- Target will limit self-checkout to 10 items or fewer at most of its stores, beginning March 17.
- The retailer has been testing the move at about 200 pilot locations in recent months.
- Target says item limits helped make self-checkout twice as fast.
Big baskets will be banished from self-checkout at most Target locations starting Sunday.
The Bullseye retailer is making the policy change it calls Express Self-Checkout following a test run of limiting self-service lanes to 10-items or fewer at around 200 stores in recent months.
Shoppers with higher item counts will be directed to traditional staffed lanes to complete their transactions.
One result of the test: self-checkout was twice as fast with item limits than without, the company said.
Target also said store leadership has "flexibility" to set the hours that self-checkout is available, in other words opening lanes later and closing them earlier than their store's operating hours.
The move is one of many that major retailers are taking in the past year to get a handle on some of the challenges posed by the widespread adoption of self-service kiosks.
Several Walmart locations have recently limited self-checkout lanes to Spark drivers and Walmart+ members using the company's app.
On Thursday, Dollar General said it was eliminating the option from hundreds of stores and limiting the service to five items or fewer in other locations.
Limiting item counts could help cut down on something called "partial shrink," which is when a customer fails to properly scan and pay for all of their items.
