Wegmans Shuts Down Scan-and-Go Checkout Amid ‘Losses’

As grocers look to remove friction from the in-store journey, not all their tech bets are paying off.

For example, Wegmans, a regional supermarket chain with more than 100 East Coast stores, is shutting down its SCAN app, which offers scan-and-go own-device self-service, on Sunday (Sept. 18), per an email sent to customers Monday (Sept. 12) republished on Twitter by multiple users.

“SCAN users have told us they love the app and convenience it offers,” Wegmans said in a statement emailed to PYMNTS. “Unfortunately, the losses we are experiencing prevent us from continuing to make it available in its current state. We’ve made the decision to turn off the app until we can make improvements that will meet the needs of our customers and business.”

Research from the PYMNTS study “Today’s Self-Service Shopping Journey: The New Retail Expectation,” which was created in collaboration with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and drew from a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, found that 1 in 3 consumers had used self-checkout options for their most recent in-store grocery purchase.

See also: Consumers Want Self-Service Checkout Options but Rarely Get to Use Them

Additionally, the study found that the No. 1 reason consumers opt for self-checkout is that they are looking for a quicker purchasing experience, and the second most popular reason is that they do not want to wait in line.

The grocer’s losses with the app may come in part from scan-and-go customers’ tendency to skip paying for some items, intentionally or otherwise. Additionally, TechCrunch noted data that indicates the grocer’s SCAN app underperforms, as far as total installations, relative to other grocers’ scan-and-go offerings, suggesting that this may account for the tech investment not paying off.

In Wegmans’ case, shoppers felt strongly about the feature, with multiple customers complaining publicly about the loss and noting that they will no longer drive the additional distance to get to Wegmans. Per the email sent out to customers, the grocer is looking to soften the blow with $20 coupons applied to online accounts and a promise to continue to look into technologies that remove friction from the in-store journey.

“We’ve learned a lot, and we will continue to introduce new digital solutions to streamline the shopping experience for the future,” the grocer stated.

Wegmans’ frustrated customers are far from the only grocery shoppers to have their choice of merchant motivated by in-store technologies, according to data from the PYMNTS study “Decoding Customer Affinity: The Customer Loyalty to Merchants Survey 2022,” also created in collaboration with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions.

Get the report: Decoding Consumer Affinity: The Customer Loyalty To Merchants Survey 2022

The study, which drew from a fall 2021 survey of a census-balanced panel of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, found that 8% of grocery shoppers cite payment or fulfillment features as the single most influential factor when selecting a merchant to shop with.

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