An alert notification system for customers and sales personnel in a shopping area and a method of use is disclosed. In a first aspect, a system for alerting customers and sales personnel that merchandise has been left in a shopping area is disclosed. The system comprises a merchandise detector for detecting merchandise purchased by a customer and a customer detector for detecting whether the customer has left the merchandise. The system further includes a notification system responsive to the customer and merchandise detectors for alerting the customer when the customer has left the purchased merchandise. In a second aspect, the method comprises detecting the presence of merchandise associated with a customer via a second detector and detecting whether the customer has left the merchandise via a second detector. The method further includes alerting the customer, responsive to the first and second detectors, via a notification mechanism if the customer has left the merchandise. Accordingly, a system and method in accordance with the present invention provides for an alert notification system for customers in a shopping area. By detecting individual customers and the merchandise associated with each, a customer and/or sales personnel can be alerted if he or she forgets the merchandise. In so doing the likelihood that a customer will leave the merchandise in the shopping area is substantially reduced.