Sam's Club is opening a mysterious new tech-focused grocery store
- Walmart-owned Sam's Club is opening a store that carries mainly fresh food and grab-and-go meals.
- The store, which has not yet been named, will serve as a testing ground for new technology such as self-service returns, digital price tags, and cashierless checkout through Scan & Go.
- The store, opening in Dallas in the fall, will be one-quarter the size of a regular Sam's Club.
Walmart-owned Sam's Club is opening a new kind of store that's focused almost entirely on fresh food and grab-and-go meals.
The name of the new concept is still in the works, but it will carry Sam's Club branding, and only Sam's Club members will be able to shop there, the company said.
The store will be a testing ground for new technology, including self-service returns, digital price tags, and Scan & Go, which lets shoppers check out using a smartphone. (Walmart recently abandoned a rollout of Scan & Go in its stores, but the technology is still available in Sam's Club stores).
It's opening in Dallas in the fall, and it will be about 32,000 square feet, or about one-quarter the size of a regular Sam's Club. The store will carry 1,000 to 2,000 items. By comparison, a regular Sam's Club carries about 6,000 items.
"We'll lean heavily into grocery and fresh food items such as grab-and-go meals, the consumable items members buy most frequently, and services like fast, same-day Club Pickup and delivery options that will help busy families," Jamie Iannone, CEO of SamsClub.com, said in a blog post.
"You can expect to see a new level of convenience at this facility, and the technologies we use will continue to evolve."
The Dallas Morning News was the first to report on the new store.