Sam’s Club is trying out new ideas using computer vision and other innovations – and it’s happening in North Texas’ backyard.
At the Grapevine store, the membership-only shopping chain that’s part of Walmart has rolled out new systems and services that help streamline processes ― and free up employees.
Meanwhile, a hidden room full of tech associates see what works best at the retail site.
“This club in particular is actually helping us move much faster with much more impactful innovation,” Todd Garner, chief product officer for Sam’s Club, said in an interview at the store, which he called “our innovation hub.”
Sam’s Club, competing against Costco and others, is investing in new technology as it seeks to draw new customers and keep existing ones. The company plans to double its membership over the next eight to 10 years — and more than double sales and profit.
It also plans to open more sites annually and remodel all of its stores, while noting the Grapevine site sets “the standard” for the club of the future.
“We have momentum with sustainable growth in membership, powered by our physical fleet and e-commerce, and the investments we’re making to deliver experiences that are not common in the club channel,” Sam’s Club U.S. president and CEO Chris Nicholas said during an investment community meeting earlier this month, according to a transcript.
Vision of the future
The North Texas store — which was closed in 2022 because of tornado damage — reopened in October. Almost immediately, it was used to put new ideas to work.
The retail site doesn’t include traditional checkouts, so customers use a “Scan & Go” option for mobile phones. There’s also technology behind the curtain to boost efficiency for getting orders and making food more quickly.
The site uses computer vision, a field within artificial intelligence, to “see” objects, helping distinguish and draw information from physical objects.
In the back of the store, bubble-shaped cameras using the technology are positioned in the receiving area to scan and ingest data from pallets automatically. The tech can distinguish among different information sources on the pallet to find the crucial numbers that indicate what’s there, be it diapers, water bottles or something else.
That’s cutting through some complexity as different items can have different types of labels as the system removes employee tasks.
“Normally, [the worker] would scan the pallet with her device,” Garner said. “She would then potentially have to do an audit. And then what she would do is she would drive it” to another area.
With this pilot, “We can do our jobs faster,” Garner said. “We can get the goods out to the floor quicker, and we can focus our time on the members.”
Sam’s Club has been using computer vision with its automatic floor cleaners that scan the shelves as well. The machines are looking for information, such as whether products are fully stocked and the pricing is up-to-date.
“This thing can run every day, and it can actually check with 100% consistency every single aisle and make sure that we have the right goods, there’s plenty of quantity, they’re priced correctly, the aisles are clean,” Garner said.
Another key technology is with RFID, or radio frequency identification, which finds product information embedded in tags. That technology, used along with computer vision, adds another set of data to help the store’s workers. That’s especially helpful with items such as clothing.
If a problem is identified, a worker is alerted through a digital message.
The cashier-less checkouts are leveraging computer vision. When customers pass through an electronic “gate,” a scan quickly processes what’s in the cart — and if the contents line up with what should be in there based on a receipt.
The system then signals a worker at the door that the items have been properly paid for, and that customer can exit. RFID is set to help as well.
With the exit technology, more than 75% of members are getting a “friction-free experience,” meaning no discussions with a worker about an order before exiting.
On-site help
The store’s efforts with technology are getting lots of attention. The company has upward of 30 tech associates in Grapevine that focus on enhancing current technology while identifying manual tasks that can be automated, Sam’s Club said. They also test new technologies like computer vision and training computer vision models.
“When we rebuilt Grapevine, we actually developed this with that (exactly) in mind,” Garner said. “We could actually have a place here where we could work, we could cocreate, we could do all of the other factors and have real insights, real time.”
That means the people using technology to improve operations can open a door to the store itself and see how the ideas are actually playing inside the walls of the Sam’s Club. It delivers faster feedback as they work side-by-side with other employees. That avoids getting a trip with a fight to get to the store from another location.
“We’re big into design thinking, and the core of design thinking is empathetic problem solving — so it’s like, ‘Do you really understand what the member’s going through?’” Garner said. “This is a real-world environment.”
