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.
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