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I’m so excited to share with you all that my local Target has FINALLY upgraded! There are four new checkout lanes, they are all “Self Checkout” via a Checkout Kiosk Machine! This is so awesome and convenient. My local store is actually very coupon-friendly, but sometimes, it’s nice to be able to checkout on your own, right? I think we all have our own reasons: You want to do multiple transactions and don’t want to hassle the cashier; you might have had a bad experience and prefer the stress-free self checkout option.. whatever the reason, you’ll be pleased to know that Target is planning on adding more self checkout kiosks to their stores in 2016!
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So, for those of you who don’t have a self checkout yet, you might be curious as to how it works! I’ve broken it down quite simply here for you.

Self Checkout is similar to the kiosks found at Walmart, Kroger and Meijer stores (CVS also has a few):

  • At Kroger stores, you’ll scan your Kroger reward card and scan your own products. Then you’ll hand your coupons to the cashier to manually scan right before you’re ready to pay.
  • At Meijer stores, you’ll enter your mPerks phone number to use your digital coupons and you scan your products. You also scan your own coupons and insert them into a coupon slot above the kiosk

At Target, here’s how the Self Checkout works:

  1. Scan your own products and bag your own items.
  2. Scan your coupons by swiping the barcode across the glass. The machine will prompt you to insert your coupon into a slot located below the glass scanner.
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  3. Then, use the handheld device scanner to scan your Cartwheel. You can use your mobile phone to bring up the Cartwheel barcode, or you can print out the barcode and scan it with the handheld device.
    target-self-checkout-screen-scanner
  4. If you purchase a product that is part of a Weekly Gift Card Promotion (example: Buy two, get a free $5 Gift Card), the screen will prompt you to grab a Gift Card and scan the Gift Card. These blank Gift Cards are conveniently located directly above the shelf checkout screen!
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  5. Once you scan the Gift Card, the machine will prompt the cashier to come over to your kiosk to verify the Gift Card promotion.how-to-coupon-at-target-2
  6. Pay for your purchase total using the payment processing machine.

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Now you’ll be ready to shop and use Self Checkout at your own Target if and when they arrive! I hope you found this savings tip to be helpful! Please let me know in the comments below what you think about Self Checkout in comparison to checking out with an actual Target store associate. Do you prefer Self Checkout or do you like the human interaction?

13 Replies to “How to use Self Checkout at Target”

    1. Hi Gator, that’s a great question! The Target mobile coupon barcode will scan from your mobile phone. Just use the hand held scanner to scan it, just like you would scan the Cartwheel! We’ll update the post to reflect this. Thanks.

  1. at least one of the self-checkout registers at the target by me (in northern va) does not detect when a coupon is inserted, and requires an attendant to login..and tries to detec the weight of the free gift card, as well..also requiring a login. not sure if this is just that particular register, or a store-wide thing to help prevent abuse, the way i’ve seen some cvses with self-checkouts have the coupon slot taped over. annoying, either way..

    i go to self checkout because i want to do it faster than a cashier, but any kind of attendant interaction INSTANTLY slows things down and makes me wish i’d gone with a real person.

  2. except my local Laguna Blvd Elk Grove CA target refuses to honor storewide advertised in circular promotions related to the scanning of coupons (store or mfr) or cartwheel when done at self checkout. i think the practice is discriminatory and illegal. the only way “coupon scammers” get away with fraud is if they are putting the wrong coupons in the machine after scanning (which isn’t really a valid excuse because mobile coupon offers are still expected by the machine to be inserted, but im not giving it my phone, and cartwheel advertises that YES coupons can be used in conjunction with it and YES cartwheel may be used at self checkout! ) or if a team member modifies the order to accept the coupon if it is not scanning properly- which in my case neither happened, all of my coupons scanned without intervention, all of my items qualified for gift cards and i was prompted to obtain these after i scanned the coupon & cartwheel. however, a team member scalded me for participating in their promotion saying they do not allow coupon redemption or cartwheel at self checkout despite their policies explicitly stating otherwise. i am first going to contact the manufacturers of the products and sponsors of the offers to let them know target doesn’t want to honor them, so they no longer need their license that allows them to accept those offers. second i’m going to file a doj complaint for false advertising then i’m going to wait for my phone to ring with target on the other line saying sorry we messed up. using coupons isn’t a crime, saving money doesn’t mean target is losing anything, it doesn’t mean i need to be berated like a child for accepting the promotions extended to me and doesn’t mean i need a babysitter. if there is any issue or concern that what i’m doing constitutes theft or fraud, i welcome loss prevention the opportunity to confront me about it or have an actual officer investigate it, but i will not assuage fake impositions to satisfy their conscience. Target looses money a lot of different ways, if they believe promotions are the source of such loss they should discontinue the practice of offering discounts instead of harassing customers for using them in compliance with conditions.

      1. NO they just put a bigger sign! They have the nerve to place it strategically and misleadingly under the notice that states alcohol may not be purchased under californiC law at self checkout (referencing that law) and then immediately under state coupons may not be used at those registers also as if to say to against the law or , something!!! I talked to corporate and the csr that I got was LAUGHING when I told him of this practice…he said “OF COURSE you can use coupons at self checkout! I just did it myself!” He also said if I have an issue, to pick up the red phone to reach them and they’ll speak to the store employee. However, in practice this only caused a manager to open another register and ring me up there which is in no way a solution…I just don’t shop there anymore.

        1. OMG a mgr doing that just causes everyone to stop & look. You are better than me. If hubby is with me and no service dog he always says just pay so we can go. Me without hubby is no corporate said this is allowed and I prefer not having everyone in the store staring at me like I stole something. I did reach my patients with them a few months ago using a cashier. I don’t get a signal in our Target so I pull my cartwheel barcode up while outside so I don’t loose it. Cashier accused me of having a screenshot. She told me I had to close it out and reopen it. Even with me telling her it will not work cause I don’t have a signal. Nope close it and reopen it. Did and my phone shows no signal. I haven’t been back since. I’m glad I came across your review and now know it’s not just me.

          1. It is NOT your phone or signal affecting your ability to open up cartwheel once at self-checkout or any other register, rather it is Target’s beacons interfering with your phone trying to bully you into connecting to their Wi-Fi so that they can track everything that you do in the store so that they can sell you specific items whilst there and Beyond. Beacons are at every entrance. If you play Shopkick you’ll know what I mean… What I do is I screenshot everything before I go into the store all the barcodes on need all the web pages I need for price matching excetera and then I turn my phone on airplane mode because the likelihood of me being able to open up any Target app or click any mobile coupon and expected to load while at the register is next to impossible.

  3. PLEASE provide more details on how to use coupon. And I like helping Senior Citizens on my street who want some items, so many times I have several transactions to make, and I know some services pay people to pick up items for people such as GOPHER or FETCH. So I was wondering if I am only one that picks up sometimes 6 orders in a trip, and if I should feel shy when I use either Human or Self Service Checkout? In Self Service sometimes one feels the attendant looking like a vulture or something, a busy body. I prefer Machines, they need to get rid of the hovering attendant at self service and save that money and pass it on to customers, instead of intimidating us away.

    Attendants job is to help you if you do not know who to use the self service machines, not to make you feel judged for using it or doing multiple transactions when you are helping others out and store is making money, so what is their problem. I am Glad tech is advancing to where hopefully they can get rid of the attendant and have the machine help those new to using them or when a glitch occurs. Machines can be way more helpful upto their limits of ability which is getting better and better as the FUTURE ARRIVES.

    1. I feel your frustration. I am a personal shopper and on any given week I could be shopping for 4 to 20 depending if that is a payday week. I like to use self checkout so I’m not tieing up a regular register. My customers use me because I coupon and pass the savings to them. It is annoying as all get out when you have to wait for the attendant to come over count your coupons and login to enter the number of coupons given. The machine can do that. Hope your shopping gets better.

    2. One thing I’ve previously seen target do with a partocular couponer, is she would purchase everything at self checkout or whatever, then she would take her receipt over to customer service who then took her stack of coupons and matched them to the items, adding them as “missed coupons,” refunding her the difference. This was like 4 years ago, & since then, manufacturers have made it clear to Target that coupons should be presented at the time of check out, so I think they’ve discontinued this practice (at least for manufacturer coupons). This is ineffective and causes more work for everyone especially the customer who may have to resort to returning and repurchasing the merchandise with the coupon…if you need help with couponing, I recommend reading a blog like krazycouponlady or forthemommas or cuckooforcoupons…totallytarget lost my respect when I realized they were working with Target (which means never getting the lower out of pocket cost).

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