BUFFALO, N.Y. — Wegmans just announced on Monday that it is discontinuing its SCAN app, at least for now as of Sunday.
Wegmans isn't doing interviews about this and sent 2 On Your Side a statement on Tuesday that was the same as a paragraph from the email customers got on Monday.
Wegmans' statement: "Early in the pandemic, we quickly rolled out our SCAN App to provide a contactless in-store shopping option. SCAN users have told us they love the app and the convenience it offers. Unfortunately, the losses we are experiencing prevent us from continuing to make it available in its current state. We’ve made the decision to turn off the app until we can make improvements that will meet the needs of our customers and business. We’ve learned a lot, and we will continue to introduce new digital solutions to streamline the shopping experience for the future."
A lot of stores like Wegmans introduced this type of technology during the pandemic to make it easier for people to shop. 2 On Your Side talked with two attorneys on Tuesday who are experts in loss prevention in retail and cybersecurity.
"I think if there are issues with the deployment, there are other things that retailers can look at. So, for example, they can pair it up with additional technology, they can look at alternatives like we discussed, and they can use physical security measures or audits. You might notice there are some stores that do periodic audits of users and shoppers as they leave the store," said Anna Mercado Clark, Partner at Phillips Lytle.
"It's really a numbers issue I think. Wegmans in its judgment and they've got lots of smart people over, there decided that the shrinkage was too great and now that the pandemic was hopefully winding down, they thought it was a good opportunity to pull back on this product as we've already indicated pretty confident that they will roll it out again when they've come up with an acceptable solution," said Gary Schober, Partner at Hodgson Russ.
As far as the things causing Wegmans to lose money through the app, the attorneys say it could be theft, but it could also be user error, the app not connecting to wifi, or people not realizing something just didn't scan.
Again, the SCAN app goes away on Sunday, and people who used it a lot got $20 credits loaded onto the other Wegmans app - the one that isn't going away.