Sam's Club outfitting warehouses with WiFi for shoppers

Membership warehouse Sam's Club plans to outfit more than 500 clubs with WiFi access from AT&T by November in hopes of selling high volumes of Internet TV sets and other Web-enabled devices for the holiday shopping season.

Sam's Club is hoping to better educate customers on these products since they are still new to the market. "This will allow a member to walk up to a Samsung LCD Internet-enabled TV and see how to find his Facebook page or stream video from Vudu," Sam's Club Chief Executive Brian Cornell said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "It is an intimidating category with lots of complexity."

Sam's Club is also aiming to provide shoppers with reliable Internet access via their smartphones throughout the store to help them find additional buying information or check competitor's pricing. The warehouse is also introducing an app for all types of smartphones designed to eventually enable shoppers to scan products at home and create shopping lists. A customer could then access Sam's Club discounts using the phone app that will be deducted automatically at checkout.

Of course, laptops users could also enjoy their $1.50 hot dog combo in the eating area while browsing the Web.

For more:
- see this WSJ article

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