Walmart is introducing a new kind of Sam’s Club in Grapevine that will be different from the rest: It'll be an all digital store, without checkout lanes.

The store is a reopening of sorts of a store at 1701 W. SH-114 that closed in 2022, when the roof was badly damaged by a tornado on December 13.

According to a company representative, the new store will open on October 17, with fanfare and a full schedule of events listed below.

Company CEO Chris Nicholas is describing the store as a forward-thinking prototype that represents the company's efforts to evolve for the future.

Instead of getting orders rung up on a cash register, shoppers will be required to use a smartphone app called Scan & Go to ring up purchases as they walk through the aisles.

When leaving the store, shoppers will walk under "computer vision-based" archways that use AI to scan their carts, comparing their products to their digital receipts — technology the company introduced in the spring.

In the place where you'd expect to find cash registers will be a display unusual online-only items such as Christmas trees or a five-carat lab-grown diamond — items they would not be able to see and touch otherwise — as well as creating a larger area for e-commerce (curbside pickup and delivery).

More space-age features will include a pizza robot that can make up to 100 pizzas in an hour, and a new system that delivers food orders to an assigned cubby after customers order through Scan & Go.

Walmart is touting this as a first-of-its-kind store. However, in 2018, they opened a similar concept on Greenville Avenue in Dallas called Sam's Club Now, which then-CEO Jamie Iannone called "the epicenter of innovation for Sam's Club."

In that store, customers similarly use the app to scan items as they shop, but a staff member is still required to give the order a final onceover.

A spokesperson says that the Now Club served as a small-format initial testing ground and Grapevine allows them to test innovation at scale in a full-size club (the Grapevine store is 151,000 square feet). The Now Club remains open and will run in tandem with the Grapevine club.

Schedule of events is as follows:

Wednesday, October 16: Soft Opening

• 5-8 pm: The public is invited to get a sneak peek of the club and shop from 5–8 pm
• 6-7:30 pm: Dallas Mavericks star Dereck Lively II appearance

Thursday, October 17: Grand Opening

• 8-8:30 am: Ribbon-cutting ceremony, Remarks from Sam’s Club leadership and Grapevine Mayor William D. Tate, and check presentations to 10 local organizations
• 10 am-12 pm: Dallas Cowboys legend Charles Haley appearance in partnership with LG
• 2-3 pm: Dallas Cowboys legend DeMarcus Ware appearance in partnership with PepsiCo

Member’s Mark demos, exclusive merchandise, exciting brand experiences and the first 3,000 members receive a Member’s Mark swag bag.

October 16-20

• Free parking lot activities including the Sam’s Club Mobile Café, Member’s Mark Experience, inflatable games and crafts (through October 20)
• Guided LEGO® build experience with Russell Cassevah, president of LittleBricks Charity and Guiness World Records holder for the farthest distance walking barefoot on LEGO® bricks

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