Walmart shopper catches employee following him and his son from the parking lot

Photo bytiktok

If you’ve explored the world of Walmart social media criticism, there’s a good chance you’ve probably heard of “floorwalkers.” It’s a term used to describe plain clothes secret shoppers inside the popular retail chain. Other patrons have theorized the brand employs these folks to walk around the store.

Wearing everyday attire, they'll either maneuver a cart or carry a basket. They won't include any items that spoil in their carts, and there's a logical explanation for this: They spend hours walking on the floor, and the store's management is keen on avoiding food waste.

On TikTok, a user named Penny (@bigbagspenny) known for her content on the app frequently shares stories about those who work on the floor. Her early videos on the subject seem to have been taken seriously. In these videos, Penny mentions that she believes she's been singled out by Walmart because of his tattoos. He further explains that he often shops at the same store, sometimes with his son, which is why he found it odd that people who just come to shop in regular clothes would follow him around when he shopped by himself.

In on the joke?

Several other TikTokers on the platform accused Penny of being paranoid. Now, it appears that he’s embraced the “delusion” criticism. Following these accusations, Penny has started many of his clips with an exaggerated chin scratch. Secondly, his demeanor in the clips has changed. Now, he stares directly down the barrel of the camera and speaks excitedly. Previously, his videos appeared much more subdued.

Yet, he continues to share updates on those who use carts to navigate the store. His latest video has reached over 7.2 million views. In it, he shares an incident where a "walker" trailed him and his son into the store from the parking area.

Penny's video kicks off in the Walmart parking lot; his young son is walking alongside him, chatting cheerfully. "All right, you guys think I'm nuts? Well, check this out: a floor walker is following me and my son into the store from the parking lot," he remarks, capturing what seems to be an ordinary shopper making their way into the store. "See how she comes in just before us, trying to make it look like she arrived first? But look at the time it took. She's still loading her cart," he comments as he steps into the store.

The clip then transitions to Penny and his child in the Walmart. “She just starts pushing it when we walk in the door. Now, I’m not the FBI, but dang, I put this case together pretty quick.”

Penny continues to record the woman. “Watch her pick up the speed on me. She wants to cut in front of me to try to trick me again into thinking she’s not following me. But pretty soon, she’s gonna pull a classic pivot move. This is where she makes a quick right or a left into one of the aisles. That way, I can get in front of her again.”

Watching the floor walker

Penny continues to record the woman while he’s shopping with his child. “Are you guys picking up the body language and signals like I am? There she goes,” he says, narrating the video via voice-over. The woman in the video can be seen stopping and turning into another aisle.

“This is where it gets weird. Then she’s with us in every aisle when we turn around. And there she is again. Then, they sent in the floor walker final boss.” At this point in the video, a tall man wearing shorts and a blue T-shirt walks past Penny and his child.

He concludes his video by inviting people to inform him if they believe he's insane.

Several people who responded to his video appeared to go all in on the floor walker theory. One person penned, “I usually start following my floor walkers when they notice me doing so, I simply tell them ‘It’s uncomfortable isn’t it?’ Or I tell them ‘I seeeee you’ It immediately stops,” one wrote.

Another remarked, “My floor walker hates to see me and my adhd coming. I’ll go back and forth across the store a hundred times for 4 things.”

Someone else said that they previously had an uncomfortable situation with a floor walker: “A floor walker was following me and my newborn and those postpartum hormones kicked in. I made a scene because I was paranoid and genuinely thought she was trying to take my baby.”

And then there was this viewer who said they’ve had experiences with floor walkers previously. “Some guy followed me from the lot and all through the store and to the checkout. I got so scared I called the cops and had a worker walk me to my car. That's when I was told he was a floorwalker.”

Are floor walkers real?

TheStreet has previously covered the "undercover strategy" of plain-clothes undercover shoppers "following" customers. The outlet states that in 2016, Walmart was named in a lawsuit due to this loss prevention technique.

One redditor in the r/walmart sub posted about their own experiences with floor walkers. In their mini blog, they said that every single time they visit the store, “loss prevention follows [them] non-stop.”

They introduced their Reddit post by mentioning they previously held a position in loss prevention at Walmart, indicating that now, whenever they go shopping there, they are always aware of employees watching them from a distance.

“Perhaps since I am in there so often, I’ve noticed members of AP/LP following me around non-stop, from the time I enter the store until I leave. They’re not very hard to spot because they couldn’t be more conspicuous, just wandering around tailing me through every department and aisle in the store.”

The constant watching left the employee frustrated. “Seeing as I’ve done nothing wrong and I just happen to shop there quite a bit, I feel like this is harassment. A former co-worker from my old store told me I should document all the times I see them tailing me and report them.”