Covid-19 has altered how many stores serve their customers. Employee retention has become a major priority, but despite sweeteners like raised wages and competitive perks it has proven difficult for major chains to keep their stores fully staffed. This has resulted in long lines and a reliance on self-checkouts.
In a TikTok video that has gained over 182,000 views, user waydownsth (@waydownsth) expresses his irritation at the lack of open registers to a Walmart cashier.
The video starts with the camera pointed at a young Walmart employee, wearing a mask and standing at a register. White letters captioned the video: “Walmart has thrown out customer service, they can suffer the same consequences as Bud Lite. I’ll never spend another dollar at Walmart.”
@waydownsth #walmart #boycottwalmart #foryou #neveragain ♬ original sound – waydownsth
“What you’re telling me is that the registers close at 8 o’clock, and you would rather me take all those groceries right there and just leave them in the cart, and leave the store then to have someone ring them up for me?” @waydownsth says off camera.
“Well, unfortunately, at the moment, we only have about I say two people at self-checkout. And the rules are we can’t have more people over there for a whole line. It would be too busy, so like…” the employee responds.
@waydownsth interjects: “Because I’m not going to go sit there and go in self-checkout now. That’s all there is to that. I mean that’s a, you know, quite a bit of stuff to be trying to do that.”
“True, true,” the employee agrees.
“There’s employees all over the store, right? So, what you’re telling me is that Walmart just doesn’t really care enough about us, their customers, in order to ring us up? You’d rather us just leave then ring us up?” @waydownsth asks.
“No, I’m just saying like…”
“No it’s a choice right, either you ring me out or I just leave all the stuff here,” he says.
The employee then gestures behind him, pointing to the line. “Well, I’m not saying leave it there, but self-checkout is open.”
“Well, I’m not going to ring it out it’s not my job. I’m a paying customer, I came to pay for things but I didn’t come here to work,” @waydownsth continues.
The video pans across the self-checkout line, showing a large gathering of customers waiting for their turn at the two open registers.
“So just to give you an idea this is their self checkout system that obviously does not work very well. Just customers everywhere because apparently they don’t have enough employees to take care of their customers,” @waydownsth says as he ends his video.
Many users criticized his treatment of the cashier.
“Bro thinks he’s talking to Walton himself. Leave that kid alone,” someone commented.
“Cashier handled it well-customer knows Walmart has self checkouts so don’t go it you don’t want self checkout,” another commenter said.
“I’ve literally never had this happen,” @waydownsth replied.
Viewers mostly defended the Walmart worker, however.
“The cashier handled this so well I would have been walked off,” one added, with another commenter saying: “Ppl need to leave employees alone. They can’t do anything about it, they’re just doing their job. Call corporate.”
Other commenters praised the self-checkout line, stating how they preferred it over human interaction: “I’m the exact opposite of this. I’d wait in line for 20 minutes to use self checkout to avoid the interaction with another human being.”
Some discussed the nuances of employee roles and how not every employee is trained on the register.
“Yes, Walmart employees all over, but only trained for the departments they applied for…most aren’t cross trained to be a cashier,” a commenter explained.
Most commenters agreed that the TikTok video did not have the desired effect Waydownsth intended.
“This back fired bruh,” a commenter said.
“Bro he mad af for no reason,” another replied.
“We on the employee side,” another said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Waydownsth via TikTok comments and to Walmart via email.