In a shocking moment caught on video, two Marshalls customers admired a display of Lululemon bags when a store employee abruptly came over the intercom and demanded they leave.
“Both of you, get out now,” a voice can be heard shouting in a viral TikTok video posted by user Rebecca (@beckster0426.)
Stunned, Rebecca and her friend filmed their exit, despite there being 30 minutes left until the Marshalls closed, she later revealed.
“There’s people coming in,” she said in the TikTok, which has been viewed 6.8 million times since it was first posted on July 13.
In a follow-up video, the friends shared that they were window shopping at the Marshalls around 9pm, dispelling some viewers’ speculation that, because it was dark outside the store’s windows, they were there after closing.
“We don’t 100 percent know that she was talking to us, but it was just kind of a coincidence,” Rebecca explained in the follow-up video. “We didn’t see any ‘you twos’ there besides us.”
@beckster0426 #fyp #marshalls ♬ original sound – Rebecca
Viewers are divided
Viewers were torn between sympathy for the employee—it was late and the workers likely wanted to balance their cash drawers and go home—and confusion for her reaction, stating that 30 minutes before closing was a reasonable amount of time to still be inside the store.
“It’s normal for people to come in 30 minutes before we close just to look,” one retail worker shared. “That worker should’ve been nicer if that was directed towards the two of you. Y’all weren’t acting like fools.”
“People act like other people don’t get off work late and wanna go shopping?” another viewer pointed out.
In another follow-up video, Rebecca stated that, before the seemingly targeted announcement was made, an employee announced that the store would be closing in 30 minutes and that customers should start making their way up front to the registers to check out. As she and her friend began heading that way, they noticed the bags and stopped to record them.
@beckster0426 Replying to @Taylor Price ♬ original sound – Rebecca
“I don’t think she was talking to us,” she reflected in the TikTok. “There were a lot of people there and we weren’t even buying anything. We were just looking, we were on our way out.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Rebecca via email and Instagram direct message.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
