A NEW checkout change at select Walmart locations has been causing controversy among longtime shoppers.
The retail giant has been making a few adjustments in recent years, and the response has been mixed.
Walmart has been called out for a self-checkout change (stock image)[/caption]
“So this is what we’ve come to at #walmart .. one checkout line open,” fumed a frequent consumer, Amber, in a post on Facebook last month.
“They took out most of the self checkout lines! There are only four left and that line was wrapped around the corner into the frozen food section.”
Amber also claimed that Walmart staff were “standing around” in a closed lane that could’ve been opened to mitigate the lines.
Some fellow customers eventually had enough, according to Amber, and began discussing abandoning their carts full of groceries worth hundreds of dollars and walking out, an increasingly common trend.
“People behind me were starting to talk about leaving their groceries there and just walk out,” she wrote.
“We’re pretty patient waiting in line, but this was ridiculous.”
Amber claimed more traditional checkout lanes began to open after customers loudly voiced concerns to the only cashier available.
Walmart typically decides how many self-checkout lanes to have open, or if there are any available at all, on a store-by-store basis.
This is also the same for traditional cashiered lanes, but self-checkout has featured various adjustments.
Some stores in New Mexico notably had all of their kiosks taken out back in 2023 after some redesigns.
At the time, a spokesperson for the retailer told The US Sun that it was part of a mission to “continually look at ways to provide our customers with the best shopping experience possible, and that includes adjusting the checkout area in stores.”
Local customers had mixed feelings.
Some argued that it made the shopping experience “more personable” interacting with a human being while others said it mostly created long lines, according to KRQE News.
Beloved chains like Trader Joe’s have refused to ever add self-checkout because it values the employee/customer interaction.
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.
FIND THE BALANCE?
For many Walmart shoppers, it seems the issue is really the balance between self-checkout’s availability compared to traditional checkout lanes, not taking out one or the other altogether.
A couple of policy changes in recent years from the retail giant have caused this to become more complicated.
In the spring of 2024, select Walmart stores began blocking some of their self-checkout kiosks for Walmart Plus members only.
While the move was made to enhance the experience for paying members so they could use the popular Scan & Go feature to its fullest extent, regular customers felt left in the dust.
Some argued that about 60% of their self-checkout kiosks had been reserved for Walmart Plus members.
Then, if there were limited traditional lanes available, it left only a couple of kiosks for all remaining shoppers, making it particularly challenging for those with carts full of groceries as opposed to just a few items.
LIMITS ON LIMITS
Similar to Target, some Walmart stores have also been testing a 15-item self-checkout limit.
It was designed to increase efficiency and reduce the chance of miss-scanned or stolen merchandise.
Some shoppers with over 15 items also found themselves with nowhere to go in certain instances with no traditional lanes open and only self-checkouts with the limit.
Self-checkout could, however, be significantly limited in states like Rhode Island soon, should new proposed legislation be passed.
Under a bill introduced by Senate president Valarie Lawson, retail giants like Walmart and Target would only be allowed to have up to six kiosks and be required to have one traditional checkout lane open for every two self-checkouts.
Walmart was also called out recently for allegedly marking up “clearance” items by a fuming shopper.
A longtime fan even warned fellow customers to watch out after a $120 surcharge on a $38 order.
