Retail surveillance remains a hot topic on TikTok, with customers and employees cluing the public into the many ways chain stores are keeping an eye on them.
From facial recognition and “secret shoppers” who roam the sales floor looking for suspect customers, many methods of in-store surveillance have been exposed to the general public.
Now, one man says it goes farther than that, describing a multi-tiered system of customer surveillance that tracks customers from the parking lot to the aisle.
In the video posted to TikTok by @bigbagspenny616, he says Walmart uses multiple layers of man-powered security to keep an eye on customers, whether they are suspected of theft or not.
“This is what Walmart doesn’t want you guys to know,” he says in the video. “Walmart has a highly skilled team.”
He says this involves “floor walkers,” otherwise known as workers who follow you around the store, and “eagle eye,” what he calls the “eye in the sky,'” presumably the cameras.
“They got the paper gaters,” he continues. “The ones that check your receipts at the door, and then they also will have two people monitoring the parking lot from their vehicles. Now, if you’re a vehicle monitor, all you have to do is practically sit in your car all day on the radio and watch for people. You’re going to log when they come in, and when they log out.”
He says employees on the floor are monitoring customers from aisle to aisle, communicating with a main security team about everything they see.
“Before you even walk in the double doors and get your car, they’re already on you on the camera, the eagle eye,” he says. “They already got two floor walkers en route to come find you and follow you. They will stalk you around the entire store and feedback what they see to the eagle eye.”
@bigbagspenny616 FLOOR WALKER OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!! #fyp #viral #trending #walmart #america #bigbagspenny616 ♬ original sound – bigbagspenny616
He says they begin tracking customers from the moment they walk into the store until they get out to their car to load up their groceries.
He claims that that’s why whenever you’re shopping for your items, there’s a person “awkwardly” watching beside you or someone watching you load up your groceries in the parking lot.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @bigbagspenny616 via TikTok direct message regarding the video, as well as to Walmart via its contact form.
It’s not the first time this shopper has accused Walmart floorwalkers of causing undue frustration for customers. He has previously mentioned that the loss prevention method has made him feel uncomfortable, as he believes the extra supervision while shopping comes from his visible tattoos.
However, the poster’s claims about high levels of security did not resonate with all viewers. Some shared that they had almost never seen floor walkers in their local Walmart, and certainly were not monitored in the parking lot.
“I used to do [asset protection] at Walmart at 2 super centers,” one commenter wrote. “If we had the cameras we didn’t need to leave the room to follow anyone. No one was outside in cars and we worked in a rough area.”
“I hardly ever see Walmart employees at our Walmart except for the 6 of them standing around watching people check themselves out,” another said.
“I go to three times a week,” one user wrote. “I have never been followed by anybody and never questioned by anybody.”
However, some took this chance to call out Walmart for its notorious lack of staff where they were actually needed.
“Yet they don’t have cashiers,” a user said.
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