December 2019 by Doug S.
The Sedalia Walmart has undergone a transformation in store design with a check out system that is horrible. At best, there is one or zero checker-assisted lane(s) open for customers who don't want to use self checkout, and the line for that is ridiculously long. Their strategy is to force you into self checkout through something that resembles a sweep pen for cattle, and customers checking themselves out is such a slow process that it's often full; you'll still stand in line for that as well. Worse still, self checkout is divided into two areas - one area where machines have only a tiny space to set a few items, (fine if you're only buying a few items), and another area with much larger counters for customers with full carts. In my last two trips, the area with larger counters has been closed, forcing me to scan an item, bag it, and return it to my already packed cart, moving items around in the cart as I go. (Ridiculous!) To make matters worse, the scanner and bagging decks are very low. Between bending over and twisting back and forth to unload the cart, scan, bag and then replace items in the cart, I developed mild back pain - a testament to how horribly thought out the ergonomics of their self checkout is. The next exasperating issue are items that won't scan or have lost their tags. I waited nearly 10 minutes for the person in the checkout area to call another customer service person who then had to travel to the back of the store and return with the price. I was through roughly two-thirds of the cart when this happened a second time. I gave up. I'd already spent over an hour and a half shopping, had packed my cart with several hundred dollars worth of groceries and miscellaneous from a long, long list. By now, the ice cream was melted, meats had warmed, and I had a backache. I thanked the person in the checkout area for their assistance to that point, (this idiotic system isn't their fault), asked them to clear the machine and walked out empty handed. My only satisfaction with the experience is knowing that rather than improve their profit margin by me suffering through their new self checkout scheme, they killed the sale, lost a customer, and will have to pay an employee for their time to unload that heaping cart back onto shelves in every row and corner of the store.