this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2026
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Anecdotally my wife keeps getting flagged by Walmart and they have to come watch her bag at the self checkout every time she uses one. So far no where else, just there. She uses them many other places, so she’s not acting suspicious or using it wrong.
Please stop shopping at places that treat you as if you are a criminal. Self checkouts are already customer hostile but essentially being treated as a potential shoplifter for using one should cause you to take your business elsewhere if at all feasible.
I don’t know their specific situation, but Walmart is often the only viable option for many lower population areas or late-night needs. A large part of Walmart’s expansion strategy is moving into a small town, then under-pricing all of their stuff at a loss. They keep selling things at a loss until all of the other local shops close, because they can’t compete with Walmart’s lower prices. Then once all of the local competition is run out of town, Walmart jacks their prices up because they’re the only option in town.
They’re also often one of the only grocers that stays open late. This means they’re often the only viable option for third-shift workers, because the alternative would be waking up at their equivalent of 2AM to go grocery shopping.
Are Walmarts open at 2AM again? Most of them around here stopped doing 24 hours during COVID and never went back.
Fast Food too.
I don't shop at Walmart, but last I looked they closed at 9 or 10. The grocery store closest to me is open til 11. It's way more convenient to just go there, even if it is a little more expensive. I miss stores being open 24-7.
I dont know how much this is actually happening now a days but seems much harder to do when the prices are shown online and you can change pickup location at will. Maybe 20 years ago it was more true.
Walmart doesn't have to cut prices to blast all the mom and pops out of business. Maybe that was a thing in the 80s when they went for monster expansion.
Target's online pricing varies depending on the store you'll be picking up from, so I imagine Walmart can do the same.
Yeah, I check toy stuff for clearance sometimes with the app and it even says "in this store" or something for the price.
When they walk up she should ask them to go ahead and start scanning and bagging her groceries
They actually did the first few times. Which is funny to me because my wife is very much a control freak. She did not think it was funny, though.
Walmart has extremely good facial recognition software, which I assume now has been taken over by AI.
I also get my reusable bags checked at Walmart (I rarely shop there anymore),they will even make me take out all the empty ones in my larger bag to prove I'm not stealing. I figured it was strore policy.
I do know retail theft has skyrocketed the last 5 or so years. I have read stores getting rid of self checkouts because of this.
That's a good result if true. They'll have to keep employing humans.
I wouldn’t get excited, I work in that tech space and at least in the Us and Canada strategies of major grocery stores is increasing self checkout options as well as AI surveillance. If the bubble pops that may change but it’s not deterring anything from the c-suite this far
Nobody should give any fucks whatsoever as long as it continues to be dwarfed by wage theft.
Also, there is zero fucking reason to let Walmart check your receipt or your bags. With a warehouse club like Costco it's written into the membership agreement, but a normal store has no authority to hold you, especially without probable cause. Exercise your goddamn rights, people!
Costco doesn't do a real check either. They just look at your cart and swipe your receipt with a highlighter. The only thing I can imagine they are actually checking is approximate number of items.
You have no 4th amendment rights against a private party. Depending on your state, the store can detain you until police arrive if they suspect you of shoplifting.
The key phrase there is "if they suspect you of shoplifting" which means they need to have actual fucking evidence and merely refusing their rent-a-gestapo bullshit doesn't cut it.
Otherwise, they're the ones committing the crime of false imprisonment.
Yeah the stores did that.
They knew self-checkout would be shoplifter heaven but they calculated that they saved more by cutting jobs. Then they cry for insurance and government payouts by pretending there is an epidemic of crime.
And now they're cutting back on the self-checkouts while not bothering to hire people back to work the registers lol. The lines are getting longer and longer.
Of course, how else to drive you to use their pickup/delivery service for a premium, or to order online where they can really gouge you individually with surveillance pricing.
They were never going to do surveillance pricing in store, that’s too hard, but why have useable stores at all? Throw everything in locked cases, staff minimally, ignore complaints, profit (this quarter).
God, I would laugh so hard as I kept walking to my car.
I hope not here as self checkout was a massive improvement for being able to check out with a few items where I live. They also have people assigned and present at slef checkout and more staff roaming the store to answer questions and keep stuff organized compared to before self checkout was a thing. I get help finding things and out the door faster.
Sucks that they are doing a shitty implementation other placss.
This has happened to me at a few times a local grocery chain (it’s not wal-mart, but I don’t want to name it, as that would reveal my general location).