Laying off thousands of workers means less money to be spread around, and more money to be hoarded by one person. Technically this would not be beneficial to them in the end as less money would be spent by people. Companies affect way more than just simply selling products and making a profit. Although subtle and often ignored, they have very large scale impacts like this. Although I welcome more efficient and quicker checkouts, this is a terrible idea on a large scale and is quite a huge gamble to slowly lay off employees over time when the gain is just pocket change.

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;37489752]Wal-Mart collects, stores, and sells data on our buying habits, AND they get to fire cashiers to save money. Everyone wins![/QUOTE] [QUOTE=windwakr;37490144]So, they're removing even more jobs? First self-checkout(one employee per 4+ checkouts), and now this?[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Dark-Energy;37490251]Even though this is bullshit the whole premise of it is wrong. Wal-Mart is worried about losing money because they have to pay their cashiers but the amount of money they gain is trivial. Laying off thousands of workers means less money to be spread around, and more money to be hoarded by one person. Technically this would not be beneficial to them in the end as less money would be spent by people. Companies affect way more than just simply selling products and making a profit. Although subtle and often ignored, they have very large scale impacts like this. Although I welcome more efficient and quicker checkouts, this is a terrible idea on a large scale and is quite a huge gamble to slowly lay off employees over time when the gain is just pocket change.[/QUOTE] Do you guys know what a Luddite is?

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37490451]Do you guys know what a Luddite is?[/QUOTE] Do you know what unemployment is?

[QUOTE=Fatman55;37490524]Do you know what unemployment is?[/QUOTE] Yea, the mechanized loom put a lot of workers out of jobs too. When shit becomes more efficient, the amount of jobs needed to perform a task goes down.

people that shop walmart are too dumb to use this

[QUOTE=Fatman55;37490524]Do you know what unemployment is?[/QUOTE] Gee I guess we should go back to this: [IMG]http://jimbaumerexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/assembly-line.jpg[/IMG] instead of this: [IMG]http://cdn.thetechjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/robots.jpg[/IMG] Machines that render repetitive or simple jobs useless are being created and implemented all the time, stop whining

When I walk into a store I usually prefer the self checkout lanes, it's just so much easier to do everything myself.

Pretty soon it's gonna be like Fresh & Easy where you do your own checkout and the only people who work there are security guards and people to stack the shelves/do inventory.

[QUOTE=windwakr;37490144]So, they're removing even more jobs? First self-checkout(one employee per 4+ checkouts), and now this?[/QUOTE] The jobs are becoming obsolete as technology improves. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. New employment opportunities open up as technology gets better. For example, there weren't exactly a whole lot of people working as computer programmers or car manufacturers in the 1800s. We also don't really mourn the loss of the jobs of stagecoach drivers to the auto industry these days, but generally look back on it as a positive development, and the job losses as being an inevitable result of technological advances. If you want the increased efficiency and productivity of technology, you also necessarily have to accept the fact that the less efficient, less productive, obsolete jobs will be lost, there is just no question.

Hopefully we can invent Star Trek style replicators so all the displaced unskilled laborers won't even need jobs.

[QUOTE=latin_geek;37490757]Gee I guess we should go back to this: [IMG]http://jimbaumerexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/assembly-line.jpg[/IMG] instead of this: [IMG]http://cdn.thetechjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/robots.jpg[/IMG] Machines that render repetitive or simple jobs useless are being created and implemented all the time, stop whining[/QUOTE] Because replacing cashiers with computers will actually increase production. Manual to Automatic assembly line isn't really even a comparison. A mechanical assembly line can put together what takes a manual one days in hours. This just loses jobs and earns Wal-Mart a tiny bit more money.

[QUOTE=Fatman55;37491298]Because replacing cashiers with computers will actually increase production. Manual to Automatic assembly line isn't really even a comparison. A mechanical assembly line can put together what takes a manual one days in hours. This just loses jobs and earns Wal-Mart a tiny bit more money.[/QUOTE] This increases store efficiency and consumer satisfaction by a great deal. You make more money than just the savings in cashier wages.

They had those scanning things at Giant for ages now. They're actually less convenient than cashiers because you have to carry a bunch of bags around and do the bagging yourself. I think most of the appeal is just getting to play with a scanner.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37491643]This increases store efficiency and consumer satisfaction by a great deal. You make more money than just the savings in cashier wages.[/QUOTE] Yea, just wait till the item has a bad bar code, or no bar code, or the price does not match. Let's see how happy they are then.

[QUOTE=SSBMX;37491851]Yea, just wait till the item has a bad bar code, or no bar code, or the price does not match. Let's see how happy they are then.[/QUOTE] This happens at Wal Mart already and with frightening regularity. Having human cashiers does not alleviate the inconvenience or frequency of these situations.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;37491925]This happens at Wal Mart already and with frightening regularity, having human cashiers does not alleviate the inconvenience or frequency of these situations.[/QUOTE] I know this happens a lot, I am a walmart cashier. My point is the customer could not have the resources needed to fix the problem, fuck half the time I don't

It has happened tons to me and whenever I try and ask a cashier about it I get blank stares and confusion and sometimes someone calls a manager.

Not that this is ever going to come up here (middle of nowhere, northern Manitoba), but they probably wouldn't save anything at the Walmart I work at anyway because they never have any fucking cashiers in the first place. "What's that? There's a lineup at the front end? Better send in everyone from all the other departments!" [QUOTE=SSBMX;37491945]I know this happens a lot, I am a walmart cashier. My point is the customer could not have the resources needed to fix the problem, fuck half the time I don't[/QUOTE] For some reason I think this "mobile checkout" is just going to confuse the fuck out of a lot of people.

Regardless of the efficiency, fact of the matter is that all of the savings are going to go to Wal-Mart and will contribute nothing to the overall unemployment issue or to people's lives in general and will merely push even more wealth up tot he higher altitudes of the social ladder. I'm a cashier and I need my damned job. As much as I'd like to see a society where we don't have to work but can rely on the efficiencies of machines, this isn't going to benefit anyone but the people who built the system and the people who are using it. Millions are laid off and not any one of us is any richer or better off from it. This is a classic case of the necessity of holding back on technological efficiency to appease the needs of the masses. and it's not just cashiers who will be affected- just imagine the low-tier job market when we have to suddenly factor in a million former Wal-Mart cashiers. It's already competitive enough for even college graduates to find jobs in the shit-bin for minimum wage, forget high schoolers getting basic jobs. Factor in these Wal-Mart employees and you have 16-year-olds and 19-year-olds fighting for positions at Mcdonald's with 30- and 40-year-olds with far more experience. We'll have a stagnant job market, a stagnant economy, and labor-inept newcomers to the job market.

Shoplifting just got a hell of a lot easier.

[QUOTE=Amez;37490903]When I walk into a store I usually prefer the self checkout lanes, it's just so much easier to do everything myself.[/QUOTE] I love these because I don't feel as dirty when I off-load like $20 in 5c pieces or something because I'm just counting that shit myself.