‘My time is valuable,’ demands Walmart shopper after ‘horrible’ checkout experience – customers ‘forced’ into bad choice

A WALMART customer has bashed the chain due to his experience with an unpopular checkout change.

He also gave Walmart a piece of advice that he said would save the retailer his rage in the future.

Getty

Alamy

Mike Bull (@mikebull7775) shared his rant after he visited the location in Cockeysville, Maryland , around 15 miles north of Baltimore.

Bull questioned Walmart after it closed several self-checkouts at his store on Saturday in a post on X .

“@Walmart horrible experience at the Cockeysville MD store 8/3,” he wrote.

“Both self checkout Corrales, half the checkouts closed.”

Bull shared an apparent reason he was given for the dramatic checkout area change.

“Was told it was on purpose,” he wrote.

“I get the theft issue but this is not the solution.”

Bull then expressed how he thought Walmart could avoid this issue in the future.

“Open more lanes or deal with it. My time is valuable too,” he added.

The customer then complained about the apparent impact the lack of cashiers had on shoppers.

“As I said, I get the theft issue, but you are forcing customers to self chech [sic] or wait forever and now self checkout is just as bad,” Bull added.

“You have smart people working for you, so figure it out before we all walk to another store.”

CHECKED OUT

Walmart has not been the only retailer to receive complaints from shoppers about these checkout changes.

A Target customer raged at the chain after all the self-checkouts in their branch were closed .

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.

This person pleaded with the store to make a change after this experience.

“@Target if you’re going to close the self checkouts at a certain time, then you should have more than 2 registers open,” the shopper wrote on X.

“We put down everything we were going to buy and walked out. I’ll shop Amazon instead.”

A Lowe’s customer explained that they would no longer buy from the store after they were made to use a self-checkout.

“I asked an employee where I could pay without using self checkout,” the angry customer wrote .

“They told me that’s not possible. You’ve just lost my business.”