A Walmart shopper went viral on TikTok after revealing that she had to wait an hour to get nail polish after the store locked the goods behind glass.
Lei (@leiii4everrr) posted the video documenting her conundrum in late March. As of Sunday afternoon, her clip had amassed over 410,300 views.
“Waiting a whole hour to get a nail polish since Walmart decided to do this…,” she wrote in the text overlay.
In the brief video, Lei showed viewers Walmart’s beauty section. She then panned her phone’s camera over the nail polishes. Indeed, the nail polishes and makeup were placed behind a glass or plastic shield, seemingly to prevent theft.
In recent months, a number of shoppers have taken to TikTok to complain about what they call unnecessary precautions. One Walmart customer, in November, slammed the chain for putting its laundry products behind locked shelves. She said that she had to wait an extended period of time for an employee to come and unlock the case. And in June, another customer said they ended up waiting for 10 minutes for a store associate to help them open a shelf containing a $4 battery.
But it’s not clear that these theft prevention measures are having a measurable impact. According to a 2023 report by CNN, shrinkage, a term used to describe all losses, including shoplifting, has remained largely consistent over the past decade.
@leiii4everrr 😒😒#foryou #fyp ♬ SeKret – Valentines Day – Se'Kret
In the comments section of Lei’s video, a number of viewers registered their complaints about Walmart’s so-called precautions.
“Why is Walmart being so greedy like they don’t literally account for stolen items?” one user questioned.
“Y’all’s walmart got trust issues fr,” another quipped.
“‘I’ll send someone’ has to be the biggest lie,” a third user wrote.
Others said that Walmart locking up certain products has led them to do most of their shopping elsewhere.
“This is why I like target better than walmart,” one person admitted.
“After one hour I go to target,” another shared.
“This is why I stopped shopping at Walmart,” a third person said. “Waiting to get essentials like deodorant, laundry detergent, even FEMININE CARE, crazy.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Lei via TikTok comment and to Walmart through its online media relations form.
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