A WALMART customer was left baffled after a negative experience at the self-checkout lane this month.

She and her partner experienced long lines at the kiosks on a normal shopping day that reminded them of the holiday rush.

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“At Super Walmart today. Didn’t buy much but went to the self-checkout and the line was like Black Friday,” shopper Brent wrote in a post to X.

After spending some time in line at the self-checkout with hardly any movement, Brent and his wife decided to go to a cashiered checkout instead.

There were only a few available and so the couple waited a short while before they could leave with their belongings.

They each speculated about the reasons for the complications at the checkout and Brent criticized Walmart for the lack of available support staff.

“My wife told me it was overcrowded,” Brent recalled.

“I said: No, it is not. There is a shortage of staff.”

“Look at all the cash registers without any staff? A ghost town,” he added.

It wouldn’t be the first time that a Walmart customer claimed that there were few employees available at the checkouts and that self-checkout kiosks were preferred instead.

NEW LIMIT

A new policy currently being tested in select stores across the country has made things even more difficult for some shoppers, which was likely the situation Brent and his wife found themselves in.

In recent months, Walmart has begun testing a limit of 15 items at self-checkouts.

Customers with more than 15 items must use staffed checkouts, but several customers have claimed the retail giant does not have enough staff at checkouts to handle the influx of shoppers who previously used the kiosks.

Another Walmart customer whose local store implemented the item restriction said that during a recent shopping trip, employees were “confused” after all checkout lanes were closed and only the self-checkout lanes remained open.

Buyers with more than 15 items had no way to pay.

Another self-checkout rule also caused an uproar among Walmart customers in the spring.

EXCLUSIVE TRACES

The retailer has begun blocking certain kiosks to Walmart+ members and Spark drivers.

Some customers claimed that at least 60% of the kiosks in their store were reserved for members and drivers.

Others argued that Walmart was effectively charging them the $98 annual Walmart+ fee for future use of the self-checkout kiosks.

Walmart has denied this claim, but both actions sparked a small movement of customers abandoning their shopping carts full of groceries in protest.

Recently, someone angrily left the store without a shopping cart full of $200 worth of groceries because of problems with the self-checkout.

Another customer was allegedly told he had to use the self-checkout lane despite asking for help with a shopping cart full of groceries, and promptly left the lane behind.