Amarillo Walmart Has Me Ring Up Own Items and Accuses Me of Theft?

I never asked to be an employee of Walmart. I have seen a lot of people joking that this is how we feel when we are made to be our own cashiers. I would say I really dislike this part about shopping there.

I do seek out the one opened lane as much as possible. I know I won't be harassed as much. Sometimes that one lane has a fairly long line and nobody has time for that. So when I have to I go ahead and become an employee for the time being.

I take my chances at the self-checkout lane. I had an experience on Friday that I was unprepared for.

The One Where I Was Accused of Stealing

I am going about my business checking out my items as I am supposed to. I get into a rhythm. I think I may get out of here soon with my cartful of stuff. I think to myself man this bagger really sucks at their job. Of course, that bagger is me.

I don't have anything bagged up as I should. I am just ringing up and throwing it into a bag. We don't have the luxury of having a conveyor belt to put all of our items on before we check out. We have a tiny space. We have to ring up, put items in the bag, and place that bag back in the cart with other items I still need to ring up.

I get a message and an alert that an associate will be with me soon. I don't remember what it even said. I just know I was confused. The employee came to me and told me that I placed an item in my bag that I didn't ring up. Ummmm, no I didn't. She wasn't having that.

I am wondering how she knew this but again. I know I was innocent of what I was basically being accused of at that moment, theft. I knew I didn't steal anything. She proceeded to tell me that I put paper plates in my bag that I didn't ring up.

Again not an employee here so I didn't like the fact that you made this my job and now the accusation.

OK, I remember the paper plates. I got a big package of them. I know I rang them up. I'm not going to steal but if I was it sure wouldn't be paper plates.

The employee had me find the paper plates in my bag. More work on me. I did and handed them to her. She scanned them ready to prove me a thief. They showed up on my screen and receipt as "Site Merch". They didn't ring up as paper plates.

She was confused. Then she looked back at my receipt and just a couple of items earlier there were the "Site Merch" paper plates I rang up. She had to apologize to me. She said she never saw that happen. I made sure she deleted the second ring-up. I sure didn't need to pay for those paper plates twice.

So what was an embarrassing situation that came to an end with just an apology? I did ring up those paper plates. Their system failed. I was vindicated.

Walmart, stop using whatever system you are using to try to catch us stealing when you can just hire employees to run the checkouts. I mean you have the lanes. I don't want this job. I never did. Go back to having customer service like your competitors.