Walmart’s rolls out Fast Lane self-scan shopping in GTA

Jun 4, 2019 | Biz/Tech

Walmart’s new initiative Fast Lane started at Smartcentres Toronto Stockyard located at St Clair Ave West. (Alan Jose)

Alan Jose

Walmart has introduced a Fast Lane at four Toronto stores to speed up the checkout process and give more time to shoppers in-store.

The Fast Lane trial run began a month ago, and came into permanent effect at the end of May.

“It gives options to customers to save a lot of time,” Walmart’s Fast Lane associate Roozbeh Afradh said.

The first Toronto location was the Stockyards Supercentre at St. Clair Avenue West and Runnymeade Road, Afradh said.

Walmart Supercentres in Aurora, Thornhill and Markham are now providing Fast Lane self-checkouts as well, he said.

The Fast Lane system only takes card transactions and there is no option to pay with cash, Afradh said.

This feature is exclusively available for people who use the My Walmart app, he said.

A Fast-Lane associate explaining how to use the My Walmart app. (Alan Jose)

Customers with the My Walmart app can scan the purchased items with their phones, and once done with the scanning, they can click the checkout option in the app, Afradh said.

After doing so, they will receive a barcode to be scanned at a reader at Fast Lane counters where they can then pay by card, he said.

Before leaving the store, customers must show the receipts to Walmart staff to prove their transaction went through, Afradh said.

The application is available in both the Google Play Store and App Store and it takes less than two minutes to download and set-up an account.

Then the transaction takes less than 10 seconds to complete, he said.

“It’s so easy, I mean, the people that they are using it they love it because, they think we are saving their time,” Afradh said.

Any product at Walmart can be purchased through the Fast Lane. There are two ways to purchase produce, either by scanning the barcode on the pre-packed cover or by placing the produce on a scale that prints a barcode with its weight and price, he said.

Fast-Lane associate demonstrating how to scan for checkout. (Alan Jose)

Although the Fast Lane was introduced a month ago, customers only really started using it this week, Afradh said.

Earlier, there were two types of counters at Walmart, the normal check-out counters and self-checkout counters, he said.

“Customers are excited to use the Fast Lane express check-out,” Afradh said.

Unlike some other express counters, there is no limit for items that can be checked out through Fast Lane, he said.

Chinchu Mathew, a customer experience sales floor associate at a Walmart in Hamilton, expects the Fast Lane to come her store soon. “That way we can manage the rush at normal (cashier-staffed) counters,”  she said.

The Fast Lane will be beneficial for customers as they can spend more time choosing items to purchase instead of waiting at long cashier lineups, Mathew said.

“A majority of customers who come here prefer self-checkout for easiness, so I think the Fast Lane will also be widely accepted,” she said.

Walmart is the only store in Canada that provides Fast Lane checkouts for customers, Afradh said.

Fast Lane is currently operational only at the four Toronto stores but customers should soon expect the feature in other provinces, customer service manager at the Walmart in Williams Lake, B.C., Jackson Jacob said.

Customers are satisfied with the self checkout counters so the Fast Lane will also attract more customers to shop freely, Jacob said.