A disgruntled customer reports that after a Walmart self-checkout machine didn’t print a receipt for her, she was detained by store employees for not being able to prove she paid for her items.
The tale comes from the Tate and Mary account (@tateandmary) on TikTok, which appears to be jointly run by a couple who tout themselves as “young parents” and “Christ followers.” A woman, presumably Mary, relays the story in a video that has received over 446,000 views and 11,600 likes in two days.
“OK, so I was just at Walmart, and they have someone who’s standing by the door to check receipts and stuff, right?” Mary said to start the clip.
@tateandmary Cheap service —> Cheap Service . #walmart #tateandmary #falseimprisonment #walmartstories #wife #mom #greatvalue #monday #mondaysbelike #foryou #fyp ♬ original sound – Tate and Mary
“Normally, they don’t even ask,” she continued. “Like, you can just leave, and they’re not worried about it. But this time, I was standing at the self-checkout so close to the guy who checks receipts. He’s watching me, right? There’s a lady there also watching me. And I pay for everything, everything’s bagged, put it in the cart. I’m walking past them, and they’re like, ‘Ma’am, I need to see your receipt.’”
One problem, though: The machine didn’t spit out a receipt as it usually does, and the pair of employees informed her she couldn’t leave Walmart without one.
“I said, ‘OK, can you give me a receipt?’” Mary relayed. “And she said no,” leading Mary to respond, “Well, you can’t just keep me in the store. You just watched me pay for all my stuff.”
The employee then told Mary, “Ma’am, why are you being so difficult?”
Mary told viewers she was held at the store for 20 minutes but did not reveal what allowed her to finally leave. She instead concluded, “I’m literally—I’m not going back there. I don’t care how cheap it is.”
After commenters complained about the unfinished story, Mary posted a follow-up video explaining that she was able to use the card she paid with to prove she’d bought the items she was trying to take out of the store.
@tateandmary @publix for the win! #tateandmary #walmart #walmartstories #walmartsucks #relateable #wednesday #wife #mom #greatvalue #goodmorning ♬ original sound – Tate and Mary
Commenters on her initial video took the opportunity to express their views on Walmart’s self-checkout machines.
“I will not show them a receipt or let them check my receipt,” one said. “If they don’t trust me to ring my stuff up, then they should get cashiers again.”
“At our Walmart, if you do self check out, you can even choose to not have a receipt printed for you,” someone else pointed out. “So what are they going to do then?” Another Walmart customer recently brought up this exact point after a greeter requested the receipt he chose not to get.
“There are cameras over the register while you are checking out your items,” another commenter observed, suggesting, “Have them pull the camera footage.”
Frustration with self-checkout registers isn’t limited to just Walmart. In a recent Atlantic article, Amanda Mull covered why consumers are growing disenchanted with the system in the pointedly titled, “Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment.”
Additionally, many of Mary’s commenters agreed that the greeters went a step too far by detaining her. “They cannot stop you like that,” one noted. “Should have called the cops yourself.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Mary via TikTok comment and Walmart via email.
