New Store Policies Announced for Target in Massachusetts

Just as we thought this was the "new-normal" of shopping, things are taking a step back a notch when it comes to shopping at Target.

After the pandemic and the increase of prices due to inflation, many retail stores across the U.S. have experienced a rise in theft. Forcing a lot of stores to shut down or completely revert to online shopping. Instead of closing completely, Target has thought of a solution to try to decrease the amount of theft in their stores.

What new policy are we to expect at Target? 

As of Sunday, March 17, 2024, we are expected to abide by a new "10 items or less" policy at all self-checkouts. As we all know, self-checkouts are a love and hate system when it comes to cashing out merchandise. According to Star Tribune, self-checkouts gained a lot of popularity during the pandemic due to it being 100% contactless with another human being. But now this new change will likely speed up service and overall customer satisfaction.

There's a lot of shrink that happens at self-checkouts both deliberately and accidentally and I think Target is very keen to reduce that, nudging people back to manned checkouts where it's more of a controlled experience and these mistakes don't happen is a way of trying to reduce that shrink." - Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData

A Target spokesman also stated while theft was not the primary reason the retailer is making the changes to its self-checkout lanes, he acknowledged the company did see a reduction in shrink in the stores where the restrictions were tested.