Shoppers should expect to find discounted items in the clearance section of any given store. But what if that isn’t always the case? In a recent TikTok, a Walmart worker revealed that customers might be getting “scammed” into buying supposedly discounted goods at full price.
In a now-viral video, Walmart employee Celia Cook (@powerpellets) shared a “little clearance lesson” with viewers. First, she unveiled Walmart’s clearance aisle. Then, she zoomed in on a package of Hefty recycling bags sitting on a shelf with a bright yellow clearance sticker for $9.77. But there was a discrepancy, Cook explained: it wasn’t a clearance item.
“Walmart just deleted it. It’s no longer selling it at the store,” she said. Next, Cook showed what an “actual clearance sticker” looks like, displaying a five-piece bed sheet set. In the bottom right corner, the set had a sticker displaying its previous cost ($34.94) versus its discounted price ($9). In a nutshell, the Hefty bags didn’t display this information while the bed sheets did.
@powerpellets *this is not to say that they might not change the price, but often this sells before an actual clearance price drops. #walmart #clearance ♬ original sound – Celia Cook
“This is not to say that they might not change the price, but often this sells before an actual clearance price drops,” Cook wrote in the accompanying video caption.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Cook via TikTok comment and to Walmart through its media relations form. As of Monday afternoon, Cook’s video had over 49,000 views with customers pointing out that the clearance section no longer offers good deals.
“Our clearance [aisle] seems [too] high for me… always just a few cents less if that,” one viewer said.
“I’ve noticed that most things that go on clearance these days are between 10 and 25% off. That’s not clearance price!!!” another noted.
But alleged Walmart workers offered a different explanation for the pricing.
“as a walmart employee, I’ll tell you right now that if someone can’t find the right labels they’ll use what they can find,” one user explained.
“I work at Walmart. the associate probably was [too] lazy to get the correct price printer,” a second echoed.
One viewer named Robbi, meanwhile, explained why the Hefty bags are no longer available, writing, “Yep. There is a big class action right now, so they are getting rid of all those bags ASAP.”
Indeed, there was a class action lawsuit against Hefty and Great Value trash bags. In September 2023, its parent company agreed to pay $3 million to resolve a lawsuit claiming it “misled consumers to believe that its recycling trash bags were recyclable. Despite these claims, the ‘recycling’ bags allegedly can not be recycled in waste disposal facilities.” This settlement benefits consumers who purchased the bags between July 20, 2018 and Aug. 30, 2023. The deadline to submit a case is Oct. 25 with the approval hearing starting on Nov. 15.
