Wegmans, a company with supermarkets in the northeastern part of the United States, will stop this week with the so-called Scan App. This allowed customers to pick up and pay for groceries on their phone at their own pace. ‘But unfortunately, with the current losses, we cannot continue with the app in this way’, can be read in a message from Wegmans.
The app was released early in the pandemic. According to the company, the introduction was a success. “A lot of users told us they love it, and we were.” The chain says it has tried several times to keep the app alive. However, the losses from shoplifting turned out to be too significant, pulling the plug on the ‘scan and pay’ app.
Wegmans does not make any announcements about the exact loss due to shoplifting, according to CNN.
In America there are supermarkets that go a step further than Wegmans. Tech giant Amazon, for example, has checkout-free branches where everything goes via the app and where sensors register how many products a customer picks up. At Wegmans, customers will have to join the checkout line again from next week.