AND YET ANOTHER annoyed Lowes customer emptied his full shopping cart out of anger over the chain’s self-checkout policy.
The handyman left the store – and went straight to Lowe’s competitor, Home Depot.
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“Lowes, this pure self checkout crap is getting old and costing you business,” the shopper raged on X/formerly Twitter.
“I left my entire shopping cart at the front, as did two other shoppers (who were not with me).
“We don’t work there. We’re all going to Home Depot now… hopefully they’ll call the people there.”
The complaint comes at a time when the hardware store is gradually reducing the number of manned checkouts as part of a major initiative to introduce self-checkouts.
Nevertheless, many DIY customers are complaining on social media that the change has resulted in longer checkout times.
Their frustration with the lack of staff and manned checkouts has led some to abandon their full shopping carts in the store and simply leave.
USER-FRIENDLY
However, Lowes did praise this payment option in its recent conference call on the company’s first quarter 2024 earnings.
It has even been described as “user-friendly.”
“We are only one-third complete on a multi-year transformation of the front end of our stores, including our self-checkout lanes,” added Joseph Michael McFarland, executive vice president of stores.
However, this move did not receive support from individuals such as one buyer who felt it would impact buyers.
“The labor pool is shrinking and wealth is reserved only for the shareholder class,” he posted in a Reddit discussion about “hatred” toward Lowe’s self-checkout lanes.
“Companies do everything they can to save even a single cent, and employees and customers play a secondary role in this.”
“So where did all the money go when there are so few cashiers? Did it go into a pool and get shared with the rest of the employees?” asks another Reddit user.
“Has it led to lower prices? I think we all know the answers to that.”
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.
“I have nothing against self-checkout, but depending on the type of transaction, it does not always make sense. There should always be a normal checkout available,” another responded to this topic.
“I don’t know, I worked at Lowe’s and I hate the self-checkouts. I always buy something without a barcode or need a date or something like that. I would choose a personal checkout over a self-checkout any day,” said a former employee.
“People should boycott using self-checkout lanes and pay cashiers better,” suggested another Lowes customer.
“I refuse to use self-checkout lanes because they take jobs away from Americans. Big companies like to talk about taking care of their employees while they cut jobs every day,” one person claimed.
LAZY BUYERS
But a current Lowes employee defended the chain.
“A customer called me at the service desk and asked if self-service checkouts were set up throughout our store,” said the anonymous person.
“When I told him ‘no’, he said, ‘Where are your cashiers?’
“Honestly, why do you hate self-checkout so much? Just because you have to scan your items yourself? We’ll even help you understand it!”
Another Reddit user told the employee that sometimes shoppers want to “interact with a human.”
ID PROBLEMS
The US Sun recently published an article about a Lowes customer who was upset after trying to use a self-checkout machine four times – but her ID was not scanned.
Customers have the option to “speed up the ID verification process” by scanning their driver’s license or ID card.
However, complaints about self-checkout lanes are not limited to Lowes.
A Walmart customer has sharply criticized the supermarket’s controversial self-checkout policy, which limits the number of self-checkout counters in some stores to 15 items or less.
