A pregnant woman and her husband were shopping for strollers at Target when she says they were unceremoniously kicked out of the store by employees. The employees, she says, claimed they were “trying to steal.”
Alexa Fernandez (@alexan.fernandez) reported the details of this unpleasant interaction in a TikTok video. In the caption, she called out the store and tagged several stroller companies.
“So I’m currently at a Target, and I’m being treated like a criminal … because I wanted to test any of these [strollers],” the pregnant woman says.
The expecting mother claims that she had been to another Target location the night before this unpleasant incident. She says that she simply wanted to test the many features of the stroller. This seemed a reasonable request to her since she was making “a thousand-dollar purchase.”
According to Fernandez, there was no problem when she asked an employee to untie the security zip-ties at the first store. But the same request did not go over well at a different location.
Fernandez says she and her husband were examining a model that wasn’t available at the first store. But when she asked for a manager to undo the security ties, he was immediately rude.
“‘We don’t do that here,’” he allegedly told the couple. It did not help matters when Fernandez mentioned that Target employees at the other store were happy to oblige the request.
Given the unhelpful attitude of the employee, Fernandez says she and her husband decided to do their best to test the stroller without having it untied. At this point, things escalated.
Target employees surround pregnant woman
The next thing she knew, she says they were surrounded by several employees from the store.
“They sent an asset [protection] manager over. And she’s like, ‘Hey, we got word that you’re trying to steal these strollers,’” Fernandez says.
Fernandez’s husband pointed out the absurdity of his pregnant wife running out of the Target store with a stolen stroller in tow, she recalls. But this didn’t seem to matter.
At this point, she says the asset protection manager accused the couple of untying several strollers. But Fernandez maintains they had already been untied before the couple got there.
Another associate came over, also insinuating that the couple was attempting to steal a stroller.
“‘You can’t touch them,’” she recalls the second employee telling them, before allegedly adding that if they didn’t comply, they would be “escorted off the premises like common criminals.”
Soon, a third employee joined the interaction. Fernandez says at this point she started to get emotional.
She says she reiterated to all three employees that she was just trying to look at the strollers, nothing more. They then asked her to leave the store because she was “breaking the rules.”
@alexan.fernandez Replying to @Laura Testing strollers should be normal and usually is, but apparently this @Target had some other opinions. @Mockingbird – Baby Gear @Evenflo Baby @graco baby #pregnanttiktok #pregnancyjourney #strollerresearch #firsttimemom ♬ original sound – Alexa | Pregnant FTM 🩵
Fernandez says she pushed back, asking what rules she had broken, but was not given an answer. The pregnant woman adds that she was brought to tears by these Target employees.
When she got back home without a stroller, she says she decided to call the first Target store, where the employees had been more helpful. They helped her file an official complaint with the district manager and allegedly informed her there was no reason she should have been treated the way she had been treated.
“Target, you need to do better because parents love Target registries and are obviously big supporters. … We’re trying to buy a stroller from you,” she pleads.
Mixed reactions from viewers
The TikTok post garnered 325,600 views and started up a debate in the comments section. Some viewers thought the customers had an unreasonable request, while others believed the store employees were out of line.
“Test them? Girl, buy it and if you don’t like it, return it omg,” one person said.
“Girl, no pregnant woman, and especially a pregnant woman with other kids, wants to spend money on a stroller only to see afterwards that it’s not what we want and have to make the trip back to return it and continue the cycle until we find one we like,” someone else argued.
“THAT Target and THOSE employees need to do better. That was so unnecessary on their part,” another commenter said.
Several viewers suggested the pregnant woman ditch Target altogether and try a higher-end store where employees would be more helpful. Fernandez wrote that she had already tried Nordstrom, where she says she received excellent customer service. However, she says, she had kept up her search because the strollers there were much more expensive.
Commenters also suggested she file a complaint with Target’s corporate office.
The Daily Dot reached out to Fernandez and Target via email for further updates on the matter.
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