SHOPPERS have been venting their frustrations on social media about a range of problems they face when shopping at big chains.
From most everyday items locked behind glass to extra receipt checks, long waiting times, issues and limits with self-checkout and lack of staff available for help and checkout queues.
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But customer complaints about self-checkout have received mixed responses.
Some are upset about the limited number of cashiers employed across chains, forcing people to use self-checkout without much choice.
However, the complaints also covered limits on item counts, such as Target’s 10 items or fewer policy.
This resulted in many customers calling in or being forced to wait in long lines with exorbitant wait times.
But others say the complaints are being exaggerated.
“I think a lot of people on Twitter don’t know how to use self-checkout,” wrote one customer on X, formerly Twitter.
“Maybe there should be classes on this,” someone suggested in the comments.
One person responded and said they “hate” self-checkout, saying they “prefer the human experience.”
“I’m officially #FINISHED shopping at @Walmart,” one upset customer wrote.
He says he witnessed an elderly man having to call himself at the self-checkout, only to have his receipt checked and his box of pancakes taken from his hands to be scanned, as a way of verifying that he had actually been paid.
“Only for 6 items he had in his cart. Ridiculous and unbelievable,” he said.
Chains like Target and Walmart have already cited rising crime, shoplifting and inflation since the pandemic as key reasons for their new security measures, such as self-checkout limits and receipt checks.
Although shoplifting rates have increased in some parts of the country, especially after March 2020, overall crime has been decreasing across the country.
Looking at two of America’s largest cities, Los Angeles has seen a jump in average monthly shoplifting rates, jumping from about 540 robberies per month in 2021 to just under 900 per month last year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Last year alone, there were almost 12,000 reports of shoplifting in the city in 2023 – an 81% increase compared to the previous year.
But in New York City, the nation’s largest police force reported a 65% increase in shoplifting rates from 2019 to mid-2023, according to a study by the Criminal Justice Council.
However, this sudden jump does not paint the full picture.
Despite the increase in the pandemic, shoplifting in New York has been decreasing from 2022 until now.
Additionally, Target made about $2 billion more profits in 2023 than the year before, despite a nearly 2% drop in sales.
Walmart also reported profits of more than $5.1 billion last quarter, triple the amount made in the same quarter just a year earlier.
But even though Walmart has literally tripled its profits, the chain has laid off thousands of workers over the past four years, largely contributing to a massive 3,225% increase in retail layoffs among major chains nationwide, according to a report. from Challenger, Gray, and Natal.
And while both continue to cut labor costs and raise prices in stores, with Walmart recently announcing that they are moving to expensive digital price tags that can be changed instantly, and Target saying they are reducing the price of more than 5,000 items of daily use, the vast majority of
Americans are financially worse off now than they were before the pandemic began, according to Yahoo! Finance.
This situation has left many shoppers angry and hostile towards what used to be their favorite chains.
Latest self-checkout changes
Retailers are evolving their self-checkout strategy in an effort to speed checkout times and reduce theft.
Walmart shoppers were shocked when self-checkout lanes at several locations were made available only to Walmart+ members.
Other customers reported that self-checkout was closed at specific times and they were offered more cashiers.
While shoppers feared that shoplifting would fuel 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 thwart fiercely contested receipt checks.
However, this test has been discontinued.
At Target, items are being limited in auto-checkout.
Last fall, the brand researched new express self-checkout lanes in 200 stores with 10 items or less for added convenience.
In March 2024, this policy was expanded to 2,000 stores in the US.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
