Target’s making a move that may upset — or already has upset — a number of its customers.
The company is reportedly cutting hours for self-checkout lanes at a number of its locations, although the exact number — as well as where they are — has yet to be confirmed.
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Business Insider reports how Target employees informed the publication that they believe how this move is part of Target’s plan to keep its overall store sales through self-checkouts below a certain level.
The same Business Insider article states that users on reddit have stated that self-checkout lanes in some of the Target stores in their areas were only up from about 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For context, most Target store hours are from, at earliest, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“If and when we do have to close the self-checkouts in the morning and in the evening, we’re going to have a lot of people extremely upset with us,” tells one employee to Business Insider. “And I’m going to have to explain to them that they are closed down due to theft.”
News of Target cracking down on self-checkouts due to an increased amount of retail theft is part of a growing trend of other stores doing the same: PennLive reported how Costco implemented a similar strategy, and that the “self-checkout kiosk horror show” could go the way of the dodo from all the thievery.
Inc. adds that people already appear irate over this slash in self-checkout hours, with customers coming out and complaining about long lines on social media platforms.
Business Insider states that Target did not immediately respond to their request for comment, which still stands as of the publishing of this report.