In a viral video with over 8.5 million views, TikTok user Taylor Anne Wingate (@taylorannewingate) shared a Christmas hack for avoiding long lines at department stores like T.J. Maxx.
“When the line is too long at TJ Maxx,” the video’s overlay text reads.
Wingate shows a woman grabbing an organizational bin from a shelf and stuffing clothes inside. She places the bin back on the shelf so that she can presumably come back to the store when it was not as busy and checkout.
“Last minute Christmas shopping did not go as planned,” she adds in the caption.
@taylorannewingate Last minute Christmas shopping did not go as planned ##lastminutechristmasshopping##christmas##christmasshopping ♬ Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson
However, store employees begged people to ignore the advice. Users who claimed to have worked at T.J. Maxx shared their thoughts in the comments section.
“As an employee- we can hold your items until the end of the day. Please don’t do this to us. We already want to die with the long lines,” one user said.
“As a TJ Maxx employee, we absolutely hate when people do this. You can put stuff on hold,” another commented.
“My favorite is finding these and putting them back knowing it’s gonna upset them when they come back and it’s gone,” a third user said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Wingate and T.J. Maxx via email.