The Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts are testing a new feature where guests can use the park's app to ring up their own purchases in Disney's theme park gift shops.
You can find the new feature under the listings for World of Disney in Disneyland's Downtown Disney shopping district and Mouse Gear at Walt Disney World's Epcot on the official My Disney Experience app for Walt Disney World and the Disneyland app on the west coast. Just click the big "Shop in Store — Now Testing" button to begin.
That will bring up a screen that explains the four-step, in-store shopping process. Please note that while you can access this feature on the apps when you are outside the parks, this is not for shopping at home. It's just for paying for items in the store without having to queue for a register. If you want to shop for Disney theme park gear at home, hit up ShopDisney.com as usual.
You'll start by getting a designated "mobile checkout" shopping bag when you are in the store. Then click the "Start Shopping!" prompt on the screen, which will open your phone's camera to scan the bar codes on the items you want to buy. Put them in that specially marked bag you picked up, and when you are done, tap the "Check Out" button on screen to pay on your phone.
That will bring up a QR code that you will need to show to a Cast Member at the store's exit, who will check your bag, remove any security tags and wrap up anything fragile before you leave.
This is a new service — and a test — so we will have to see if it accomplishes the goal of reducing long, physically distanced queues at registers without just replacing them with long, physically distanced queues for the exit checks. But a bag check should not take as long as ringing up each item and processing payment, so this system has the potential for getting you through the store quicker than the old way — assuming that Disney has as many exit checkers as it would have had cast members working the registers.
What do you think? Would you use this new mobile checkout system the next time you visit Disney?
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Love self check-out, but hate apps (and HAVING to take my phone into a park). So I’m not a fan of this idea, though If it was self check-out similar to the grocery store, I’d be all over it.
I wonder, though, how many lines it’s really going to avoid, if you still have to see a cast member to confirm your purchase and remove tags/wrap items.... ? I think Robert’s right in that it might just replace one line with another, while annoying us Luddites in the process ;-)
The bag exit check could also happen with a roped-off queue outdoors, increasing indoor capacity for browsing.
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Sounds like a way to reduce the number of CMs needed to operate a store. Instead of having cashiers checking out guests as well as roaming CMs assisting and performing theft protection, they can roll those roles into one.
I do think this a good idea (never been a fan of the checkout process in any store, and will always default to a self-check option where available), but those that despise AI and machines taking jobs from low-wage employees along with techno-phobes are probably not thrilled with this concept.