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As college students in Ottawa, we occasionally go grocery shopping because we just can’t handle another caf meal right now. Here, we have the limited options of shopping at either Walmart or Price Chopper. As some of the returning students know, Walmart went through a remodel; in this remodel they added more self-checkout lanes. The purpose was to speed the process up and allow those not purchasing many items to checkout quickly.
However, recently the self-checkout lanes have not been utilized in the way they were intended for. Many times, when out shopping in the evenings there are no regular lanes open. This forces all customers to use the self-checkout lane even when they are doing a large grocery haul. This causes many customers to have to wait on those with baskets full of items to check out.
When this happens, it causes those who are purchasing a small number of items to wait longer. For instance, senior Brett Perry says,“We were just trying to get a sewing kit, and it took us about 10-15 minutes just to reach the self-checkout because so many people had full carts.”
This is not an ideal setup for Ottawa University students, especially those with busy schedules. Most Ottawa students are athletes who are very involved on campus. Most days, students don't have a lot of time dedicated to go grocery shopping or pick up a few items that they need. Customers who need to grab a few items should be able to walk straight up to the self-checkout lanes and pay. It is a big inconvenience for Walmart to shut down their main checkout lines — not only for students, but the townies that shop at Walmart in the evenings after they get off work.