An ex-Sephora worker posted a viral TikTok saying he was forced to give customers baskets when they were suspected of shoplifting.
George (@george_jreige) has reached over 186,000 views and 6,000 likes on his video by Friday. He previously went viral for sharing that workers were forced to follow customers who seemed to be stealing around the store. In this latest viral clip, he added an on-screen caption to the beginning that says, “Weird things about working at sephora.”
“When I worked at Sephora, and we thought somebody was about to steal, we were supposed to ask them if they wanted a basket,” George says to begin his video.
“I’m not kidding, like force them to get a basket,” he adds.
Next, George says that if a worker asked a customer if they’d like a basket and they said no, employees were then supposed to respond, “Are you sure?” and “literally like beg them to take a basket.”
George then says there was an instance when he went back to his manager after a customer refused a basket, and he was told to “just go give them a basket.”
“I was like, ‘What if they don’t want a basket?’” he says, to which his manager reportedly responded, “They’re gonna have to get a basket.”
“That’s like weird,” George says to the camera. “There were so many things wrong with working there.”
“It was so weird how we thought if somebody was literally just looking around with nothing in their hands, we think that you’re stealing,” he continues. “If they have too much stuff in their hands, [we’d] think [they were] stealing. If they had a bag with them, we’d think they were stealing.”
“Um, that whole job is a red flag,” George adds, “and I don’t recommend it to anyone.”
Before ending his video, George says he’s not sure if Sephora thinks “everyone is stealing,” but from what he knows, “They didn’t want people with a bunch of products walking around because they were scared that they were either gonna run off with it or slip some stuff in their pockets.”
He also adds that the baskets were supposed to help workers “see what [customers] have in there [to] see if anything went missing.”
@george_jreige More sephora tea #fyp #foryou #sephora #viral #storytime ♬ original sound – 🤍George🤍
“Not me thinking about all the times I’ve been asked if I want a basket,” a viewer said in the comments section of George’s video.
“Never stole ever, but I always refuse a basket because when it no longer fits in my hands that means it’s time to check out! Always taking the basket now,” another wrote.
“I just want to walk in without being talked to lol,” another admitted.
One commenter told George, “You should specify that you worked at Kohl’s Sephora because it’s different.”
In 2021, Sephora and Kohl’s partnered together to deliver “the ultimate beauty shopping experience both in-store and online.”
On its website, Kohl’s states, “At any participating Kohl’s location, find an unparalleled assortment of prestige products from Sephora.” The site also notes that the partnership would “expand every year until more than 850 Kohl’s stores offer the Sephora at Kohl’s experience,” which the two retailers achieved by 2023.
The Daily Dot reached out to George, Sephora, and Kohl’s via email.
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