Target, Walmart To Change Self-Checkout Rules In Plainfield

PLAINFIELD, IL — If you shop and use self-checkout registers at Target and Walmart stores around Plainfield, be prepared for some changes as the retailers and others fight a multi-million-dollar theft problem.

Minneapolis-based Target has placed a 10-item limit on the number of items customers can scan at its honor system self-checkout registers, effective Sunday at nearly all of its 2,000 stores. Walmart also has implemented self-scan item limits at some of its more than 10,500 stores nationwide.

Nearby locations include:

• Target at 12800 S. Route 59, Plainfield
• Target at 1111 Brook Forest Ave., Shorewood
• Walmart Supercenter at 420 Weber Road in Romeoville
• Walmart Supercenter at 1401 Route 59, Shorewood

Target said its self-checkout lanes during the pandemic were popular with customers who wanted to socially distance, but surveys since have shown customers prefer a more traditional retail experience. Individual stores will have the flexibility to open staffed lanes or set self-checkout hours that fit their customers’ needs, the retailer said.

Walmart customers who want to self-scan can enroll in the Scan & Go program, offered exclusively to Walmart+ customers. Enrollment in the customer loyalty program costs $12.95 or $98 a year, according to the retailer’s website.

Self-checkout is a popular option among U.S. consumers, according to a survey by NCR Voyix survey of 1,133 Americans. About 43 percent overall said they prefer to scan and bag their items themselves. The option is especially popular among consumers ages 18 to 44 who like the speed, shorter lines and privacy of a self-scan lane.

Another survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers by LendingTree found 69 percent think they make it easier to steal, and 15 percent admitted they had stolen items using the system.

Even law-abiding customers can be tempted to cheat at self-checkout lanes, Christopher Andrews, an associated professor and chair of sociology at Drew University and author of “The Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets and the Do-It-Yourself Economy,” told The Associated Press late last year.

He said the technology makes it easier for customers to scan every other item or input codes for a cheaper item. But they could also make honest mistakes that affect stores’ bottom lines, he said.

Andrews told The AP he doesn’t expect the self-checkout system to disappear entirely from America’s retailers.