Walmart's Scan & Go Is... Mostly Awesome

 Finally, I have tried Walmart's Scan & Go app. How was it? Not too bad, but I do have suggestions...

The Good:

• It was fast. My family didn't have to wait as long for me to shop and check out.
• It was easy. The app is user-friendly and easy to learn.
• It was better than "regular" shopping. For the most part!
• You are seeing your shopping totals as you add things to your cart. That was awesome. There were no surprises at checkout like "What did I spend so much on?!?!?!"
• It's super convenient, especially when the store is crowded.
• I didn't have to pull out my wallet at all.

The Not-So-Good:

• The scanner in the app wouldn't read one of my items. I put it back.
• You do have to hit a self-checkout register to, um, check out.
• There is no checkout register designated for Scan & Go customers.
• Not all the staff seem to know about it. Maybe.

Overall, I am impressed. I will probably always use Scan & Go when I have to be in the physical store.  For parents or other caregivers, it should be so much better to Scan & Go. Get in, shop, and get out. I would have loved Scan & Go when I shopped with my young nephew or my wheelchair-bound sister. 

I was a bit lost at first when I opened the app. I didn't realize that I had to wait to be in the store (connected to their Wi-Fi) to use it. The app walks you through the process from scanning and adding items to your cart to removing anything you decide you don't want after all.  Here are some parts of the process I really liked:

• After the first 3 or 4 items, the app prompted me to verify the amount of items in my cart. 
• When aiming the camera at a product, the scanner sort of searches for the code. As long as the code was somewhere in the photo square range, the scanner thing would "find" it. So I didn't have to worry about perfect aim.
• The scanner is not picking up and adding random items because you have to press "Scan" for each item. It's easy to do one-handed. 
• The running total is awesome. Every time I added an item to the cart, I got a total. It's a great way when you know you only have x amount of money. Like I said, no surprises at the end or having to put something back while people are watching.
• You can check your receipt when you have checked out. There is a photo of an actual store receipt right there on your phone. (You don't get that kind of receipt when using delivery or pickup.)
• You could change your mind and take things out of your cart if you wanted. The app will let you subtract that item.

My other slip-up was that it was only after I'd checked out that I remembered to go grab some bags for my items. This is another reason I think there should be a designated checkout station for the app users. Maybe I will remember to bring my own bags next time.

I think Walmart employees should be better educated on Scan & Go. The lady monitoring self-checkout was a bit confused when she didn't see me actually ringing up my items. She followed me to ask if she could "help me". Poor woman. She probably thought I was just a brazen shoplifter! I held up my phone to show her the "Exit Pass" on the app. 

The young dude manning the exit, was also a bit confused when I held up my phone to show him the Exit Pass. He let me go but still looked concerned. I walked out and that's when I remembered I needed a couple of bags. That poor guy at the door was really thrown when I came back for a quick moment, then left again with my items bagged. 

In spite of a couple of hiccups, that was probably the best-ever trip to Walmart. I wasn't all stressed out when I left, nor was I checking my purse to make sure I had my wallet. It was so easy, that it felt like cheating.

In contrast, my SIL took way longer to finish shopping for 3 things than I did for 6 things. The checkout line is where you save time.

Like I said, there is a little bit of room for improvement but I really was pleased. The main thing that bugged me was not having a designated checkout scanner. All I needed to do was get to a checkout register and scan the barcode on the screen. That basically completed my checkout and triggered the Exit Pass on my phone.  NOTE: This could be a real pain if the self-checkouts are all crowded... Designated registers will be a huge improvement...

Overall, Walmart is killing it with the Scan & Go app. It wasn't buggy or irritating to use. Next time I will try to remember to take screenshots at different stages of the process.

Peace

--Free