Last year, Sam’s Club bowed to pressure and increased their minimum wage to $16 per hour. Proving that the minimum wage is actually zero, the company announced this week that they will be eliminating all cashier and cash register positions.
The system will have customers scan items as they put them in their shopping cart, with the charges going to the customer’s credit card as they exit the store. An employee spot checks the cart of each customer as they exit. The system was rolled out in 2016, and it has been relatively popular with customers.
Other positions to be automated are automated forklifts and a pizza robot in the café.
Unskilled labor is pricing itself out of the market.
32 Comments
It's just Boris · April 26, 2025 at 6:43 am
I’m a little surprised we don’t have full-auto Starbucks by now.
But yes, automation is becoming cheaper than humans, and definitely complains less. When it does complain, it usually does so quietly, so, bonus there too.
@HomeInSC · April 26, 2025 at 6:58 am
If we were able to deport ALL of the illegals in this country there would be some major shocks to the system that would take some time to manage. The result, and I think it would be a good one, would be that we could go back to the days when high schoolers got part time jobs and actually learned how to work instead of staring at their phones.
Birdog357 · May 1, 2025 at 6:57 am
Back at the turn of the century when I was a teenager, there was a summer job around here that was highly sought after because it paid extremely well by the standards of the day(more than 2x minimum) It was a seasonal only job, but it was hot, hard work. Detasseling corn. Now that job is done by legal migrants bussed in and housed in what amounts to a barracks and the teens have no opportunity to get a good paying summer job.
SiG · April 26, 2025 at 6:59 am
I’ve always wondered if that cart checking position is useful for anything. Sam’s, BJ’s, and I think Costco do that (only been in one once), and no other store does it. I can’t see how they can inspect carts the way I’ve always seen it done. They don’t inspect everything, just give it the most cursory look.
Is it just a psyop?
Divemedic · April 26, 2025 at 7:46 am
When you are leaving, they scan your receipt, then scan several items that are in your cart. The software makes sure that the items scanned are on the receipt. I am guessing that there is a deterrent effect there as well.
Rick T · April 26, 2025 at 4:01 pm
That ‘cursory look’ is the inspector counting the items in the cart to be matched with the same number at the bottom of the receipt. I’ve had the checker move things in my cart when things were packed especially tightly. No need for a scanner.
oldvet50 · April 26, 2025 at 8:04 am
It always amazed me that if I had turned in a business plan like this in my marketing class in college, I would have failed. Let’s start a retail outlet but restrict the customer base by making them pay a yearly fee for the privelege of shopping here. Give them a slight discount on items, but just enough to cover the annual fee. Lastly, let’s assume they are all thieves and inspect their cart upon leaving, even though our employees have already inventoried it at checkout.
EN2 SS · April 27, 2025 at 7:08 am
The money my family saves at Sam’s is much more than the cost of membership. At the rate of shoplifting nowadays, what else is possible? But really, can it be called shoplifting when the limits in some insane states is a thousand dollars or so? With no penalties?
Divemedic · April 27, 2025 at 8:23 am
Integrity is doing what is right, even when there is no punishment for doing wrong.
The reason that I don’t steal is that stealing is wrong. Any attempt as justifying theft is simply rationalizing evil.
It’s really that simple.
Elrod · April 26, 2025 at 8:18 am
I suspect Costco, and maybe BJ’s, have some customers that would try to beat the system, and that Walmart – aks Sam’s Club – will discover they have a much higher percentage of those customers.
But, weighed against the cost of “people” – and that “cost” is composed of many, many factors (some of which is employee incompetence and employee theft) whatever the loss rate will turn out to be may be lower than the cost of “people.” Paying one uniformed, armed and somewhat threatening-looking “security guard” at the exit will be a pittance compared to 8-10 cashiers.
And, the next step will be changing packaging; it doesn’t cost much to print the box, so adding bar codes to all 4 sides in a nit, and packaging changes can assist in automated shelf stocking (there are a LOT of warehouses running “in the dark” with automated forklifts). And the cost of RFIDs is coming down, at which point they can do away with the “register scanning stations” altogether and hit your card for the money as you go through the exit door.
It will be interesting to watch what happens on this front. I’d wager once the bugs get worked out and cost gets tightly controlled it will spread like seasonal flu.
TRX · April 26, 2025 at 8:38 am
There’s a Home Depot a couple of towns over. They went all self-checkout, and credit card only. I had a big cart full of stuff, and cash. I looked at the checkout thingie, determined it didn’t take cash, and started to walk out of the store. A hovering employee ran over and unlocked the register to take my money, but I’ve never been back.
The Lowes in my town had replaced all but one of the registers with self-checkout. I don’t know if they’re credit-only or not. Yesterday I bought some stuff, walked to the registers, and they were all self-checkout. I walked to the other end of the store to the “contractor” register and got checked out there.
Some self-checkouts *do* take cash. However, I’ve been burned by that before. Took most of an hour, with various managers, to get it unstuck at a Wal-Mart. So, not doing that again.
I’ve seen some articles about various McDonalds’ going “app-only”; if you don’t have a compatible smartphone and download their malware “app” – McD’s app has been caught spying before – you can’t place an order.
I realize customers are pretty far down the list of things most corporations care about, but the “getting paid” thing ought to be a priority. Apparently they’re willing to forego sales rather than deal with the public.
It's just Boris · April 26, 2025 at 10:43 am
TRX, your last paragraph sparked a thought.
Each and every “customer facing” employee is a potential liability and PR disaster. Since basic civility seems to be going away, automation might be as tempting for reducing that potential for damage to the brand, as not having to pay salaries.
Mitigation of potential liabilities, plus less cash outflow? Win-win!
Aesop · April 30, 2025 at 1:18 am
Only if they drop their prices 10% across the board to pay me for doing their work for them.
Otherwise, I’ll just drop by, load up a cart full of perishable meat and frozen goods, and walk out without it, about once a week.
That includes when they make self-service 5 of the 15 stations, limit it to 1`5 items, and have only one live checker open out of 25 lines.
Second worst is no help, and half the store merch is locked behind anti-shoplifting cabinets.
Anything on hang tags behind the little peg-mag locks means I take out Swiss Army knife scissors, and cut the package off the rack myself.
Either put your merchandise where I can get it and go, or shutter the stores in the high-loss areas forever.
Either you’re in business to sell me stuff, or you’re not.
SoCoRuss · April 26, 2025 at 10:28 am
I understand the push due to labor costs and thats why I dont buy the Messiah’s push to get industry back here, never gonna happen with our labor rates. But would only work if EVERYTHING is automated but folks wont think about that. But this is also pushing a cashless society. But what about folks that have no use for a smart phone/data miner? There are number of folks dropping out from SP because they are just tired of the BS. I guess they don’t get to use Sams anymore?
Is that the future, you WILL have a SP and you WILL use it as we say. And we WILL spy on you as much as we like? You want bread, milk, hamburger and Mac and cheese, NOPE you get dandelion roots, crickets and fluoridated water and you will like it.
And the sheeple will just go BBBAAAAAA, YEESSSS MMAASTERSSSSS.
Jesus, can we please have the meteor or the Pole Shift now…..
MrLiberty · April 26, 2025 at 11:31 am
An employer can ONLY afford to pay as much or less than the value contributed by the employee to the business’ bottom line. Anything more and they risk going out of business. Sam’s Club employees are finding that out the hard way.
JimmyPx · April 26, 2025 at 4:50 pm
As AI and robotics get ever stronger and better, they will replace more and more jobs until eventually there will be few human jobs left.
Our current system cannot handle that otherwise everyone will be dirt poor and you will have uber wealthy (kind of like that movie Elysium from 10 years ago with Matt Damon).
I don’t have the answer but humanity needs to change and adopt a new system if most labor is done by AI and robots, what does humanity do all day ?
hh475 · April 26, 2025 at 4:53 pm
The problem with raising the minimum wage is that the minimum wage was *never* supposed to be a “living wage.” It was supposed to be supplemental/apprentice level income for people who did not rely on it for all of their expenses. When I was young, the biggest segment of society that worked for minimum wage were high school students. Most of the kids I knew in high school worked for minmum wage at places like McDonalds or worked hauling hay or cleaning consstruction sites or whatever. When I was a kid, we didn’t have illegal aliens doing all the farm work (though there werer some). We had high school and college kids. When I was in high school, everybody worked the fields in the summer unless they had a job at McDonalds or construction or in a factory. That’s why the summer vacation was created.
It did two things. The first thing is that it gave folk training in the most basic things about having a job — showing up on time, taking personal responsibility, etc. The second was that it provided a little money to the kids and family to pay for some fun or to help in the family expenses. It wasn’t supposed to be what the families survived on.
Then two things changed. First, child labor laws and regulations concerning hiring people under 18 meant that most of the jobs I did as a kid are now out of reach. When I was 16, I spent a summer driving a forklift. It was great. The next summer I applied for a job and the couldn’t hire because of OSHA rules. The same thing was true for working as an “orderly” at a hospital (I don’t think they even have those any more), and working construction. Between the time I was 15 and 19, I probably had six or seven short gigs doing labor. It was a great experience, and it’s all illegal now.
The other group that tended to work for minimum wage were old folks basically looking for something to occupy the time, and spouses of the primary family wage earner to supplement income and get out of the house. With the exception of a few jobs like Wal Mart greeters, these jobs have mostly been obliterated.
Steady Steve · April 27, 2025 at 9:05 am
Wrong. In the mid 60’s minimum wage was $1.25. A couple with 2 minimum wage jobs could afford rent and a used car. $1.25 in silver quarters back then are worth approx $25 in FRNs now. So minimum wage has not kept up with inflation. What we need is sound money, not higher wages.
hh465 · May 2, 2025 at 10:46 am
$1.25 in 1965 would be $12.64 today (https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=1.25&year=1965) . For a 2000 hour work year, that would be about $25,000 today.
I can’t speak for the 1960s, but in the 1970s when *I* was working for minimum wage, the other thing about minimum wage jobs is that they were almost never full time and long term. If one were working, say, at Mc Donalds, and actually stuck at the job, you got a raise within months. Farm workers who were not seasonal also made more than minimum wage. Minimum wage was a starting point. It was not for permanent employees, for the most part. Minimum wage was what you did while you were looking for something else or moving up the ladder. A lot of the folk I knew at the time who were not planning on going to college worked at these places while trying to land a union factory job. If you had been working for Joe’s Widget emporium for six months, were still making minimum wage, and had no prospects at Joe’s, you went somewhere else.
Mike · April 26, 2025 at 10:19 pm
I like the idea of the scan and go app at Sam’s, but the one time I tried it the app required “precise location” permissions to work, which really means letting the phone scan local WiFi and Bluetooth signals and phone home. I disable that for privacy/security, so unless they back off asking for permissions they shouldn’t need, I’ll be dropping their membership if they remove the self checkout option.
Divemedic · April 27, 2025 at 6:41 am
Any app that asks for those permissions can be restricted to when the app is in use.
Mike · April 28, 2025 at 8:15 am
Correct, but while the app is in use and has those permissions, it can upload the list of scanned data to their servers. In reality, my location data and associations are being aggregated in many other ways, so it’s not really making a difference, but I don’t intend to make it any easier to gather data they shouldn’t be acquiring.
lynn · April 26, 2025 at 11:42 pm
This should be interesting. One wonders how robust the system will be versus honest mistakes and real scammers.
I will be the person making the honest mistakes.
Divemedic · April 27, 2025 at 6:39 am
So, stealing by fraud?
Dirty Dingus McGee · April 27, 2025 at 7:48 am
And so we edge ever closer to a cashless society. Just what big gov dot org wants. Any store that will not accept cash will not get my patronage. Do I use a card? Yes. But not accepting cash is my breaking point.
Matthew W · April 27, 2025 at 8:01 am
Shrink will go up………………..
Divemedic · April 27, 2025 at 8:20 am
A friend of mine works as a security director for a large retailer. He tells me that most shrinkage is caused by employees.
Matthew W · April 27, 2025 at 8:54 am
I work for the director of a VERY large retailer………………..
Yes, employees have the most access to products and are responsible for over 50% of shrink.
Any transaction that does not have a human being controlling it will be more vulnerable to shrink.
Our business tested the scan/pay thing a decade ago and it was a shrink machine.
FYI, your website does not like my VPN……………
TCK · April 28, 2025 at 1:44 am
I’m guessing only some stores are doing this as test to see how it works out.
My store just started taking out the self-checks and replacing them with manned registers, with plans to keep only a single row of self-checks specifically for Spark drivers and Scan-and-Go.
Then again, we’re one of the high theft locations (having a firmly blue government and homeless camp in the park literally right next to us tends to do that).
anony · April 28, 2025 at 8:50 pm
These scans will fail as well. People are already swapping bar codes from high cost products with lower cost ones. What is to stop that with RFID’s?
If you remove floor people and cashiers, then is the 1 security guard going to catch this? Why would he even care?
Aesop · April 30, 2025 at 1:21 am
$16-20/hr minimum wage?
FAFO, bitches.
More stores like this, and soon we’ll have less stores like this.
Mom & pop stores of the world are cracking up, and their employees are their kids.
LargeMarge · April 30, 2025 at 11:38 pm
Eugene Oregon.
.
About a half-decade ago, Wal*Mart in west Eugene decapitated about half the cubic feet of the store to modify the lost area into some weird automated drive-through Scan-n-Go.
Wal*Mart bosses planned this to be their ‘Flag-Ship’ location, a shining hilltop beacon and worthy of inclusion in the new brochure.
.
Progress?
* A few cow-orkers were trained, but they either quit to go work at Costco(!), aged-out, moved to a different store, or acquired the dreaded Five! Points! (a half-point demerit for each absence, etcetera etcetera etcetera) and got 86’d.
* Some of the equipment is installed… but it either needs new gaskets (because they aged-out) or, although new and unused, it is already obsolete.
.
A scary thought:
What if, because the job took so long to reach ‘partially-done but unusable’, what if all the technicians aged-out.
Nobody to complete the installation, nobody to get the machines going in the first place.
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