If you’ve ever felt like there’s someone following you around at Walmart, you may be right. According to this TikToker, Walmart hires “floor walkers” to track customers in the store and monitor them for potential theft.
What’s a Walmart floor walker?
One former Walmart worker turned Walmart shopper, @BigBagSpenny616, shares about their recent experience being followed around by who they perceive to be floorwalkers.
In the clip, the TikToker films his Walmart shopping experience as well as people “following him.”
“This guy thinks he’s a cop,” he says, showing one man in the aisle. “Then I turn down this aisle, go to grab my water, turn around and there he is watching me. He disappears right into the aisle.”
He continues, “Then you can see he’s watching me through the cracks…they treat me like I’m some high-level crime member, but I’m a law-abiding citizen,” says @BigBagSpenny616.
This video has 683 comments and 349,000 views as of Saturday.
Floor walker turned shopper
Ironically, @BigBagSpenny616 says he used to be a floor walker for Walmart. In fact, he posted one of the first and most viral videos about floor walkers back in August. Since then, several videos on the subject have surfaced. A large portion of @BigBagSpenny616’s content actually is about floor walkers and the Daily Dot has previously reported on his content, like this video where he says a floor walker followed him and his son.
Are floor walkers real?
According to Monster.com, it’s a thing. It’s called Retail Loss-Prevention Specialists. Their responsibilities include walking around a store and watching out for behaviors that can lead to stealing. Retail Loss Prevention specialists can also be used to monitor employees for theft.
According to one of @BigBagSpenny616’s most viral videos, floor walkers follow you from the parking lot to check out. They also allegedly use tactics like getting in front of you so that it seems like they are not following you but then re-appearing in new aisles near you.
What are viewers saying?
Viewers are concerned and amused by the idea of of someone following them around as they shop.
“I was followed around before as soon as I walked in the funniest part was I knew all the asset protection people because I worked there dude freaked out when I called him by name,” one commented
“Why not move the floor walkers to the registers so that we don’t have to scan and bag our own stuff anymore,” another wrote.
@bigbagspenny616 Floorwalkers in a group made me nervous #walmart #secretshopper ♬ original sound – BigBagSpenny
“My poor floor walker. I go to Walmart to get a break from my house. sometimes i call my mom and walk around aimlessly talking for literal hours,” one user said.
“I snapped on a floor walker once I felt horrible after but I’m extremely aware of my surroundings the result of someone following me or watching me isn’t very pretty,” said another.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @BigBagSpenny616 via TikTok message and comment and to Walmart via their media contact form.
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