WALMART lost $300 due to an angry shopper who tipped over his full shopping cart due to a lack of staff.

The man left his local store because his shopping cart was too big for the self-checkout.

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“We desperately needed #LARain supplies and the only place that had them was @Walmart and we hate that,” Will said on X/Twitter.

“We had a shopping cart worth over $300 that was too big for the self-checkout, but only one overworked cashier.

“We left, they lost money. Don’t believe the shoplifting stories these corporate slumlords try to make up!”

It is not clear which Walmart store Will was visiting when he left his full shopping cart in the store.

But The US Sun has asked the retailer for comment on its complaint.

Walmart said on July 23 that it was “entering a new era of shopping – adaptive retail.”

“Retailers need to anticipate shoppers’ needs, shorten the decision-making process and enable highly personalized experiences,” Suresh Kumar, chief development officer, said in the statement.

Complaining about plastic bags

However, the trend towards greater use of artificial intelligence does not exactly help improve the shopping experience for some customers.

There is still a lot of talk on social media about long queues and an apparent lack of staff to assist customers, especially during peak times.

Another Walmart customer, Carol, complained on Facebook last month about a problem she had with plastic bags at her local store in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

“Attention Walmart customers, when you go to the Walmart on Highway 98 in Hattiesburg tonight and use the self-checkout lane, you will have plastic bags to put your groceries in,” she wrote on July 18.

“If you use a Walmart associate to pay, bring your own bags because they don’t have any.

“AND I was told they were not allowed to go to the self-checkout and get something for their line.”

Carol said she ended up collecting extra plastic bags for the young cashier she was paying at so that other customers could use them if needed.

“Maybe they don’t want people to have bags at the checkout, so we use the self-checkout,” 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 US

“If that’s the case, I’ll gladly go to another store. I apologize for the rant. Enough rant.”

Others also complained on social media that customers were being pushed to use self-checkout areas, where there are limited staff available if something goes wrong.

CHRONIC UNDERSTAFFING

Facebook user John complained that he left his store despite completing his purchase because the store was understaffed.

“I went to Wal-Mart one day and had $45.00 or $50.00 worth of groceries in my cart,” he said.

“When I got to the cash registers, there was NO living person operating any of them.

“Left my cart AND groceries in checkout 2 and went to another store. I will NOT use the self-checkouts!”

But Walmart is not the only company facing complaints about self-checkout lanes and understaffing.

And Dollar General is one of the retailers taking notice of the problems: The company has pressed the back button on its self-checkouts.

CEO Todd Vasos announced the elimination of self-checkout lanes in May.

He said self-checkouts would be eliminated “in the vast majority of stores.”