Inside Walmart’s journey to cashierless retail

Walmart is testing the waters of cashier automation, first by letting customers scan and pay for items within an app, and now, giving in-store reps the ability to help customers pay on mobile devices.

It’s also studying customer comfort levels with automated payments. At this point, it’s not ready to get rid of cashiers — they’ll just be part of a bigger menu of customer checkout choices, according to Walmart rep Ragan Dickens.

Dickens would not comment on whether fully automated stores are in its plans. But for the past two months, it’s been testing an Apple-store type concept called “Check out with Me” at 350 stores. It gives the agent the ability to check out a customer on a mobile device...    ...more

RSK: This might be an answer to my pet peeve of waiting in line to check out.