‘Boycott Walmart!’ fume customers after being ‘harassed’ out of store – and new checkout change made shopping trip worse

A WALMART shopper has slammed the chain after she claimed she was harassed out of the store with a controversial anti-theft measure.

This customer called on others to boycott the grocery retailer with her as she also blasted the chain’s new self-checkout rule.

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Rosemary O’Connell said she had several reasons as to why she no longer wanted to visit Walmart .

The shopper first slammed Walmart for its use of receipt checks.

This measure is when an employee waits between the checkouts and the store’s exit to ask shoppers to show their receipts.

These employees then look at the list of items purchased and the goods inside the people’s carts.

O’Connell raged at this measure in a Facebook post .

“If you hadn’t been willing to boycott Walmart before…what with being harassed to have your receipt checked as you left the store among many other reasons,” she wrote.

She then slammed a new measure Walmart introduced at some locations.

Some stores will cap the number of items customers can buy through self-checkouts.

This limit has meant people with more than 15 items cannot use the self-service kiosks and must go to a cashier.

O’Connell said her store did not have enough cashiers to accommodate this change.

“And they can’t keep enough employees to keep enough registers open!” she wrote.

“They actually have more employees monitoring the self checkout so you can’t use them than they have registers open!”

The customer then revealed she would start buying most of her items at one of Walmart’s rival stores.

“I will only use them now for items that I can’t get at Aldi’s….now that I will have to drive an additional 10 miles now to shop at Aldi’s because they closed the one closest to me,” she added.

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.

The U.S. Sun has previously reported that O’Connell has not been the only Walmart shopper to rage about self-checkouts.

Another shopper shared what drastic action he took after he waited for a cashier.

Rick Gibbs said he ditched his cart and walked out of the store because he had waited in line for too long.

Gibbs said that his local store had increased the number of self-service kiosks available but added he wanted more cashiers.

“Took me 20+ min to go threw the line of these two cashiers,” he wrote in a Facebook post .

This shopper also said they would visit another grocery store instead because of this checkout change.