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Target Canada's French-only self-checkouts cause controversy

December 3, 2013

A Target shopper in Montreal has called attention to the apparent lack of English on the retailer's self-checkout kiosks.

According to an article on cbc.ca, Anne-Marie Legault began to use the self-checkout kiosk when she found that the machine only communicated in French. Although Legault is fluent in both French and English, she was upset by the lack of choice on the part of the consumer.

"I went to pay for some items with the self-service kiosk and I went to find the English button — even though I'm perfectly bilingual, it's just the language I prefer to do business in — and there was none," Legault said on a Canadian radio show. "The attendant came over as I had pressed the question mark button expecting to find the English panel there, and she said, 'Well, we don't offer it in English.' I rang through my items and then changed my mind. I said, 'Nevermind. I'll purchase these somewhere else.'"

Target Canada public relations manager Sebastien Bouchard said in the article that the issue is not a matter of language politics, but a technological one.

"That's across the country (that) they are not bilingual and that's a technology issues that we are working to fix," he said, adding that Target plans to have bilingual self-service checkout kiosks operating by next spring.

Read more about self-checkout.