
Walmart and its big-box warehouse subsidiary Sam’s Club are suing rival retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club, accusing BJ's of stealing technology that powers a popular self-checkout option in the Sam’s Club mobile app. The lawsuit, filed in federal court this week, claims Walmart worked for years to develop Scan & Go, a feature that lets Sam’s Club customers ring up purchases on their smartphones while walking through the store, allowing them to avoid a checkout line. It also notes that Walmart holds multiple patents protecting the intellectual property for the self-checkout feature, which debuted in 2016. Walmart alleges its “innovations were simply taken without permission” by BJ’s, which launched its contactless offering, ExpressPay, in late 2021.
Total Retail's Take: Contactless checkout, pioneered by Amazon.com and now adopted by a small number of other retailers, is viewed by many industry analysts as an added convenience to entice shoppers back into brick-and-mortar stores while still maintaining some forms of social distancing post-pandemic — not to mention speeding up the in-store shopping experience. And since the scan-and-go technology is so limited in its current use, Walmart considers it a competitive advantage and unsurprisingly is protective of it. Furthermore, it's in direct competition with BJ's for market share among cost-conscious warehouse shoppers. The court's ruling could mark an important junction in that battle between two of the leading warehouse club operators.

Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.