Walmart tries limiting interaction to fight virus

Walmart is launching a store in Arkansas without cashiers to stave off the novel coronavirus, as retailers try new initiatives to keep customers and staff safe.

The retail giant announced in June that it would cut cashiers and checkout conveyor belts from its Fayetteville store to "limit human interaction" and to see if checkout times are faster. Staff still will be on hand to assist customers.

In April, health officials closed a Walmart store in Denver after three people died from COVID-19 and six staffers got ill.

Self-service checkouts already are in many Walmart stores nationwide, but the Arkansas pilot program will be the only store where human cashiers aren't available. If the pilot program works, it will be implemented in more stores.

Bob Phibbs, a retail expert with more than 30 years' experience and the CEO of New York-based Retail Doctor, said customer response to the change will be crucial.

"Retailers have tried to get rid of human interaction for decades, but every time you see someone saying this is a new course and this is the future, six months later we read they were all ripped out and you hear that they found shoppers didn't like them. That's probably why they're only doing it in one market," he told China Daily.

In March, Walmart installed a touch-free payment system to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It allows customers to add a credit or debit card to their Walmart app and hold their phones to a wireless portal at the checkout.

There are 52 million employees in the retail sector, according to the National Retail Federation, making it the country's largest private-sector employer. It contributes $3.9 trillion to annual GDP.

In the first 100 days of the pandemic, the United Food and Commercial Workers International (UFCW) union said 238 workers died and 29,000 of its members were infected or exposed to the coronavirus. The Washington-based union has 1.3 million members.

Target, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons, Whole Foods, Sam's Club stores and Walmart have installed various safety measures, including Plexiglas sneeze guards, to protect staff. Some stores began using more automated robots to clean floors.

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have undergone a raft of changes to reduce the number of cashiers. Amazon Go's cashless' stores accept only electronic payments. In March, Amazon began offering its technology dubbed "just walk out" to other major retailers, suggesting it could become a widely adopted way to shop after the pandemic.

The technology detects what products shoppers take from or return to shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. When done shopping, customers just walk out, and their cards are charged for the items.

But Phibbs said that may not work for the nation's largest retailers. "Amazon Go is a convenience store. In Walmart, people are going and buying car seats, and TVs, and exponentially that's different to picking up aspirin, or a fresh sandwich or a Coke," he said.