A WALMART customer has sharply criticized the chain after she was allegedly forced out of the store due to a controversial anti-theft measure.
This customer called on others to join her in boycotting the grocery store and also sharply criticized the chain’s new self-checkout rule.
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Rosemary O’Connell said there were several reasons why she stopped visiting Walmart.
The buyer initially criticized Walmart for using checks.
With this measure, an employee waits between the cash register and the store exit and asks customers to show their receipt.
These employees then look at the list of items purchased and the goods in the customers’ shopping carts.
O’Connell raged about the move in a Facebook post.
“If you hadn’t already been willing to boycott Walmart… because of the harassment you would have experienced when leaving the store by having your receipt checked and many other reasons,” she wrote.
She then sharply criticized a new measure that Walmart has introduced at some locations.
Some stores limit the number of items customers can purchase at self-checkout lanes.
This restriction means that people with more than 15 items cannot use the self-service kiosks and must go to a checkout.
O’Connell said her store does not have enough cashiers to make this change.
“And they can’t employ enough people to keep enough cash registers open!” she wrote.
“In fact, there are more employees manning the self-checkout lanes than there are open, so you can’t use them!”
The customer then announced that she would purchase most of her items from one of Walmart’s competitor stores in the future.
“I will now only use them for items I can’t get at Aldi… now I have to drive 10 miles away to shop at Aldi because they closed the nearest Aldi,” she added.
Latest changes to self-checkout
Retailers are developing their self-checkout strategies to shorten checkout times and reduce theft.
Walmart customers were shocked when self-checkout lanes at several locations were made available only to Walmart+ members.
Other customers reported that the self-checkout lanes were closed at certain times and more cashiers were offered instead.
While customers feared that shoplifting was the reason for the changes, a Walmart spokesperson said store managers were simply experimenting with ways to improve checkout performance.
One bizarre experiment involved an RFID-supported self-checkout kiosk that was intended to eliminate the hotly contested receipt check.
However, this test run was discontinued.
At Target, the number of items at self-checkout lanes is limited.
Last fall, the brand tested new express self-checkout lanes with a maximum of 10 items in 200 stores to increase convenience.
Starting in March 2024, this policy will be expanded to 2,000 stores in the United States.
Customers have also noticed that their local Walmart stores are limiting the number of customers at self-checkout lanes to 15 items or less.
As the US Sun previously reported, O’Connell was not the only Walmart customer upset about the self-checkout lanes.
Another shopper recounted the drastic measures he took after having to wait in line at the checkout.
Rick Gibbs said he abandoned his shopping cart and left the store because he had to wait in line for so long.
Gibbs said his local store has increased the number of self-service kiosks it has, but added that it would like to have more cashiers.
“It took me over 20 minutes to go through the line of those two cashiers,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
This shopper also said that he would rather go to another grocery store because of this change in the checkout system.
