If there’s one opinion shoppers love to express, it's about self-checkout. During busy hours, the self-service kiosks can help move customers in and out of stores promptly. But these machines can also malfunction, resulting in tension and frustration for both employees and customers. For this reason, social media has become a breeding ground for people sharing their thoughts about the self-checkout rollout happening at retailers across America. One of the most recent stores to install self-checkout lanes is Lowe’s, whose longtime patrons aren’t too happy with the decision.
RELATED: Walmart and Target Anti-Theft Measures Could Be "Final Nail in the Coffin," Shoppers Say.
Customer Dan Kelley has been shopping at Lowe’s for more than four decades but recently threatened to boycott the home improvement chain after his location opted to replace its manned registers with self-service kiosks.
“I have stopped coming to Lowes after 40 years plus of shopping there. Reason? Self-checkout,” Kelley explained on X.
At the very least, Kelley is asking Lowe’s to give customers the option to choose between regular and self-checkout.
He added, “I take the time to drive 30 miles to get a few things for a project and I have to do my own checkout? Until I see a [store] that you have abandoned self checkout or at least give me a choice I’m done with Lowes.”
For now, he said he’ll be turning to Amazon or a local home renovation shop. He also isn’t opposed to switching to Home Depot, Lowe’s biggest competitor.
“I will shop at Home Depot until they do the same,” he concluded.
Another person shared in Kelley’s annoyance, noting that the self-service machines make it harder to complete tax-exempt purchases and ring up items that don’t have a barcode sticker.
“Ok my Rant for the day! I went in to Lowe’s like I do every other day for work! There are no cashiers. All have been replaced with a self checkout lane!” they wrote. “With no one around to show you where Tax exempt is or this board doesn’t have a code on it to scan it! I walked out y’all!”
To that point, someone else argued that self-checkout lanes aren’t designed for those purchasing oversized objects.
“I am at Lowe’s getting 12’ deck boards. Not a single lane is open, not even the contractor lane’s were open. Can you imagine navigating self checkout with 12’ deck boards?” the customer said on X.
X user @GribbleBugs said they were forced to shop elsewhere because Lowe’s self-checkout kiosks were only accepting cards. As others have mentioned, they were able to find everything they needed at Home Depot instead.
“Just left a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff @Lowes because they had no lines open and the self checkout only took cards. Went to @HomeDepot and got what I needed,” reads their post.
However, Home Depot customers and store associates warn that the store's self-checkout kiosks aren’t exactly foolproof, either.
In one Reddit thread about Home Depot self-checkout, a former employee weighed in on the subject and shared how the machine can be a nuisance when dealing with measurements or quantity.
"Items by the foot or individual screws/nuts/washers gotta be entered in by you anyways -if multiple ppl get errors or need your help, it gets hectic," they wrote.
On top of that, the machine’s scale tends to miscalibrate very easily, warned another worker: "The weight detection was so finely tuned that a feather, couple leaves, errant screw, wind blowing in a door, would trigger it.”
