One CVS customer is calling out their local store for putting him in the “degrading” position of having to call for an employee to unlock a freezer just so he could buy some ice cream.
A TikToker named Colin (@yeahcolin) posted a viral clip blasting the pharmacy chain for putting him in the position of requesting ice cream assistance. The video amassed over 438,000 views as of Sunday.
Colin begins his video speaking into the camera, which he appears to record while inside a CVS store: “I don’t know if anyone’s been to a CVS in New York lately, but they do this new degrading thing,” he says, while flipping the lens orientation around to show the store’s freezer section.
There are locks placed on the freezer doors where tubs of ice cream and other food products are for customers to peruse, but not grab.
“Where they lock the ice cream. So you have to push for help,” he says, panning his camera to a device that’s attached to the glass on one of the freezer’s doors. “Trying to be sneaky and low key, [now] I have to let the whole store there’s a breakdown in aisle 8.”
“Ridiculous babe, ridiculous,” he says, conceding to press the button so a worker can come to unlock the freezer.
His clip jumps to him recording the floor of the store as a worker approaches the freezer, “Hi, thank you,” he says, as the employee’s feet come into view. “Thank you, thank you so much…sorry,” he tells them as the video ultimately cuts out.
Colin isn’t the only social media user who has vented his frustrations about the overly zealous stances retailers have taken against potential thieves. One Walmart shopper said he left a store, leaving the $4 battery he intended on purchasing behind because it was locked up. Another Wally World patron had a similar gripe at the location they frequented. However, their issue was with the store’s laundry aisle, providing an additional obstacle that hindered their ability to get the cleaning supplies they desired.
@yeahcolin Adding salt to a wound
♬ original sound – colin
And then there were Target customers who’ve called out the popular red-and-white branded chain for locking up lower-cost, daily necessity items. These complaints received a bit of backlash from other social media users who thought the posts condemning this practice carried racial undertones—one woman said that black and brown customers have been blasting this phenomenon in stores located in their areas, for quite some time.
Viewers also seemed just as embarrassed as Colin was by the lock-up procedures. One person wrote, “The broken glass door is really the cherry on top,” to which Colin replied, “Right like it’s not that serious babes why are we shooting a tub of Hagen daaz.”
Another replied that if they had been in a similar situation to Colin, they probably would have sworn off of eating ice cream for good: “It’s the way I would never eat ice cream again.”
Someone else wrote they saw a similar setup at the CVS store they visited, writing, “I actually went to a CVS and saw this and walked out bc I didn’t want to ask.”
“i’d be so embarrassed standing there waiting for them to come unlock it,” another user on the app replied. Someone else shared their own nightmare scenario involving ice cream, commenting, “Imagine crying and having a full breakdown and just needing some ice cream and then they MAKE YOU SPEAK TO SOMEONE.”
There seemed to be a lot of people who weren’t fans of the idea that a button might broadcast to the entire store a customer was planning on buying some ice cream: “Love when the button causes a whole store announcement ‘assistance needed in the ice cream aisle’ great, thanks so much cvs.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to CVS and Colin via email for further comment.
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