A mother out Christmas shopping for her kids said a Walmart employee racially profiled her. It happens every year, she said.
In the viral video, Carrillo (@mrsmommie8) said she usually leaves her Christmas shopping until the last minute and gets everything the day before Christmas Eve. Because of this, her cart tends to get full quickly since she’s getting gifts for her eight kids at once.
While she was trying to check things off of her list, Carrillo said she noticed a white man was following her all around the store, and she suspects it’s because: One, she’s Black, and there’s a known history of Black people being discriminated against in retail establishments, getting followed in stores, and being falsely accused of having intentions to steal. And two, her cart is really full.
Carrillo said she suspects the man is part of Walmart’s loss prevention team, which, in addition to having personnel on video surveillance, can also include crew members who are monitoring the store floor. Carrillo referred to the man as a “secret shopper” in her video, but other Walmart shoppers who have had similar encounters have alternatively dubbed these workers “floorwalkers.”
“If you gone follow me, at least help me, sir,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “You gone miss the real culprit, trying to follow me.”
While Carrillo said she understands the man is doing his job, she still got offended by the possible racist reason she’s being followed.
“He keep following me around this damn store. Like, sir, all this money I’m about to spend? Ugh. I hate it so much,” Carrillo said, exasperated. She added that while she felt frustrated and uncomfortable, she was trying really hard to maintain her calm and not make a scene.
@mrsmommie8 Christmas shopping #fyp ♬ original sound – MrsMommie Carrillo
“PERHAPS ☝🏾 SHOULD TAKE YOU & YOUR $$$ ELSEWHERE? CLEARY he DOESN’T GIVE 2 FUXX. THAT YOUR ABOUT TOO SPEND THAT AMOUNT OF $$$, IJS….” a viewer said in the comment section.
In a follow-up video, Carrillo, who has 33,000 followers, responded to this viewer who urged her to shop at a different store instead of spending her money where she was getting racially profiled. But Carrillo pointed out that the man is likely an hourly employee with little to no stake in the company—so where she spends her money ultimately doesn’t impact him.
In fact, she pointed out that she’d be the one losing out by having to go to another store with higher prices.
“This makes perfect sense if the person who was doing it was the store owner or if they were like a family business or something,” Carrillo said. “But the people who work there, they’re hourly employees. They don’t lose anything by me deciding not to shop there.”
The original video has nearly 150,000 views and hundreds of comments, with many sharing that they’ve had similar experiences.
“I just turn around all the time and tell then straight up I’m not stealing haha,” a person said.
“Happens to me too, makes me paranoid even though I never do anything bad,” another wrote.
“That happened to me today too. Then had the nerve to ask for my receipt after I spent $600,” a viewer shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Carrillo and Walmart for comment via email.