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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Sam's Club

While Amazon Struggles With Futuristic Retail, Sam’s Club is Doubling Down on Computer-Vision To Aid Store Exits

An interesting set of stories came out over the past week, which showed how two retail giants are leveraging technology to help consumers get out of the store faster.

One one hand, you have Amazon halving its Go store count to 16 locations, shifting focus to licensing its “Just Walk Out” technology to third-party retailers.

On the flip side, Walmart’s bulk membership club Sam’s Club is investing more heavily to use computer vision to aid shoppers to get out of the store faster.

The key difference? Sam’s Club is using computer vision for receipt verification. Previously, members had to stop at the exit while associates manually checked receipts, causing bottlenecks. Now, cameras at the exit automatically scan carts and verify purchases, allowing members to walk out without interruption. AI works in the background to refine accuracy, while employees are freed up to assist shoppers rather than policing receipts.

Contrast this with Just Walk Out, which is Amazon’s effort to eliminate the checkout experience all together which, it appears for many people, is still too weird and feels a little to close to shoplifting.

As I wrote last year, Just Walk Out is “a radically tech-forward evolution of checkout, but one in which Amazon appears to have widely overestimated just how many people would use it and how easy it would be to implement. Self-checkout fits most shoppers’ needs when they are in a hurry, and there aren’t that many situations where consumers feel they need to skip checkout altogether.”

Jimmy Dean Launches Plant-Based Patty Sandwiches at Sam’s Club

Jimmy Dean, a US-based pork producer owned by Tyson Foods, announced today the launch of its new plant-based patty breakfast sandwiches at Sam’s Club and other undisclosed retailers. The company will be launching two different breakfast sandwiches with one already available in stores, and the other launching in Spring 2021.

The breakfast sandwich launched at the end of December 2020 is the Plant-Based Patty, Egg & Cheese Croissant Sandwich. Jimmy Dean is known for its breakfast patties and links, and this new product provides a meat-free breakfast alternative that still maintains a high amount of protein. The plant-based patty is made from soy protein, and egg whites, and the sandwich also includes American cheese and eggs, clocking in at 13g of protein.

Launching sometime in Spring 2021, the Plant-Based Patty & Frittata Sandwich totals 15G of protein and features a vegetable and grain patty made from black beans, quinoa, brown rice, soy protein, and egg whites. This sandwich uses an English muffin base, and also includes a spinach and egg frittata and American cheese. Although the sandwiches are not vegan friendly, they are suitable for those who follow a flexitarian or vegetarian diet.

Jimmy Dean is certainly not the first large meat producer to launch plant-based options. With the plant-based meat category being valued at $939 million in 2020 and a survey showing that 50% of consumers have tried plant-based meat, it makes sense for meat producers to add plant-based options to their portfolio. The largest producer of meat in the world, JBS, owns Planterra, which created a brand called Ozo that has an entire line of meatless burgers, grounds, and meatballs. Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork producers in the world, launched a line of plant-based proteins through the brand Pure Farmland. Other meat producers such as Tyson, Hormel, and Cargill have also produced meatless products.

Located in the frozen aisle within Sam’s Clubs, the Plant-Based Patty, Egg & Cheese Croissant Sandwich comes in a pack of 12 and retails at $11.65. The Plant-Based Patty & Frittata Sandwich comes in a 4-count pack has a suggested retail price of $7.29, and it is currently undetermined which retailers this sandwich will launch in this upcoming spring.

Here is a List of Cashierless Tech Companies Gunning for Amazon Go

Bloomberg has a story up today about the Portugal-based startup, Sensei, titled “Amazon Go Faces Unlikely Challenge From Checkout-Free Startup.” The headline caught my eye because it isn’t unlikely at all, in fact, it’s quite likely. While Amazon has a substantial headstart in getting cashierless stores to market (10 and counting), Bezos’ behemoth faces all kinds of technological challenges from companies big and small in the checkout-free space.

As a quick refresher, cashierless checkout stores are retail environments that allow the shopper to walk in, grab what they want and leave without standing in a checkout line. Some combination of high-tech sensors and cameras keep track of what you buy and charge you automatically. Different companies have different approaches, some of them more advanced than others, but here’s who’s out there right now:

Caper: Rather than installing cameras and sensors in the store, Caper shifts that technology to its smart shopping carts, so retailers don’t have to spend a lot of money to retrofit their locations. Current versions of the cart require the user to scan items, but they’ve said computer vision is coming to make recording what you put in your cart automatic. Caper has raised $3 million raised and says it is in use by two major unnamed grocery store chains.

DeepMagic: Rather than scaling up, DeepMind scales down to create unattended kiosk shopping experiences that are meant to live inside existing locations (think: Hotel or office lobbies). Even these mini, mini shopping stores will face off against Amazon, as the company is reportedly looking to shrink Go stores to fit inside offices to feed hungry workers. DeepMagic is self-funded and has been used by Cisco to sell swag at one of its conferences.

Grabango: A relative newcomer to the cashierless space, Granbango came out of stealth earlier this year. It uses lots of tiny smartphone camera-sized cameras mounted on the ceiling to saturate its computer vision field and keep track of purchases. Grabango’s hook is that it integrates with the store checkout system, so when shoppers are done, they can still pay with a credit card or cash without a cashier scanning each item. Grabango has raised $17.3 million and says it is in pilots with three major grocers and one convenience store chain.

Microsoft: Microsoft isn’t one to let a cross-town rival like Amazon dominate a market without putting up a fight. But right now we’ve only heard reports of the Redmond giant working on cashierless tech with Walmart (another Amazon rival). Another clue that Microsoft cashierless tech could be forthcoming is its recent partnership with Kroger to pilot a new type of tech-forward, smart stores.

Sam’s Club: The Walmart-owned Sam’s Club opened up an experimental store last year, which requires the use of Walmart’s Scan & Go app to pay for items.

Skip: Similar to Sam’s Club approach, Skip is another small entrant in the cashierless space that is targeting convenience stores. Shoppers download and use the Skip app to scan and purchase items in the store. Skip is currently iN use in several western convenience store chains and has raised $5 million in seed funding.

Standard Cognition: While Standard Cognition has its own working store in San Francisco, it’s mainly there to showcase its cashierless chops. Standard Cognition’s website makes a big deal about it not using facial recognition and being built around privacy. The company has raised $51 million in funding and says it has agreements with four retailers across Asia, North America and Europe.

Trigo Vision: Israel-based Trigo Vision retrofits existing stores with off-the-shelf cameras and computer vision to create its cashierless experience. The company has raised $7 million, is in a pilot with an unnamed European retailer and last November signed a deal with Israel’s Shufersal to implement checkout free shopping across all of that chain’s 272 locations.

V7 (formerly AI Poly): We haven’t covered this company fully here at The Spoon yet. AI Poly recently rebranded its retail efforts as V7, and now uses AI Poly for vision AI for the visually impaired and blind. The V7 website says its AI system can plug into and work with existing security cameras, depending on the number a store operates.

7-11: The convenience store chain’s tech works more like a self-checkout than true grab-and-go retail. In the pilot store the company launched towards the end of last year, shoppers use the 7-11 app to scan items and then manually pay for them at separate checkout stations.

And now we can add Sensei to this list. Are there any others we’re leaving out? Any stealthy ones you want to spill the beans on? If so, drop us a line and let us know!

Sam’s Club to Open Cashierless Concept Store Next Week

Walmart-owned Sam’s Club will open up a new store in Dallas next week that will feature a high-tech take on grocery shopping with cashierless checkout, in-store search and augmented reality. The move will also escalate Walmart’s innovation battle with rival Amazon and its cashierless Go stores.

Dubbed Sam’s Club Now, the new store concept will feature the company’s Scan & Go payment technology. Members who shop at Sam’s Club Now will now be required to use the Scan & Go app to scan and pay for items and serve as the foundation for other features such as:

  • Smart shopping lists. Using machine learning and purchase data, Sam’s Club Now will automatically generate a shopping list for users and automatically update it as items are purchased.
  • In-store navigation. Search for an item and the app will navigate you to its location in the store. Eventually, the app will create an optimal route for shoppers based on their smart shopping list.
  • Augmented Reality. This doesn’t seem to be fully baked yet, but from the company’s corporate blog post: “We’ll bring items to life in the club by sharing new ways to use them, and we’ll work to integrate stories that highlight cool features, including how items are sourced. We also have plans to use augmented reality to transform members’ digital carts into pirate ships. Or maybe you’d prefer a rocket? More on that soon!”

The use of Scan & Go will also mean a new role for us humans. Sam’s Club is creating a new position called the Member Host, which the company wants you to think of like a “concierge of the club.” Instead of just ringing customers up, they will help guide and inform shoppers. This is actually a common theme among companies implementing automation. From Cafe X’s robot barista to Walmart’s shelfbot, the repetitive tasks are taken over by apps or robots and humans are kept around to provide service, expertise and perform higher level tasks.

The launch of this newfangled Sam’s Club Now is a shot across the bow of Amazon, which has been rolling out its Amazon Go stores at a rapid clip, recently, opening up three locations in Seattle, two in Chicago and one in San Francisco (with more to come).

Sam’s Club Now and Amazon Go aren’t exactly analogous to one another. Go stores don’t require any manual scanning, instead relying on banks of cameras and sensors to know what you purchased. And the two stores are going after different markets. Sam’s Club Now takes up 32,000 square feet and is more of a full grocery shopping experience as opposed to smaller, more convenience-like Go stores, which typically hover at around ~2,000 square feet and are meant for grabbing things quickly.

However, they are both pushing a technology-driven change in the way we shop for our food. Between the advancements these two giants are making, as well as the work of startups like Trigo Vision and AIpoly, among others, 2019 is shaping up to be a watershed year for the cashierless retail revolution.

Sam’s Club and Instacart Expand Same-Day Delivery Nationally

Warehouse chain Sam’s Club announced today that it is expanding its partnership with Instacart to bring same day delivery to more than half of all Sam’s Clubs across the country by the end of this month.

According to the press announcement, Sam’s Club grocery delivery via Instacart will be available from roughly 350 stores by the end of October, up from the current 238. The two companies launched their partnership in February of this year with 61 clubs.

In addition to groceries, customers can also get gifts and small appliances delivered through Instacart in as fast as an hour.

A lot has changed since the start of the year for both Sam’s Club and Instacart. In January, Sam’s Club abruptly shut down 63 of its stores. But while Sam’s Club shrank, Instacart has grown, raising nearly a billion dollars in new funding ($600 million of which was just this week!).

Today’s announcement also comes around the same time the TABS Analytics 6th Annual Food and Beverage Consumables Study revealed that just 17 percent of respondents regularly shop for groceries online (six or more purchases per year). That figure is a 4 percent bump over last year’s survey, however.

And it’s that growth that retailers are preparing for, as online grocery shopping is projected to hit $100 billion by 2022. Instacart, Postmates and DoorDash have all raised hundreds of millions of dollars to facilitate last mile delivery logistics. At the same time, retailers are getting into the delivery game themselves. In addition to expanding its own relationship with Instacart, Kroger is testing out self-driving delivery vehicles while Walmart has launched its own delivery service.

Retailers are focusing on fast, convenient grocery delivery now to grab early market share. Once they’ve got a customer hooked, as the entire space grows, so too will the revenues.