Idaho and California Shoppers Are Angry With Target’s Major Change at Checkout

The company is currently testing a new policy and customers who’ve experienced it are already outraged. 

Remember when you were a kid and you had that cardboard grocery checkout lane? You used to feel so cool “scanning” your siblings' groceries and bagging them up. Flash forward a few decades and now you find yourself doing the same thing in real life at Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Walmart, Target and many other retailers across the country. We know we don’t speak for everyone, but we really feel like self checkout is a lot less fun when we have to do it in real life. 

Especially when you have an age restricted item in your order…or you accidentally double scan an item that you can’t remove yourself. You feel so dumb while the blinking light is on your register and you pathetically wait for the one associate they have assigned to multiple registers to come help. You can feel the eyes of everyone you’re holding up burning a hole through your head. It’s the worst…almost. 

The only more frustrating experience at self checkout is being stuck behind someone with an entire cart full of stuff when you have one or two items. You’d go jump in a full service lane, but there’s only one open and the people waiting in line have large orders too. That’s the worst. 

Major Checkout Policy Changes Coming to Idaho and California Target Stores Soon

And that’s exactly why Target is rolling out a MAJOR change to the self checkout lanes at many of their stores and the policy is expected to expand. CNN reports that Target has been limiting the self-checkout lanes to customers purchasing 10 items or fewer in several cities across the United States since November. They’ve seen a 6% uptick of people going to an actual cashier since putting the change in place.  

Target hasn’t made an official statement on the EXACT number of items allowed through self checkout, but did tell CNN that they made changes to shorten wait times at the registers. Members of a subreddit designed for Target Team Members made posts several months ago that they heard the policy change was coming. Now that the policy change is in the news, some team members shared that it’s supposed to be company wide but many stores don’t have the staff to properly handle the switch. Some stores have hung up signs, but aren’t enforcing the rule.

Boise area shoppers haven’t noticed the change locally…yet BUT, had plenty to say about Target's self checkout when we asked around. Moral of the story? Change or not, many shoppers think itls a mess.

Meanwhile, a team member in Southern California shared that customers are very upset with the policy and that the store that she works at has almost come to blows with angry shoppers who either pretended to not see the “10 items or fewer” signs or chose to ignore them. 

Idaho Shoppers Upset with Costco’s Change at Checkout

Earlier this year, Costco made a change at their self checkout kiosks that many shoppers were furious with. It’s long been company policy that you need to show your membership card at the register while checking out, but many stores weren’t vigilant about enforcing the policy. 

The warehouse chain noticed an uptick in people trying to shop at the store without a membership by using the self checkout lanes. It’s now company policy that you MUST show your membership card and a photo ID to the crew member stationed at self checkout to move forward with the purchase. You can read more about the local reaction HERE.