From the company's operations perspective, I think that's probably correct. Like I'd see it similar to when you find a lot more SKUs in a supermarket vs a warehouse club....as in actual distinct things.To me an item is anything with the the same UPC. 12 bottles of diet Coke is 1 item.
But from a checkout line perspective, I don't think that's what is meant. Anything that must be scanned individually is a separate item. If you had 12 bottles of something and each had to be scanned individually that's 12 items. However, if those 12 bottles were bundled and shrink wrapped and you just had to scan 1 UPC, that's 1 item. Or if you bought 5 oranges, weighed them, put on a sticker for scanning or took it to the self checkout and put in the PLU code once that's 1 item.