So we drove out of our way to get to this Walmart to pick up some things. We found what we needed, and got in line at cashier #10. There were a lot of people in the store and each of the four manned registers had a long line of people with full carts - we were perhaps the 12th in line to get to the register.
After twenty minutes of standing in the line, the cashier turned off her light, came out to the end of the conveyor belt, put up the 'closed' sign, and announced that her lane was closed. By then the other lines were much, much longer. In fact, the people who had been behind us were now in front of us at the next register.
So we went to the express lane to check ourselves out. The line for express was 25 people long, but it seemed to be moving, and there were eight registers, so we waited in that line for another fifteen minutes.
We got to the register and the attendants, who had been ignoring us for the last fifteen minutes, announced that, because we had more than 15 items, we would now have to go to the back of one of the other three registers. 12 of our items were identical cans of cat food (when I worked retail, a cashier could just scan one and put in the quantity, but I guess Walmart doesn't do that), several of the same toy, and several matching towels. With the 'times this quantity' button, we really had 4 items and would have been out of there quickly. We looked at the other lines and they now stretched back into the clothing sections of the store.
We'd already been in this Walmart for over an hour - 35 minutes of it just waiting in two different lines - so we walked away. I said "You can keep it. Nothing you sell isn't available in Target." Granted, I paid a bit more at Target, but my time in the store lasted a total of 30 minutes, including the wait in line.
Walmart must just be so rich from not hiring cashiers that they can turn down paying customers. I wouldn't have been as upset if the employees hadn't wasted my time and been so flippant - first, the cashier who let us wait in line for 20 minutes before deciding to tell us her lane was now closed, and then the express employees waiting until we were at the register to stop paying attention to their phones to tell us we couldn't use the check out. Maybe pay attention to the people in line so you can say "I'm sorry - 12 items or fewer at express check out," BEFORE the customer wait in line for fifteen minutes. And if it was enforced evenly (two people in front of us must have had 30 grocery items they had to look up on the computer), I might have actually bought the things in the cart, but I don't need surly staff brushing me off with "You can't use self check out with all these items. You need to go over to that line," pointing at the line wrapping around the womenswear section. read more