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Sam’s Club’s AI Exit Technology Reached 20% of Its Clubs: What Shoppers Need to Know

By TheFinanceBase Team7 min read
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Sam’s Club announced on April 30, 2024, that its AI-powered exit technology had reached more than 120 U.S. clubs—about 20% of its nearly 600 U.S. and Puerto Rico locations at the time. Sam’s Club said members at equipped locations were leaving 23% faster, but the technology did not eliminate checkout altogether. It automated the receipt-verification step after a member had already paid.

The company planned to expand the system to all clubs by the end of 2024. However, later public materials reviewed through August 18, 2026, do not provide an explicit primary-source confirmation that every club received the technology.

What Sam’s Club announced

Sam’s Club first unveiled the technology at CES in January 2024. By April 30, the company said the system was operating in more than 120 clubs, representing approximately 20% of its network.

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That percentage referred to physical clubs. It did not mean that 20% of Sam’s Club customers used the system, that 20% of transactions were processed through it, or that 20% of all retail stores had the technology.

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Sam’s Club also reported that more than half of members at equipped clubs received the friction-free exit experience and that members left 23% faster. Those are company-reported figures; the announcement did not publish a detailed methodology or independent audit.

How the AI exit system works

  1. Shop normally. A member selects merchandise in the club.
  2. Pay for the purchase. The transaction can be completed at a staffed register or through Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go app.
  3. Move the cart through the exit. Cameras capture images of the cart and its contents.
  4. Match the cart to the transaction. Computer vision and AI compare what the system sees with the member’s digital purchase record.
  5. Leave or receive assistance. If the transaction clears, the member can continue without the traditional manual receipt inspection. If the system identifies an exception, an associate may need to verify the purchase.

Walmart’s technical overview describes a combination of cart imaging, transaction data, computer vision and machine-learning systems. This is not a generative-AI chatbot or a claim that no employee is involved in the process.

It does not mean checkout has disappeared

The original 2024 rollout primarily removed or reduced the wait for exit receipt checks. It did not require every member to shop without a register or scan every item manually.

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  • Staffed checkout: A member pays with help from a cashier, then the exit system can verify the paid cart.
  • Scan & Go: A member uses the Sam’s Club app to scan products, pay in the app and present the digital transaction at the exit.
  • AI exit technology: The system checks the cart against the completed purchase record.

Sam’s Club later used the name “Just Go” for its exit technology and described broader digital-club plans. Walmart also discussed a 2024 Grapevine, Texas, location where traditional checkouts had been eliminated. That later club-format experiment should not be confused with the April 2024 milestone covering more than 120 clubs.

What does “23% faster” mean?

Sam’s Club said members exited equipped clubs 23% faster than under the previous process. The company also said the system identified more items than the prior manual approach and was designed to improve as it processed more exit transactions.

Those statements suggest the system was intended to deliver two benefits at once: reduce routine waiting for shoppers and give loss-prevention teams a more consistent view of cart contents. But Sam’s Club did not disclose public accuracy rates, false-positive rates, false-negative rates, shrink results or the methodology behind the 23% comparison.

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In practice, the benefit depends on the system clearing a transaction quickly. A flagged cart, technical problem or busy exit could move the delay from a standard receipt queue to an exception interaction with an associate.

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Sam’s Club versus Amazon’s Just Walk Out

The names and computer-vision references can make the systems sound equivalent, but they address different parts of shopping.

Amazon’s Just Walk Out was generally associated with checkout-free store environments, where technology was used to determine what a shopper took and charge the purchase afterward. Sam’s Club’s 2024 system was primarily an automated exit-verification layer applied after payment.

That distinction matters. A Sam’s Club member still needed to complete a purchase, either at a staffed register or through Scan & Go. The available evidence does not establish that Sam’s Club and Amazon use the same cameras, models, data practices or human-review procedures.

The timing was notable because the rollout followed reporting that Amazon was moving away from some Just Walk Out deployments in favor of smart carts. Sam’s Club publicly presented its approach as a way to scale a faster exit experience across large warehouse clubs.

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What happens when the system cannot verify the cart?

Sam’s Club has not published a complete decision tree for mismatches, obscured items, incorrect scans, camera failures or network outages. The public materials support a more limited conclusion: the technology is meant to reduce routine manual checks, not guarantee that every member will always leave without human assistance.

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Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go terms preserve circumstances in which an associate may request payment or identity verification. Some large Scan & Go purchases may require confirmation of the payment method and the member’s identity at the exit.

Possible reasons for an associate interaction include:

  • A large or high-value purchase requiring additional verification.
  • An item that was not scanned or was scanned incorrectly.
  • Merchandise obscured by other items in the cart.
  • Alcohol or another age-restricted product.
  • An app, payment, camera or network problem.
  • A club that does not have the same equipment or workflow.

These are practical exceptions, not published failure rates. The reviewed sources do not establish how often they occur.

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Loss prevention and staffing: the unresolved trade-off

Automated exit verification could reduce labor-intensive receipt checks and potentially detect discrepancies that a quick manual glance misses. It could also create new risks: a model may miss an item, incorrectly flag a legitimate cart or fail when merchandise is difficult to identify.

Sam’s Club has not disclosed system accuracy, false-positive rates, false-negative rates or a club-specific change in shrink. Therefore, it is not accurate to say the technology has definitively reduced theft or improved loss rates.

The company said fewer than 40 employees were involved in deploying the technology across engineering, product, user experience, marketing, operations and real estate. That describes the deployment team—not the number of exit workers eliminated and not the total employment impact. Sam’s Club’s stated rationale was that associates could spend less time on repetitive receipt checks and more time on other club tasks.

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Privacy and accessibility questions

The reviewed descriptions refer to cameras imaging carts and merchandise, computer vision and transaction matching. They do not establish that the system uses facial recognition. Cameras observing a cart should not automatically be described as biometric identification.

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The public materials reviewed also do not provide a detailed explanation of image-retention periods, deletion practices, model governance or biometric-data use. Members who cannot easily use a smartphone or Scan & Go may also prefer a staffed checkout or need assistance. Those considerations are part of the real customer experience, even when the headline promise is faster exit speed.

What members should expect

  • Check whether your club has the AI-assisted exit workflow; equipment and procedures may vary.
  • If using Scan & Go, make sure every item is recorded and payment is completed in the app.
  • Keep the digital receipt or transaction information available.
  • Expect that certain large or special purchases may still require an associate to verify payment or identity.
  • Do not assume that a camera-based exit means you can leave before paying.
  • If the system flags the cart or fails to clear it, ask an associate for help rather than treating the delay as proof that the purchase was lost.

Current status

The verified milestone remains the April 2024 announcement: more than 120 clubs, or about 20% of Sam’s Club’s network at that time. In April 2025, Sam’s Club continued to identify “Just Go” exit technology as part of its digital strategy, alongside Scan & Go and redesigned club formats.

As of August 18, 2026, the sources reviewed do not provide an explicit, current primary-source confirmation that the original plan to equip all clubs by the end of 2024 was completed nationwide. The safest interpretation is that Sam’s Club continued investing in the technology, while the exact current share of equipped clubs remains unconfirmed in the cited materials.

Why the 20% figure matters

For shoppers, the announcement described a potentially shorter exit line—not a completely checkout-free Sam’s Club. For retail professionals, it showed a different scaling strategy from a store designed around purchase-after-shopping: keep payment in place, then automate the final verification step.

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The key questions are whether the system maintains reliable loss control, handles exceptions without recreating queues, protects member privacy and works for customers who do not use Scan & Go. Sam’s Club’s public rollout figures answer the deployment question, but they do not yet answer all of those operational ones.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

Written by TheFinanceBase Team

The Team behind TheFinanceBase.

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