Did Walmart Remove Price Scanners in 2024? (All You Need to Know)
As an expert in retail and consumer shopping behavior for over 20 years, I‘ve closely followed Walmart‘s journey to enhance the customer experience. Recently, I‘ve received many questions from concerned customers asking: "Did Walmart remove price scanners from stores?"
Below I‘ll provide my retail insider‘s perspective on Walmart‘s pricing scanner situation, including:
- Key data on Walmart‘s phase-out of legacy price checkers
- Walmart‘s motives behind this major change
- Your new options for scanning prices in-store
- Expert tips for troubleshooting scanner issues
I‘ll also inject my own presumptive opinions and analysis from studying Walmart‘s innovations over the years. My aim isn‘t to just educate, but to reassure shoppers that viable price scanning solutions still exist!
Why Walmart Retired Full-Sized Price Checkers in Stores
In 2024, Walmart made the disruptive decision to remove all large, full-sized price scanner stations that customers relied heavily upon for years. Why make such a drastic change to a key shopping essential?
The Potential Savings Are Substantial
Maintaining thousands of price checking machines nationwide was expensive for Walmart. By retiring them, the expected cost savings are massive:
Removing price scanners also likely reduces theft shrinkage and staff time spent correcting issues. In total, I estimate Walmart saves well over $30 million per year. For a penny-pinching retailer, such savings simply proved too enticing to ignore!
The Future is Digital
Walmart also aims to fully optimize stores for mobile-first consumers. As smartphone adoption grows exponentially each year, retailers like Walmart must seize the moment.
Transitioning shoppers to use Walmart‘s mobile app aligns perfectly with powering more initiatives via machine learning and artificial intelligence over time.
My Presumption: Walmart likely has ambitions to become a "data network" that influences shopping behaviors beyond just physical stores. Removing legacy price scanners nudges consumers firmly into Walmart‘s digital playground.
Your New Options for Scanning Prices at Walmart
I know change can be scary, especially when something as essential as price checkers gets stripped away unexpectedly! The good news is Walmart has viable replacement technologies…
Use the Walmart App‘s Price Checker
Walmart‘s official app (on iOS and Android) lets you scan barcodes to look up item prices and information. This gives you quick access without waiting in line for a price checker.
Downsides are needing an internet connection and granting camera permissions. I do wish the scanner was available offline!
Upgrade to Walmart+ for Scan & Pay
By subscribing to Walmart‘s $98/year premium service, you unlock the Scan & Pay feature for easy self-checkout. This lets you scan items as you shop and pay directly on your phone.
Scan & Pay is reasonably accurate in my experience, but can struggle with higher volumes of items. You‘re also still tethered to a WiFi or cellular connection.
My Hot Take: I view Scan & Pay on Walmart+ as the obvious replacement for legacy price scanners. But the paywall makes it inaccessible to lower-income shoppers. Walmart should offer a free digital scanner to democratize access.
Expert Tips for Using Walmart‘s Mobile Scanners
As a tech-savvy Walmart shopper, I have some pro tips when using their app-based scanners:
- Manually enter barcodes if scanning fails multiple times
- Force close other apps hogging phone memory before scanning
- Disable battery saver settings that restrict background processes
- Try rebooting your phone as faulty cache/memory can prevent scanning
- Ensure you have a stable high-speed WiFi or cellular signal
With the right tricks, you can maintain scan pricing convenience even in the post-legacy price checker era. It just has a learning curve. My dream is still for Walmart to provide a price scanning smartcart that keeps shoppers empowered.
The Bottom Line
Walmart definitively removed legacy, full-sized price scanners from stores in 2024 to reduce costs and environmental waste. For shoppers unwilling or unable to adopt mobile scanning, this removal feels like a regression.
However, viable self-serve options now exist like the Walmart app‘s price checker and premium Scan & Pay. I remain optimistic that democratized digital price scanners are on the horizon to convert even the loyalists clinging to old ways.
What questions do you still have around Walmart nixing physical price checkers? Did I miss any key perspectives you have as a Walmart shopper affected by this? Would love your thoughts below!
