Walmart says some U.S. customers were overcharged due to technical issue

Walmart said Wednesday that a technical issue in mid-March resulted in the retailer overcharging customers at some stores in the United States, according to reporting from Bloomberg News.
Walmart suffered a technical glitch on March 19 that kept price data from accurately being received by self-checkout kiosks at 1,600 stores, Bloomberg reported. 

The days-long issue resulted in the company overcharging customers for thousands of items, including food, clothes, and appliances.
A spokesperson for Walmart told Reuters that once the retailer discovered the issue, it then focused on affected customers.

“We’ve made it a priority to refund customers who were overcharged, and we did not take action on the undercharges with our customers,” the spokesperson, Mischa Dunton, told Reuters.

Since the pandemic, Walmart has invested billions of dollars in upgrading its stores and underlying tech. In October 2023, the company said it would invest $9 billion in U.S. stores, including adding more self-checkout options. But since then, the retailer has reversed course. Earlier this year, Dollar General said it was removing self-checkout from 300 stores and scaling it back at other locations, due in part to high levels of theft. Customers are now limited to a maximum of five items in the self-checkout lane.

Related:Walmart’s Bettergoods is targeting higher-income grocery shoppers – here’s why