A Target customer has gone viral after claiming a self-checkout machine ‘snitched’ on her for exceeding the 10 item limit.
Sandra, who uses the handle @iamsandraav, said in a TikTok video that she visited her local store in Texas and decided to use the self-checkout as there were lines at all the cash registers.
Most Target stores limit self-checkout lanes to 10 items or fewer, under new rules introduced last year.
Despite having more than 10 items, Sandra said she began hurriedly scanning her items before she was noticed by an employee.
‘Well, no need to hurry up, no need to get caught, because the freaking machines snitched on me,’ she said.
Sandra claimed that once she scanned the eleventh item, an alarm went off on the machine.
‘I jumped,’ she said, ‘I got scared.’
She added: ‘I’m not going to show my face there ever again. But anyway, in case you didn’t know, if a register says 10 items or less, it’s 10 items or less, or it’s going to embarrass you.’
A Target customer has gone viral after claiming a self-checkout machine ‘snitched’ on her for exceeding the 10 item limit
Some commenters on the video also claimed this has happened to them: ‘Okay mine did that and I kept scanning. It went off at least 3 more times. (I had 13 items),’ one said.
A Target spokesperson, however, told The Daily Dot that an alarm would not have sounded when she scanned the extra item.
‘Our self-checkout systems do not trigger an alert if more than 10 items are scanned,’ they said.
Sandra confirmed to the outlet in a statement that she was still able to buy the items, and said the alarm could have been caused by her not scanning an item properly.
‘I just want to clarify that I was able to complete my purchase of 10+ items. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that I wasn’t able to move forward with it,’ she said.
‘I’m also not sure if that is what triggered the sound since other employees have said that the sound can be triggered if you scan items too fast or if it believes that you didn’t scan something.
‘I have terrible anxiety so I just completed my purchase then left,’ she added.
Target introduced new rules limiting the number of items customers could buy at self-checkout lanes last year.
A Target spokesperson said that an alarm would not have sounded when she scanned the extra item
Most Target stores limit self-checkout lanes to 10 items or fewer , under new rules introduced last year
The retail giant made the change in many stores in a bid to speed up the shopping process for customers and to try and reduce lengthy lines that can build up in store.
But some companies have said self-checkout lanes encourage theft, while others have got rid of them entirely.
Hy-Vee, which has around 300 stores primarily in the Midwest and South, has fully replaced self-checkouts with staffed lanes in some locations.
Others have created express lanes, imposing a 12-item limit on the kiosks.
Bosses say they ‘want to provide a better customer experience in several of our stores by bringing back the face-to-face interaction with our employees’.
Some experts say it is also likely due to rising crime.
‘Most of the rollback of self-checkouts is due to retailer concerns over theft,’ retail expert Neil Saunders of Global Data told DailyMail.com.
