Walmart boycott threat ramps up after major self-checkout change branded ‘annoying’ by customers
WALMART shoppers have continued to express their displeasure with the significant change to the self-checkout systems.
The retail giant said it would add advertising to its US locations on flat-screen TVs and the radio played in stores, and customers are unhappy.
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Those ads will also appear on the screens of Walmart’s self-checkout kiosks — a change that could lead to resentment from customers, Ryan Mayward, senior vice president of retail media sales at Walmart Connect, told CNBC.
Mayward assured that the advertising on self-checkout screens will be implemented “very deliberately and carefully”.
Still, customers still flocked to social media to voice their grievances.
“I haven’t shopped there in MONTHS… They don’t pay me to be a cashier myself,” said one customer said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, apparently a boycott of all self-checkouts in the retailer.
“I never use them and never will,” another written down.
“How to annoy your customers even more” wrote a third X user on August 1st.
Mayward argued that the change gives companies partnering with Walmart Connect a way to reach a massive audience that is pouring in and out of Walmart stores on a daily basis.
“If you think about our store, our store presence, and the percentage of Americans that we reach through our stores, we can reach an audience the size of a Super Bowl every week,” Mayward noted to CNBC.
On Walmart’s Connect website, where businesses can take advantage of the store’s advertising options, the retailer provided further insight into how ads work at the checkout.
“Captivate the customers of the Walmart stores,” reads the opening speech of the website.
Prospective advertisers were also given instructions on how to target customers when they’re in the mood to buy:
“Make a big impression when your customers are most engaged with in-store placements that continue to drive awareness and conversion.”
Their “closed-loop measurement” should also be able to determine when advertising on self-checkout screens influences future purchases.
Still, some still felt the change was “short-term thinking,” as The US Sun previously reported.
Another X user called the change “annoying and dystopian”.
Although pundits like Jeff Green, CEO and co-founder of The Trade Desk, claim Walmart is pioneering a new advertising method.
“Walmart is breaking new ground in digital advertising, giving marketers access to shopper data for the first time, in a way that both protects consumer privacy and enhances the consumer experience,” Green wrote in a post on the retail giant’s website.
“By doing so, marketers can create much more sophisticated, relevant and measurable ad campaigns that can adapt on the fly to changing circumstances and real-time performance.
“We are very excited to be working with Walmart to bring this vision to life.”
The US Sun has reached out to Walmart for official comments on the self-checkout promotions and more information on the implementation process.
For more on self-checkout changes, see The US Sun’s coverage of why shoppers at Kroger are upset at the retailer over changes at a Tennessee location.
There is also a report on the US show The Sun about a major grocery retailer’s new self-checkout anti-theft system which it says is “not working”.
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