No Frills blocks customer from bringing cart into self-checkout

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Remember the days when you could just go to the grocery store, grab your items, pay and go?

Now it seems, everything comes with a choice.

Go to a store and pick out your own items or have them delivered to with the off-chance the substitutes are not comparable.

Go to different stores to get the best bang for your buck, in this day and age, or out of convenience, go to one and complain about the prices later.

Use a checkout lane with an actual human cashier or deal with the hassle of self-checkout.

One customer chose his local No Frills and found out the hard way that the self-checkout area isn’t as accommodating as he thought it would be.

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The customer had completed his morning shop and was about to push his cart into the self-checkout area when an employee stopped him and said he couldn’t go there anymore – because of his cart.

“No carts allowed, just baskets,” he was told, which he said defeated the purpose of the convenience of self-checkout.

The worker explained that it was a new policy by Loblaw, so he was forced to move to one of the two checkout lanes open, which meant he had a long line ahead of him.

The Toronto Sun reached out to Loblaw who explained the policy was about “customer comfort” and “safety.”

“No Frills has a policy to discourage carts and limit the number of items at self-checkout, generally to keep that area clear and moving for a lot of reasons, including customer comfort and overall safety,” a Loblaw spokesperson told the Sun.

“That said, the stores make exceptions, particularly for people who have limited mobility,” she added. “Anyone who needs accommodations should speak to the store owner.”