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WALMART’S new policy limiting who can use self-checkout is pushing away from customers.
Only Walmart shoppers with 15 items or less are allowed through self-checkout.
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The new rule faced immediate backlash as it started rolling out at select stores.
Shoppers blamed the limit for long lines and criticized how the company implemented it.
Customer Octavia (@tavybear26) said she was “forced” to wait in a long line for a traditional cashier because she was over the limit.
She said all of the self-checkouts were open, and she could have had no wait.
“I almost left my whole cart full of food and walked out,” she wrote on X.
“This is ridiculous.”
A SIMILAR STORY
Octavia isn’t the first to be corralled from self-checkout to the traditional lanes and had to wait longer.
After an employee counted the items in her cart, another customer said she wouldn’t shop at the store again.
“Walmart is really getting out of pocket,” Kris Robyn wrote in a Facebook post.
She was waiting in the self-checkout line when the employee inspected her cart.
The staff member told her she was three over the limit and had to go to a traditional register.
Instead of going to another register, she went to another store.
“I started to leave everything in the cart, walkout and go straight to Target,” she wrote.
“I won’t be going back to Walmart no more.”
Latest self-checkout changes
Retailers are evolving their self-checkout strategy in an effort to speed up checkout times and reduce theft.
Walmart shoppers were shocked when self-checkout lanes at various locations were made available only for Walmart+ members.
Other customers reported that self-checkout was closed during specific hours, and more cashiers were offered instead.
While shoppers feared that shoplifting fueled the updates, a Walmart spokesperson revealed that store managers are simply experimenting with ways to improve checkout performance.
One bizarre experiment included an RFID-powered self-checkout kiosk that would stop the fiercely contested receipt checks.
However, that test run has been phased out.
At Target, items are being limited at self-checkout.
Last fall, the brand surveyed new express self-checkout lanes across 200 stores with 10 items or less for more convenience.
As of March 2024, this policy has been expanded across 2,000 stores in the US.
Shoppers have also spotted their local Walmart stores restricting customers to 15 items or less to use self-checkout machines.
MORE REGISTER LIMITS
In March, Target launched a more restrictive limit of 10 items or less at self-checkout.
The retailer piloted the measure at 200 stores and found that it made checkout twice as fast.
Unfortunately, shoppers have said the results are the same as at Walmart.
“A five-minute trip has now turned into 25 because there are only two lanes open, and the lines are in the women’s section,” one Target customer posted on X.
Target promised that it was investing in training more employees to take over traditional registers to prevent long lines.
Self-checkout issues have pushed some Walmart shoppers to switch to rivals.
One shopper found a Dollar Tree dupe for a Walmart back-to-school must-have.
