Walmart almost always sees its fair share of TikTok drama from week to week, from “floor walkers” who watch tattooed customers, to customers who purchased “stringy” chicken that gets them freaking out thinking they’re eating synthetic proteins.
These past seven days weren’t any different, with a number of employees and patrons of the massive global retailer calling out their fellow shoppers, salary-cutting managers, and Michelin Star Chefs while airing their grievances.
Customers in headlights
A Walmart shopper documented the moment he realized how annoying “idling” customers can be as they gum-up the works in store aisles due to their lack of movement. TikToker Ahmad Hall (@theahmadhall) blasted patrons for their lack of situational awareness, expressing his rage in a clip that went viral on the popular social media platform. “Why y’all out here doing this?!” he exclaims in the video.
Several other users remarked in the comments section of his video that they, too, have experienced this same customer-traffic conundrum, echoing his sentiments that this type of phenomena seems to happen more often at Walmart than compared to other stores.
Ziploc socks
One Walmart shopper was shocked to see packages of socks for sale at a Walmart placed in Ziploc bags, with barcodes pasted on them, along with black sharpies indicating the brand and style of the items.
Uploaded footage of the strange packaging choice on TikTok, writing that “never in [their] life” had they ever seen anything like it, showing off a $14.99 price tag despite not having the socks’ original packaging labels.
The TikTok user’s clip spawn a series of speculative comments as to what could’ve caused this to happen, including one remark from a viewer who thought that the store’s loss prevention department may’ve caught someone shoplifting who took the packaging off of the socks in their attempt to pilfer the goods. Then, employees took the recovered goods and placed them in Ziploc bags in an attempt to sell them back to shoppers, the user further speculated.
Wine night in aisle 9
A group of Walmart shoppers uploaded a clip that may’ve sparked a bit of controversy as the comments were disabled —in it a TikToker and her friends cracked open a bottle of wine along with some plastic cups and sipped while they shopped. While the customer explained in a caption for the post that they indeed did pay for the bottle of wine at checkout, The Beer Exchange states that under no circumstances is anyone allowed to imbibe alcohol while inside of Walmart. The parking lot, however, is a different story,. If you want to crack open a few cold ones and toss slices of cheese at your friends then that should be good.
Assault rifles at the exit
A purported jump in thefts at Walmart locations across the U.S. may’ve prompted one to store to placed guards armed with assault rifles at the exit, something that TikTok user Sergio Alvarez (@officialsergioalvarez) captured on camera.
He posts a cheeky message in the video that states: “Keep stealing at self-checkout if you want to,” as the song “Bad Boys,” popularized by the reality TV series Cops.
Commenters were critical of the move, stating that the store may’ve been better served by placing more cashiers on registers, but there were some who thought that it wasn’t the store’s fault for taking such strict security measures, but a direct result of shoplifters creating a scary environment for patrons.
Gordon Ramsay’s frozen ‘hypocrisy’
One Walmart shopper thought it was pretty crumby of Chef Gordon Ramsay to launch is own line of frozen meals at the popular retailer, given how much grief he’s previously given to folks who cook with microwaves. Granted, the frozen dishes state on its packaging that shoppers should either use an air fryer or a conventional oven to heat up the meals, however, Ramsay once told Bon Appetit that he would never eat a frozen meal himself because it’s much easier to make a quick meal using nothing but fresh produce, such as a “stir fry.”
Another TikToker purchased all of Ramsay’s debut frozen meals at Walmart and documented his experience eating them in a separate video, but he didn’t appear too thrilled with the chef’s prepared meal offerings.
Warehouse paycut
A Walmart employee attempting to get her old job back says that while she was re-hired to the store, she was placed in a separate warehouse at a starting hourly wage that was $2 less than she previously earned. What’s more is that she didn’t receive set hours, and would instead be “randomly scheduled”—which prompted her, along with the salary reduction, to ultimately leave the gig. “I’m quitting my job. I went on my break and cried the entire time.”
She posted about her experience on TikTok, where she also highlighted that despite Walmart’s profits increasing by 5.7% in a single quarter and the prices of goods going up that wages for workers “have gone down.”
Numerous folks remarked in the comments section that they weren’t surprised Walmart would pull a move like this, along with others who mentioned that they worked for the chain years ago and they don’t think the retailer’s policies have changed much since then: “So, Walmart is exactly the same as it was when I left there almost 11 years ago. I mean, of course it is, but I was hopeful.”
Someone else also said that they received paycuts at their job and so did their coworkers.
