A woman claims Walmart employees locked her screen when she tried to pay at the self-checkout line.
In the video, TikToker Carlene Figg from New Jersey confronts several Walmart employees in blue vests.
Figg posted her video to her TikTok account on Sunday, and it has been viewed over 125,400 times and counting.
A caption above the video reads: “Walmart, very rude employees.” Figg claims she and her daughter were trying to check out with two shopping carts containing 20 items each when their cash register stopped working.
The self-checkout screen visible in the video says: “Something went wrong with your transaction. We’ll be right with you.”
“They locked my screen and refused to let me check out… with my 20 items. And my daughter wanted to do her 20 items (next),” Figg claims in the video.
It’s unclear if Figg was stopped because the total amount of groceries she and her daughter brought was over $20. However, she says the two paid in two separate transactions at separate registers.
“And these people here,” Figg notes, panning her phone camera to a group of three employees.
“The lady over there,” she says, before the woman explains to her that she is not allowed to “record” in the store.
“Yes, I am. It’s a public place. It’s a public area, public property,” she tells the store clerk.
Can you film at Walmart?
The Walmart website states: “Out of respect for our associates and customers, unauthorized filming is prohibited and we reserve the right to enforce this policy.”
According to an article by radio station WSBS, “filming in a store is not against the law,” but “you are asked to respect and follow Walmart’s policies.”
Retail stores are considered private property and customers could face trespassing charges for violating store rules. However, police do not appear to have been called in Figg’s case.
After trying to get the employee’s name, Figg points her camera at a sign at the checkout that reads, “Fast checkout for twenty items or less (sic).”
“I have 20 items. My daughter has 20 items,” she claims.
“I wanted to take my items to this register here, but they locked my register. My daughter wanted to take hers over there,” she claims, pointing to another register across the aisle. “And they locked the registers and said we weren’t allowed to scan.”
Surprisingly, Figg then states: “They do that to me every time.”
At no point in the video do Walmart employees provide an explanation for the alleged lockout.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Walmart for comment via its website.
@carlenefigg #walmart #rudeemployee #tomsrivernj #selfcheckout ♬ Original sound – Carlene Figg
One viewer had to ask, “Why do you keep going back? You said you do it every time. I wouldn’t go back.”
Figg did not respond to the comment. But in another comment thread, she claimed:
“When we went to the self checkout entrance they immediately stopped us and told us we couldn’t scan more than 20 items. We told them we were using the same cart and there were 3 separate transactions but we were using one cart. I had already taken my stuff out to go to another checkout so they made her life very difficult. My daughter started scanning her items, got to 9 items and they locked the screen to prevent her from scanning her other 11 items. My granddaughter bought her school supplies with her own money so they didn’t allow her to do separate scans. She also has 19 items. They made me wait for 30 minutes while I asked them to check the price of an item I wasn’t sure of the price of… They said we had to have separate carts lol and the sign is their policy… The closest Walmart is 30 minutes away from where my daughter lives…”
The opinion of the audience
Other viewers shared their own negative experiences with Walmart self-checkout lanes in the comments section.
Maggie (@._.maggi3) wrote: “Here in Charlotte, NC, the self-checkout line has 15 items max and only 2-3 cashiers with long lines. It’s ridiculous that this happened to me. @Walmart does it better!!!”
“We go to Walmart, they’re counting the items now, if you have more than that you have to wait in line for an hour, they only have four shelves open so we went out and left the cart,” commented another viewer.
However, some viewers seemed to believe that Figg was responsible for the box office problems.
Kellb (@kellb) wrote: “You try (expletive) and use this highway even though you have two shopping carts. The inside of the store is not public property. It’s private. Just follow the rules.”
Another viewer stated that he “never had any problems scanning more than 20 items.”
“I hate self checkout lanes but when I have a few items and the lane is jammed I go through and have never had a problem. What the hell are you guys doing?” wrote another.
The Daily Dot reached out to Figg for further comment via TikTok messenger and comment section.
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