A Walmart customer is slamming upper management for putting items under lock and key and the employees she says are rolling their eyes and dragging their feet whenever she wants to purchase something. Victoria Damore (@toridamore) went on a 48-second rant she recorded from the interior of a Walmart’s cosmetics section, but there were several folks who responded to the video stating that her ire was misplaced: Thieves should be the ones getting called out, not store workers.
“This is the future of Walmart,” Damore says as she pushes her cart through an aisle of one of the popular retailer’s locations. There are locked, see-through shelves on each side of her, filled with products that can only be accessed with the assistance of employees (or anyone else who’s managed to get their hands on a key).
She detailed the reality of having to shop in such a way, explaining how it gets really old, really fast, while questioning the chain’s decision to keep low cost items under a lock and key, making a customer’s ability to simply walk into a store, grab an item, and be on their merry way impossible: “I can’t even walk into Walmart and pick up a nail file worth $1.50 because it’s locked up.”
Damore stated that this new retail experience doesn’t appear to just be a drag for consumers, but for store employees as well — and they aren’t shy about letting shoppers know how they really feel about having to be at their beck and call to open these glass lockers.
“And of course because it’s all locked up, there’s an employee waiting there to assist everybody that needs it to be unlocked. And he’s being rude to the customers that need assistance because it’s locked up. Like, it’s an inconvenience to him. Walmart, you can lock your [expletive] up, but it’s not the customer’s fault that you don’t stop people from stealing from you.”
After calling out the retailer, she added that the employee stationed in cosmetics section followed her around and every time she stopped to look at something in one of the security cabinets, he would sigh audibly, making her not want to shop at the store at all: “And the whole time I was in the cosmetics area, the employee was following me around, and every time I would stop to look at something, he would sigh, [shoots out a bit of breath] ‘Do you need me to get that for you?’ Like, sir, I don’t want it anymore, like I don’t wanna inconvenience you, sorry I need to shop.”
Walmart’s locking spree
She isn’t the first Walmart customer to jump on social media to alert the chain that having small ticket, grab-n-go items under lock and key is a surefire way to ensure that they’ll be losing out on sales and future repeat shoppers. One man expressed a similar gripe in a viral TikTok of his own where he aired his frustrations in attempting to buy a $4 battery from a store. After having to wait what they felt was way too long to have to gain access to a relatively inexpensive product, they ended up leaving the store, and left a message to Walmart: Stop making it inconvenient for people to give you their money.
Another shopper also called out the chain for placing a ton of its products under lock and key: She wasn’t too happy that a bunch of different laundry detergents and other supplies had to be “called in” just so she could buy them.
A year ago, one Reddit user also commented on this phenomenon, posting a picture of the interior of a Walmart location where they said that anything that cost $20 or more were put into locked glass cases: “I haven’t been to Walmart in awhile , is everything locked up now?? Seemed like anything over $20 needed assistance,” they asked in the title of the post.
Numerous commenters who replied to his post remarked that this particular chain must be a location that experiences high levels of theft. However, there was one user on the application who said that there has to be a better way to operate stores in areas that must resort to such extreme measures in order to curb stealing, as making the shopping experience less convenient while simultaneously increasing staffing costs to make sure there are enough employees on hand to open lock boxes doesn’t seem like a good way to preserve profits: “Do they hire extra staff as most purchases would require staff help? The Walmart in my city does not have this setup and it’s usually pretty difficult to get some help for other matters. I find it hard to believe the solution to losing money on theft is to dramatically increase staffing costs and inhibit customers from making purchases.”
Another user on the app mentioned that stores with high theft ultimately end up getting shut down, which is something Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said may happen in December of 2022 after citing rampant stealing potentially leading to the closure of Walmart locations in key markets. His prediction ended up coming true — in 2023 Walmart closed 24 locations, four of them in Chicago alone (eight in Illinois total).
Commenters who responded to Damore’s video stated that there were several reasons why a shopping experience like this one would be a nightmare. For this TikToker, it has more to do with their social anxiety: “This is my nightmare because I hate going out in public and don’t want to exchange words with anyone else.”
Someone else said that Damore’s ire is misplaced—Walmart is simply attempting to protect its assets from random theft: “It’s not Walmarts fault, you can thank the thieves,” one said, which was a sentiment someone else echoed who wrote: “Blame the thieves, not the associates.”
“you do realize that employees are not allowed to stop shoplifters and if people wouldn’t shop lift we wouldn’t have to lock everything up,” another person wrote.
Others said that the wait times for a worker to arrive and help them remove items from out of the shelves are much too long: “Half of the time you have to wait forever to find an employee to unlock the door. One time I waited 20 minutes for 1 item that took 2 seconds to get,” one penned.
@toridamore #walmart ♬ original sound – Victoriadamore
There was one commenter, however, who said that they came up with a simple solution to dealing with companies that lock up their products in such a fashion: “I’ve already decided I will refuse to shop at these places that lock stuff up I will straight up walk out idc.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Walmart via email and Damore via TikTok comment for further information.
