Hy-Vee's Scan & Go checkout-free technology has come and gone.

The company announced on its website that it was disabling the system as of Monday.

Launched at select Des Moines stores in 2021, Scan & Go employed a cell phone app that allowed users to scan items with their phones as they moved through stores. When they were ready to check out, they could skip the lines at the registers and pay using their phones at kiosks at the front of the stores.

Since the launch of the service, West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee had expanded it to nearly a quarter of its more than 285-store, eight-state chain. It had added more as recently as August, according to a news release from FutureProof Retail, the New York-based tech company behind the mobile checkout platform underpinning Scan & Go.

"Hy-Vee set a new record in driving adoption at launch, especially in its new flagship stores," FutureProof Retail CEO Will Hogben said in the August release. "Hy-Vee is a leading innovator in retail technology and new store formats, and we are thrilled to be their partner for new checkout technologies."

Hy-Vee spokesperson Tina Pothoff declined to comment on the shutdown of the system.

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Another grocery chain cites losses associated with scan-and-go technology

Hy-Vee isn't the first grocery chain to have experimented with the technology but later decided to discontinue it. New York-based grocer Wegmans shut down its scan-and-go program in August, telling customers that “unfortunately, the losses we are experiencing from this program prevent us from continuing to make it available in its current state.”

It didn't specify what the losses were. But media outlets including the New York Times, Grocery Dive and CNN have quoted industry experts saying loss rates rise in stores that use the apps as shoppers either forget to scan items or take advantage of the opportunity to avoid doing so.

Walmart launched a scan-and-go program in 2014 with a goal of implementing cashierless stores. It phased out the program in 2018 but brought it back during the pandemic.

Previously, Hy-Vee announced that it would cut back on its Aisles Online pickup-and-delivery services to cut costs.

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Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Hy-Vee Scan & Go cashierless checkout app discontinued at stores