Wegmans is launching a new app in Rochester that the company says will allow customers to scan and bag their groceries while they shop.
Here’s the way it works: you download the new Wegmans SCAN mobile app on your smartphone, and as you cruise the aisles with your reusable bags in your cart, you can actually scan the bar code on the products your buying. You can see a running total as you shop, and Wegmans says after a quick stop at any self-checkout register and paying for your order, you’ll be on your way.
The new app is only available right now at the East Avenue Wegmans but if it is a hit with customers, the company is planning to roll it out at additional stores.
Gene Fram, a retired professor of marketing at RIT, says this kind of technology should be easily adopted by millennials and other younger generations of shoppers.
“They’ve been living with phones, perhaps all their lives, and they have great comfort with it and to do something like that is highly attractive,” Fram said.
Wegmans senior vice president Jack DePeters says as technology has evolved to enable more self-service, customers are increasingly looking for options that save time and allow them to shop how they want.
Fram says retailers may also find this kind of technology more cost-effective in terms of staffing.
The scan-as-you-go app already has been tested at some other major retailers including Walmart, although after a test period last year, that chain decided not to continue with its Scan & Go experiment.
