A customer at a Circle K store tried to buy a few items, including a hot dog, using one of the store’s AI-powered self-checkout machines. Instead of showing a normal total, the register added a charge of more than $8.5 billion listed as a donation to the Red Cross.
The customer shared the story on the subreddit r/mildlyinfuriating, along with a photo of the receipt screen showing the massive charge. According to the post, this was not the first issue he had with the machine.
He wrote that he had used the self-checkout before and noticed random items getting added to his bill without him scanning them, including things like lighters and food items that were not even near the scanner.
Customer says an employee also found the charge surprising
In the post, the customer said that only one worker was on duty at the time and was busy, which led him to try the self-checkout again. That is when the machine showed the massive donation charge on his total.
He wrote, “Yesterday, tho, it threw this little gem in thinking I wouldn’t notice an $8.5 Billion Donation to the Red Cross.”
The customer said he does support the work of the Red Cross, but felt the charge was excessive. He wrote, “Don’t get me wrong, I like what they do and all, but this is a bit much…” Receipt mistakes involving large or unexpected totals are not unheard of, as shown by a Trader Joe’s shopper’s surprising receipt total after a simple grocery run.
According to the post, an employee behind the counter also noticed the error. The customer wrote, “Even the guy behind the counter was astonished and we both had a good laugh about it.”
He ended his post with a warning to other shoppers, saying that the machines “hallucinate often” and advising people to check their total and items closely if they choose to use one.
The post received attention on Reddit, with thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments from other users.
Many commenters responded with jokes about the situation. One person wrote, “Omg, I only have $6 Billion on this card, can I pay the rest in cash?”
Another user joked about payment options, asking, “Do they accept Klarna?” A reply to that comment suggested breaking the amount into smaller charges, saying, “8.5 billion payments of $2.99 per month.”
Other commenters questioned why a self-checkout system needed AI at all. One person wrote, “Why would they make those AI anything? Checkout is a deterministic process.” Another added, “I can’t even imagine which part of this is AI.”
A different commenter offered a possible technical explanation for the error, writing, “Might be some kind of integer overflow. 2 ^ 33 is ~8.5 billion.”
Some users questioned whether the customer may have accidentally entered a phone number instead of a donation amount, since the numbers resembled a phone number format. One comment read, “Did you enter your phone number on accident!? I know circle k has store discounts if you enter it… And this looks like it could be an area code and number.”
One commenter, who identified themselves as a vendor for the company, said they do not trust the machines. They wrote, “I’m a vendor for this company and I do not trust these f–king machines at all. I always double check because 60% of the time they ring up your item as something more expensive. I bought a bag of chips just last month and the f–king thing thought it was a $26 bottle of wine.” Unusual charges have also shown up in other industries, including an unusual fee found on a restaurant bill that left one diner puzzled.
The same commenter also claimed that Circle K had removed the self-checkout machines from a store in a retirement area after most customers there refused to use them, writing, “Circle K watches how people shop in their stores… most of those people refused to use this s–t machine and Circle K removed them from that specific store.”
Another user raised a question about the legality of the overcharges, writing, “Isn’t that illegal? To charge you for items you didn’t buy, that is. If a human added ghost charges, it would be fraud and very illegal.”
One commenter shared a broader complaint about the rollout of the machines, saying their local Circle K replaced three regular self-checkout machines with a single AI-powered kiosk after only about two months of using the previous ones.
As of writing, Circle K has not issued a public statement addressing the incident described in the Reddit post.
Published: Jul 29, 2026 02:00 pm