The World Of Walmart
Everyone has that weird Walmart store in their area where crazy things always seem to happen. Some of them are quite incredible.
The following list contains those Walmart stores you would be scared to go to during the night, where police always seem to be present, and no one is surprised anymore when the craziest thing happens inside.
Two Weeks
I've only been working at a Walmart for two weeks. I've had three people lose their temper on me. One woman slammed her shopping cart into someone else's cart because she couldn't buy her drinks with an expired ID.
One guy tried to walk away with a whole cart of groceries. Still, a different customer walked after him and literally dragged him back inside. Again, two weeks. Story Source: Reddit/Acevolts
The Worst
I worked at Walmart well through my teenage years. The worst would've been when some thieves attempted to run out the door, followed closely by loss prevention, turned around, and sprayed them with mace. Which then wafted into the store.
A few seniors had to be taken to the hospital for respiratory issues. Everyone working in the store spent all day coughing as the mace lingered in the air because heaven forbid they shut the store down and think of anyone else's health. Story Source: Reddit/westcoast_wonder
Teen In Trouble
When working at Walmart, I had the strangest shopper coming in one night. I watched a high schooler who was probably under the influence of something coming in. As soon as I saw him, I knew there would be trouble.
He tripped over his own feet and slammed through a middle aisle display of those egg crate file holders. Those things went everywhere. Story Source: Reddit/angreesloth
Oil Change
Some people signed up for an oil change, then threw one of those household bug bomb foggers into their car while they waited.
When the technician went out to pull the car in, it was full of white smoke from the insecticide. The interior was covered in thousands of roaches, trying to escape the fog. We told them to leave. Story Source: Reddit/Its_In_Belgium
Overnight Shift
I was an overnight manager at the time. The store is located in the shitiest area of a major city at a 24-hour store. At around 2 am, the overnight loss prevention associate had just caught a guy shoplifting on the cameras, and I had been called up to help him.
Things go smoothly. The guy had stolen less than $50 worth of stuff and complied, so it went pretty easy. Most times, people ran away from us or tried to fight us. Story Source: Reddit/Jay_R_Kay
The Computer
After letting a shoplifter go, the loss prevention associate had some paperwork to do, so I jumped on the cameras to see what was happening in the store. I soon found a shady-looking individual lurking around the electronics department. He was clearly making sure no one was in the vicinity watching him.
He sneaked into an aisle and grabbed an all-in-one monitor/desktop combo wrapped in spider wrap. Obviously, this guy decided to run. We tackled him and pinned him to the ground. Luckily, the police showed up soon after, and we let them handle him from there. Story Source: Reddit/pokerbacon
Red
I worked customer service at Walmart for a little bit, and one night, just as I was closing customer service down, a man came in screaming for help. He was wearing a white shirt, but it was drenched red in some areas.
He said he was hurt, and he thought he wouldn't make it. He lifted up his shirt to show us he wasn't under the influence and really needed help. Lucky for him an off-duty paramedic was in line buying groceries and called it in fast for the ambulance. Story Source: Reddit/Mr_Flim_Flam
The Plunger
My brother was at Walmart with my friend and me. There was an aisle with plungers at the end. Being the thirteen-year-old he was, my brother could not resist the temptation of picking one up and sticking it to the floor. We laugh a little. After he does this, he goes to put it back, and the whole rack falls down.
Then, an employee walks up and starts to help him. Apparently, the whole shelf (three racks of plungers) was unstable. As they were putting the last few on, the racks above clattered to the ground, and now there are probably fifty plungers rolling around on the floor. We didn't get in trouble or kicked out, but I'm sorry for that poor employee. Story Source: Reddit/_tylerr
The Speaker In The Parking Lot
I worked at a Walmart for one summer during college. I was a Courtesy Associate according to my nametag, but I preferred the title of Cart Wrangler. My job was to recover shopping carts, help customers get big stuff into their cars/trucks, and keep the parking lot clean. My most memorable was a group of kids in their late teens like myself at the time.
They bought a trunk-mounted subwoofer box, installed it in the lot, and left the empty cardboard box for me to clean up. Yes, it was a minor annoyance, but when there are one or two garbage cans in between each lane on the lot, and you can't be bothered to use one, I think my annoyance was justified. Story Source: Reddit/scienceguy8
The Jewelry Department Meltdown
My mom worked at Walmart for about a year. She actually liked it as she was more active, but she decided to quit after the jewelry department manager had a meltdown and started throwing jewelry at customers.
Turns out that the manager was selling the jewelry to friends and family but would keep the boxes and stuff them with rocks and trash so inventory would stay the same. She had the meltdown before she was caught. They had to drag her out of the store that day. Story Source: Reddit/socksandpoptarts
The Hamburgler
The worst story was about The Hamburgler, a person who would put a packaging of raw hamburger in their cart and then "change their mind" and leave the hamburger in some random spot. Sometimes it would be a couple of days before the Hamburgler's deed was uncovered.
It was so bad that almost every employee started inspecting their area of responsibility, and pretty soon, the Hamburgler's foul deeds were being discovered very quickly. Story Source: Reddit/ejaiejaiejai
US Allies
I've also witnessed a ton of crazy people. Still, the one that stuck with me the most was this woman returning some novelty candy at customer service while I was up there. Things like Spongebob candy canes or weird stuff like that.
Her reason for returning it, and I quote, "It's made in Mexico and China, and they fill it with poison!". Sometime later, while working in the aisles, I noticed her with, I'm assuming, her grandson (like 4 or 5 years old) asking him, "Who do we buy from?" "Only US and US allies!". Story Source: Reddit/Bahamut2000x
Party Girl
I worked overnights about a week before Christmas. Suddenly I hear a meek voice saying Excuse me but do you have a phone? I looked up to see a rail-thin woman in a yellow dress that looked like it was basically falling off. Her black hair was a mess, and she only had on one sock. Makeup was streaming down her face where she had been crying.
I told her that the phone was upfront, and the self-checkout lady would gladly let her use it. I never found out for sure, but she told our self-checkout lady that she had been at a party, got in a fight with her boyfriend, and got kicked out. Story Source: Reddit/iismitch55
An Ongoing Adventure
Worst a customer has done that I witnessed was either the woman who let her son ride a motorized cart who immediately hit a pickle shelf, saw me rounding the corner to make sure everyone was okay, and snatched her kid off, saying, 'He'll take care of it, come on.'
Or the guy who cusses out me, my direct supervisor, and three other managers because we don't carry Bud's Best Cookies. I now laugh at how he exclaimed, "I thought this was a GROCERY STORE!" in a Deep South accent. Story Source: Reddit/SSLOdd1