Working at Walmart is not for the faint of heart. You probably don’t become the world’s largest retailer with 2.1 million employees across the globe without at least some of them having a few complaints. In 2023, 62% of Walmart workers said they would recommend working there to a friend, yet the company has a whopping 50% turnover rate.
Some Walmart employees have seen such wild things at work that it made them walk out forever. Others might still be biding their time in becoming ‘former Walmart employees.’ Don’t believe us? Check out these stories from actual Walmart workers that they have shared online when someone asked them: “Former Walmart Employees of Reddit, what are your horror stories?”
#1
I worked for Malwart 11 years ago for a whopping total of 8 months. I worked the overnight shift as an Overnight Stocker for Department 8 (Pets). The store I worked at had just gotten brand new high rise shelves installed. They were said to be able to hold over a ton. Well, one night after getting all my regular freight stocked and the overstock put into the bins, my bosses had me pull 8 pallets of Arm & Hammer cat litter. The boxes had a bonus 10lbs inside, making them nearly 35 or so pounds a piece. They wanted all of those on the high risers. I asked if they were absolutely sure the shelves would be able to handle all that weight. I threw a s**t-fit about it because I know I was in the right for being worried. Other department managers who were there also sided with me. They watched over the next couple of hours as I carefully did my job. As I was putting the final 12 boxes on the bottom shelf, I heard a cracking and tearing sound, and next thing I know is I’m buried underneath all of the cat litter that had caused the shelve to collapse.
Everybody in the store heard it happen, and everybody was explicitly told NOT to dial 911 or anything. F**k that s**t! After getting all my blood cleaned from my face and cuts patched up, I called my uncle’s then time girlfriend who is a lawyer, told her what had just occurred, and what the upper management is attempting to do. As of today, I still haven’t spent all the money I received as a result of going to court over it. F**k Walmart!
Image source: anon, SaltyStarburst/reddit
#2
Last summer I frequently visited my best friend who worked at the technology counter thing at Walmart. One day when I was there someone took the biggest, steamiest s**t I’ve ever seen in my life in the middle of the toy aisle. Someone pushed a cart through it and it smeared everywhere. My buddy called in a code brown on his walkie talkie, trying to be a smart a*s. Code brown means shooting situation. Hilarity ensued
Image source: i_leik_bikes, Getty Images/unsplash
#3
Not really a horror story, more sad than anything. There was this older lady (late 50s, early 60s, I’m guessing) that came in every day and she would kind of attach herself to an employee (usually the same one) and follow them around just talking to them about their day, her day, all kinds of stuff. As soon as I started at Wal-Mart, she attached herself to me. I actually got to know her pretty well. She didn’t drive and walked about 20 miles to get to Wal-Mart each day, just because she had nothing else to do and was lonely (her words). She had 7 (I think?) cats and 3 pugs. She lived in a house with no floors and no electricity (a co-worker who lived near her verified this). I’m pretty sure she didn’t have running water, either, just because of obvious hygiene issues. She also very obviously had some kind of mental issues.
What was even more sad is that a lot of my co-workers would make fun of her to her face, but she didn’t understand what they were doing. I thought it was really f****d up. I felt bad for her, so whenever I had time I would stop and talk to her. It got to the point where she would call the store looking for me on the days she didn’t come in.
Image source: themildones, Victoriano Izquierdo/unsplash
#4
Four hours into my first shift, I was facing items on a bottom shelf while a coworker was facing items on the top shelf. She dropped a gallon of Gatorade on my head. Management refused to let me report the injury or leave to seek medical attention. I finished the shift, dazed and in pain. The next day I found out my skull was broken. Officially, since I was not allowed to report the injury, it didn’t happen at work. I rage quit.
Image source: manapan, Getty Images/unsplash
#5
This was like 5 days ago (I still work there). Went into the men’s room and there was liquid s**t on the wall and dripping down to the floor, like someone literally shot a diarrhea rocket on the wall. I just pretended like I didn’t see it and carried on with my day :/.
Image source: FilthyBigLippedBeast, Daria Trofimova/unsplash
#6
My mom was a manager at Walmart… She told me about this woman who was trying to steal a prepaid phone. When she got caught by security she used the knife she was attempting to open the plastic packaging with to cut the security dude after cutting herself…. She then went on to scream at him that she has AIDS and now he’s going to have it for trying to stop her.
Image source: lilytargaryen, Grapeflavor_/reddit
#7
I was working at Walmart at the beginning of this year, aside from weird older men hitting on me, it wasn’t that bad. A few weeks before the minimum pay was raised, they decided I needed a new position in the store. I was told that I was great with people and needed to be out helping customers as opposed to checking. Sales associates get paid less than cashiers. They told me that since it was basically a promotion for me that they would let me keep the cashier pay instead of lowering me to sales pay. I agreed to the job for that reason(plus new job was full time). A week later they take me to sign the papers for the job switch and the manager gets to the pay part. He says, “I know we told you that you could keep the same pay, but it’s just easier to make it the same as everyone else’s. Besides, everyone’s pay is going up in a few weeks anyway.” So I just agreed, whatever still going to be making more. Then my hours start getting cut. I agreed to 40 hours. I was cut down to 25. My manager said he messed up the schedule on accident and would fix it. It continued happening every week. I finally got so frustrated I just left one day and never came back.
Image source: lexieracheal, Getty Images/unsplash
#8
There was black mold in the dairy cooler.
And I don’t mean just a little patch. I mean all the way along the yogurt wall. The manager who was asked to clean it claimed he did.
So naturally the higher up management went to check his work. He hadn’t even touched it.
They ended up having to stand in there watching him disinfect the cooler from top to bottom. This was a well known druggie and it was too gross for HIM.
A Co-worker witnessed one of the day shift meat department workers take a piece of meat that was almost green out of claims and put it back on the shelf.
On top of that, for a good three months you could smell the expired meat from outside the meat cooler.
Image source: AndrewK042, Tony Webster/flickr
#9
One day a woman stole a bottle of perfume, and took it to the bathroom. She poured it out into her own container, and then proceeded to fill the container with her own p**s. She then took the bottle up to returns and tried to return it. To this day I have no idea why my manager gave her the refund. It was very obvious that the woman pissed in the bottle because it was still warm.
TL;DR woman steals perfume, returns her own piss, and profits from Wal-Mart.
Image source: bunchofdingalings, ZadarskiDrake/reddit
#10
Happened before I got hired, but I heard enough about it from co-workers. An elderly couple would come in once a week to go shopping. The old man had troubles walking so he would kiss his wife and go sit in the fitting room area until she was done. One day they came in and did their little kiss and he also handed her his wedding ring, like he knew something was about to happen. A couple minutes of sitting there after his wife walked off, the guy collapsed to the floor and the fitting room ladies called 911. One of the department managers of the time was also a paramedic so he rushed over. The old guy started to cough up blood and every available associate had to come and make a wall of people so customers dont see what is going on. All of these associates saw and heard the guy choking on his own blood, now coming out of his nose and ears dying on the floor. They were trying to find his wife and no one could find her and the associates had to wait a half hour for the coroner to get down there and take the body. The associates who saw it still have flash backs about it.
Image source: azrael711, Jo Naylor/flickr
#11
I worked at Walmart about 13 years ago at one of the few stores left that closed overnight. It was a regular old WalMart, not at all super.
I worked overnight, stocking. I liked it, I only dealt with customers for a couple hours before the store closed and then just stocked the shelves (I mainly worked in the automotive department) and the nights would go by really fast.
I worked with a bunch of people who were related to each other. There was the dad, *Steve, his wife, his wife’s sister, and his stepdaughter who worked there during the day in the jewelry department. Steve stocked the sporting goods department, right next to mine. This guy was really gross. He would constantly pop over to my section and ask me if I needed help lifting stuff up onto the overstock shelves and he would make comments about how pretty I was and how if he was 10 years younger he’d date me (dude was pushing 50 and I was just a 19 year old girl). I just laughed off his comments, say I didn’t need help and that I was perfectly happy with my boyfriend thank you.
One night he decided to tell me how big his p***s was. He related a story (a total lie, I’m sure) to me about how one day he was getting out of the shower and his stepdaughter (who was 17) saw him accidentally and exclaimed about how nice his p***s was and how she wanted to “try it out”. I was dumbfounded and I did not know what to say. I just said “oh, well I gotta get back to work” and kinda shuffled away.
A week later he was caught having s*x with his wife’s sister in the bathroom at work. They were both fired, his wife quit and his stepdaughter continued to work there.
Image source: bravetoasterisbrave, Desiray Green/unsplash
#12
Former Cart Pusher. Had an old lady try to tip me $1 after I helped her bring her newly bought plants or some s**t to her car. Told her I couldn’t accept it per company policy (an it was only 1 dollar so I mean it wasn’t particularly enticing). She then proceeded to roll over in her little scooter mobile and stuff it down the front of my pants. She chuckled dirtily as she rolled away.
tldr; took cold hard cash down my pants like a s******r.
Image source: David_10nant, Titouan COLOMB/unsplash
#13
Not me, but this is my mom’s Walmart horror story:
She worked at Walmart when I was little, not even 4 yet. When I was little I had some kind of recurring virus that caused me to develop a 104 degree fever and a severe case of hives. So one day while she is at work at my dad calls the store and tells her that I am VERY sick again. So of course, she goes to the manager and said she needed to leave because her baby was ill. They told her, “you need to choose between Walmart and your family!!!!!” Haha her response was I GAVE BIRTH TO MY CHILD NOT TO WALMART GOODBYE!!! And walked out! ❤️ that lady!
Image source: Scrambo91, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash
#14
My friend was violently ill and because she was on her last warning. I think it was called D-Day, or something like that. She couldn’t make another mistake. She couldn’t call in, she couldn’t leave early. Nothing. If she did, she would be fired. The people that ran this Wal-Mart were a******s.
So one day she comes in and has some stomach flu. She’s so sick she can barely stand up straight. Managers, employee’s, hell even customers see her throw up in the trash can by her register.
It’s obvious that she’s really, really sick. Can she go home? No. She was told by management and upper-managemwnr that if she left she would be fired.
It was the most f****d up thing in the world. They claimed in the system there was no way they could change her schedule. Which was a lie. So they let her work her full shift, puking all the while, touching other people’s groceries, handling money, everything for some unknown cruel reason.
Horrible company, with horrible values. I worked there too. I hate that place. They take advantage of the poor and get sick pleasure from it. I worked at another Wal-Mart in Dallas and they were really nice. So I guess it just depends on the management staff. But I’ll never forget that absolute lack of decency. It was really demoralizing to watch your friend throw up in a trash can again and again and not be able to leave.
Image source: thegirlthatgardens, Oleg Ivanov/unsplash
#15
One day while I was working, the employees all started gossiping about “s**t going down at customer service” Some guy was pissed off about a return at the return desk. I don’t know all the details but the guy became hysterical due to the normal return policy and demanded to see a manager.
Unfortunately the only manager on duty was this pregnant lady. She came to the front, listened to the guy b***h, when she refused the give the guy back his money he shoved the large merchandise back in her direction and ran out the store screaming every curse word known to man. The merch ended up hitting her in the stomach. She was rushed to the hospital and ended up losing the baby.
Image source: 100000nopes, Pablo Merchán Montes/unsplash
#16
We had someone pee on one of our stock carts in the middle of the aisle. Someone put it in the back and wrote “don’t use, peed on by customer.” I had the picture of it on my phone for years.
Image source: Pete_the_rawdog, Ben Schumin/flickr
#17
I had a miscarriage during my shift. The CSM told me to man up and finish my work. The manager told me I could leave and offered to take me to the ER, but settled for following me home to make sure I got there okay.
Image source: automaton_woman, Fellipe Ditadi/unsplash
#18
Worked there 10 years. Women giving birth in the bathroom, left baby in toilet. Stabbing, naked vampire dude running through store. Guy coming in with shotgun, little 80 year old door greeting lady talked the gun out of his hands. Black Friday, one guy run jump off a stackbase tackle another guy, punch him, all for a girls scooter. Lady in wheel chair ram into the back of me, back up and repeat since I was pinned between her and people fighting for a care bears. Worked with a guy that was arrested for his 18th DUI, kept job. Dropped televisions from top of garden center almost k**led co worker. Watch assistant manager use a walker stacker (walking forklift) on floor in garden center to put merchandise up on top of shelves in garden center (15/20 ft high) said merchandise fell off pallet on to ladies head. Watch loss prevention agent (who did MMA on side) pick up shoplifter and slam him head first on concrete. Shoplifter was 16 years old suffered permanent brain damage, LP guy was let go and charged. I can go on, and on and on. But you get the point.
Image source: anon, TheOnlyCurmudgeon/reddit
#19
Been with Walmart 3 years and by far this story is one of my favorites…
Working late one night, I notice an older guy stumbled in wearing a long tan trench coat. He was taking HUGE steps like he was trying to do lunges or something.
Next thing I know… 3 manager come from all directions, grab the guy and walk to the back. I later found out that he was completely naked under the coat and was walking in big steps so that the coat would open up a little and expose his p***s.
But that wasn’t the best part! In his drunken state, he had decided that drinking and driving was a bad idea…so he rode his horse to Walmart and parked it in a handicapped parking spot.
The s**t you see at Walmart…
Image source: TheManiacalPenguin, ninnuh/reddit
#20
I had a Dept Manager steal my lunch bag and s**t in it as an act revenge because I was pregnant and she wasn’t.
She had a miscarriage when she was 5 months along and it happened two or three days after I announced that I was pregnant. After she came back from a two month leave she did what was mention above about a week after she returned.
Image source: blondebeaker, Edwin Macalopú/unsplash
#21
My mom worked at a WalMart fitting room. Guy came in with a couple shirts, and stayed in the room for a really long time.
He came out with no items.
So when the guy leaves, my mom goes back to retrieve the items the man left in there.
She grabbed a few shirts off the floor and shook them out, one by one to fold them.
Dude took a s**t in one of the shirts and wiped his a*s with it.
My mom shook the poop out, on to herself.
She quit that night.
Image source: fuckstainz, Puzzleheaded_Pay1152/reddit
#22
Not my story. My sister told me this one when she was working as a cashier.
So there was this extremely fat and gross looking woman wearing a mumu walking around Walmart later at night. She was blatantly taking items and putting them under her mumu and storing them in her fat rolls. (For safe keeping I assume). She was then approached the manager and then taken back to the break room. The manager asked her to take the items out from under her mumu and return them. When he says this the fat woman then pulls her mumu up over her head (She was completely naked underneath), yells, “I GOT THE HEPATITIS C!!!” lets all the items fall from her fat rolls to the floor, including a few bottles of wine (which shattered), and the proceeds to pee all over the items and floor. They had to quarantine the break room and have it bio-hazard cleaned.
Image source: FrozenMooose, David Clode/unsplash
#23
Working there as a cashier since October. Christmas Eve rolls around, and thank god I’m not scheduled to work. Cue phone call from the manager asking why I haven’t come in yet that day.. “I’m not on the schedule?” Manager – “Yes you are” Me – “I’m not coming in, I wasn’t on the schedule.” Next day I worked was the day after boxing day, went and looked at the schedule, and lo-and-behold, someone wrote that I was supposed to work… In pencil… I quit shortly after.
Image source: HighStu, yukka420/reddit
#24
I’ll start with my grossest: A woman comes in with some panties and said they didn’t fit and she wanted to return them for cash because she had already bought the correct size elsewhere. She had a receipt and plopped a Walmart bag down on the counter. Inside this bag were 6 crusty crotched, s**t stained panties that were a biohazard from six feet away. Needless to say I did not touch them. I paged the manager on duty and he tells me to just TAKE THEM BACK despite being very nasty. Processed the return and she happily left the store with her $8.
Image source: teknrd, KindlyMath152/reddit
#25
Not so much a horror story. I worked in grocery as a stocker. We had just finished a cereal display near the front of the store compiled of about 100 boxes. In comes an older lady, around 60s, driving one of the electric carts. She’s looking dead on at the display and promptly rams into the thing. Boxes go everywhere and she starts apologizing over and over and explains that she’s legally blind. A customer that was nearby and saw everything asked her how she drove here if she was blind.. She responded by quickly turning around and leaving the store.
Image source: Give_Me_A_Sign, Teenisman11/reddit
#26
I sprained my back moving product in the back. At first I thought it was a pulled muscle, and walked towards the pharmacy to try and buy a heating pads and some Tylenol.
I made it to jewelry, barely keeping conscious from the pain. I asked my coworker to call management and let them know I had hurt myself pretty badly and needed to go to the hospital. Management told her to have me go to the back office to fill out paperwork. I blacked out twice going back, and was yelled at for taking so long.
I ended up being out for a month and a half for the injury, and got a whopping $24 in workmans comp because the second I got hurt my hours were reduced to one hour a week. I hate walmart.
Image source: anon, candi32935/reddit
#27
So, second story time about the time that I k**led someone maybe.
I was still working the customer service counter and we had this guy roll in with a very large stereo system box on top of a shopping cart. This guy pushing the cart is very thin, sweating, and quite obviously on something. I know this is going to go badly.
There’s a policy at Walmart, or the one that I worked at anyway, that electronics must be cleared by someone from that department before we accept any returns. I page electronics to the front of the store and as we’re waiting, the guy with the return begins to sway and loses the little bit of color he had. With this, I have a gut feeling that this is about to go really badly so I page security too. Security and electronics arrive about the same time and as they begin to open the box, this guy goes down and begins convulsing on the floor.
Security calls 911 and I use another phone to page the manager. Well, the manager arrives and decides that it simply will not do to have a customer convulsing on the floor for everyone to see so he tells the security guy to help him move the guy to the back office. They couldn’t move him until he stopped seizing, and once he did, they sat his unconscious body in and office chair and wheeled him back. EMTs arrived a few minutes later and they were not amused that he was moved. They scooped and ran with the guy.
When we opened the boxes finally, they were full of rocks. There was nothing in the boxes to return.
Image source: teknrd, Getty Images/unsplash
#28
Opened up the semi trailer full of pet food to be greeted by 5 raccoons staring me down. I’m a full grown man but that was intimidating.
Image source: brian20999, LockPickingPilot/reddit
#29
Walmart week long anniversary sale. I bring out a crate of Charmin Ultra Soft that was on sale. A pack of shoppers jump at it. Mom sends her little 5 year old daughter to squeeze into the crowd. Other lady scratches her and takes her score.
Women’s washroom. Blood, poop, water and tissue everywhere. A line of pissed off ladies forms in under one minute after closing off washroom for cleaning.
Some guy throws up in aisle 3. Barricade both ends of the aisle to clean up. People still try to squeeze in even with the smell and the visibly disgusting floor.
Collecting carts in a parking lot where driving instructors like to take their students. This was before they had that electronic cart pushing thing. People will stand in the middle of the road as they see me coming in with the carts all the while dragging little Timmy with him/her. I can’t just swerve away from you and that oncoming car so get out of the way!
Some guy makes the perfect spiral poop in the urinal in the men’s washroom. Why? How? I left it for the night crew and feigned ignorance.
Image source: tocilog, Heisenberg514/reddit
#30
As a cashier we were required to know before we started the transaction if the customer was using W.I.C. so I am going about my business and I go to start ringing the next customer up and I see cheese, peanut butter, milk, eggs, and cereral (All of these are very common wic items) so I very nicely ask her if this is going to be a wic transaction. That was my mistake because she blew up on me. Calling me a stupid racist because I just assumed she had to have W.I.C. She told me that was why I was working at walmart because I was too dumb to actually go to college (I was in college at the time, with a school book under my register) It was really embarrassing and I really didn’t mean anything by it. I just didn’t want to have to call a CSM over to void the transaction if I did it incorrectly.
Image source: kdaniel42
#31
The Walmart my brother works at:
They had to close the bathrooms located at the back of the store permanently because folks kept getting high, painting the walls with their s**t, ditching security devices and stealing merchandise, throwing used tampons about, leaving dirty needless, OD’ing and finally dying in them.
Now the unfortunate souls are forced to do some of these things in the parking lot.
Image source: WIENER_POOP
#32
I worked overnight stock. A guy came in one night, loaded drunk. I was bent down, filling a shelf full of green beans and I turn to see him standing there with his d**k out. He asked me if I would suck it for fifty bucks. I got up quickly and called a manager. When she found him, he was in the underwear section rubbing himself on a pair of undies. He was arrested.
Image source: JumpingBean12
#33
Oh the stories…
I had small things happen daily. The typical 2 buggies of items in the express lane. When watching the self check, I saw 2 girls visibly and obviously stuffing bags with stuff they didn’t scan. I asked if they needed help and they asked if I was racist. Anyone that worked the opening of Black Friday could tell you about the fights. I personally saw someone get pushed through a pallet of PS3s once.
I’d say the most horrific thing I saw, however, was the day shift of Black Friday. I was cashiering at the register near the ‘candy wall’. I heard a scuffle and went to look. There was a mid-20’s couple with a baby that looked under a year old in the child seat with their buggy against the candy. An (at least) 400 pound hambeast dove on top of their baby trying to get that last bag of chocolate on sale. The man lifted her and threw her on the floor, and the woman actually got seriously pissed…
Image source: DirtyPossibilities
#34
Happened a few days ago. I had booked off two days for a surgery my girlfriend was having. Booked it off weeks in advance. I joked about it with her father how I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to call me in even though they knew why I was off. Not only did they call me, but when I reminded the manager what I was off for, they replied “Ahh.. Well what time is her surgery at?”
Image source: Xenoclysm
#35
Two stories for you.
1. I worked in Electronics and one day this sketchy kid came up to me asking for a game out of the game case. He just seemed off, like someone that snorted just a *bit* too much that day, but who am I to judge? I grab his game, he then says he’ll take it up front. Store policy is that they have to pay for it in the department, so I tell him and he continues to sketch all the way to the register with awkward small talk.
At the register, I ring it up, tell him the total, and he reaches into his wallet to hand me the most pathetic attempt at a forged bill I’ve ever seen. He scanned a 100, printed the front on one piece of paper, printed the back on another piece, and stapled them together.
*stapled*
The edges weren’t even cut properly as you could see white along the border. I just looked at the guy and said “seriously?”
He made up some story of someone slipping it into his wallet by accident and walked off. I stood there in disbelief, turned to my coworker who watched the whole thing and asked “wtf just happened?”
2. Same department. This guy comes in on a busy day and I start ringing him up for all kinds of stuff from around the store, including the newly released PS2 and GameCube. Yeah… I worked there a lifetime ago.
He writes a check, and I proceed to process it in our little machine. It comes back with a suspicious error, so I tell him the machine is acting weird and outside of earshot I call a manager over.
He starts getting visibly nervous as a few CSMs (cashier Mangers) come over and inspect the check. They ask him a few questions, take the check and disappear, stating they need to run it on a different register and that there’s nothing to worry about and they’ll be right back.
After a few minutes he is sweating bullets and eventually starts slowly making his way out of Electronics. His pace quickens until he’s full on running for the door. I watch him from the register, cuz f**k it, I’m not breaking a sweat for minimum wage, and BAM, our big a*s Samoan security guy tackles him to the ground, picks him up and escorts him up front. At this point i tell a coworker to take over the register and i head up front to see what else happens…i just had a feeling… I get there to see the guy meet up with the CSMs that took the check, a handful of managers and a few police. They present the check to him, ask where he got it, and before anyone could react he *lunges forward, grabs the check and eats it*.
Dude ate. the. check.
They wrestle with the guy a little and bring him into the back room. Customers and staff alike were staring in disbelief as to what just occurred.
I found out later that the guy was traveling from Walmart to Walmart across state borders passing bogus checks.
So yeah, normal stuff.
Image source: Explosive_Ewok
#36
My wife got assaulted for not selling liquor to a girl, worst part? Walmart wouldn’t let her have the day off to go to the mandatory court date to testify.
Image source: dogpoopandbees
#37
I don’t know if I had one particular horror story. Every day was its own horror story.
My biggest pet peeve was people coming through the express lane with 800,000 items in their f*****g cart. Overweight, middle-aged women were the primary culprits. I don’t know why. Some weird sense of entitlement, I guess. There was one lady who could tell I was annoyed. I didn’t say anything, but she kept trying to have a conversation with me and I kept giving her short, one word answers. At one point she was like “DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME OR SOMETHING?!?!” And I was like “Well, it does say 20 items or less… we have very little counter space here.” She said “You’re the most hateful person I’ve ever met.” Which must be an exaggeration, because I never said anything really rude to her, other than to answer the question she clearly asked. I’m surprised she didn’t call a manager.
Some dude pounded his fist on the counter as hard as he could and *screamed* COME ON MAN HURRY THE F**K UP!!!! I was trying to unroll a roll of dimes to give him his change. He was buying corn dogs from the deli place.
Had a guy throw his cigarettes at me because they were the wrong ones. I laid the box on the counter, he picked them up, and threw them at me, hitting me in the chest and said “I SAID GOLD, MORON.”
Those were just isolated a******s, though. Really it was just the monotony and soul sucking feeling of dealing with slack-jawed idiots all f*****g day long.
Image source: CDC_
#38
I worked there many many years.
Overall, it wasn’t terrible, and I have read a lot of horror stories on reddit about things that happen to people at their jobs and I just can’t conceive of most of it happening at Walmart. Besides that, I have never witnessed problems with working off the clock or was ever asked to work off the clock. I felt, generally paid appropriately for my job. That doesn’t mean I didn’t hate the s**t out of it sometimes, and it doesn’t mean nothing bad ever happened. I had scores of s****y managers, and worked in stores that were run badly.
Having said all that, the worst thing that ever happened was this:
I had recently inherited the toy department. This was about 10 years ago. It had gone without a manager for like 6 months, and the one they had before that was utterly incompetent and lazy. So the department was a mess.
But I am a toy department professional, literally. I can take any toy department and make it look like somewhere you want to shop. Clean it up, stock it right, I will work my a*s off and fix it and the backroom too. So, it was daunting, but I had a lot of confidence in myself, and i knew I’d be pretty much doing it alone because lol Walmart doesn’t give a f**k about toys. But I figured if everyone just left me alone, and let me work my department, it would be fine.
So here’s what happened:
Anyway, I decide the first thing I want to do is physically clean the place up. There was overstock everywhere and the bike rack and power wheels rack was just a dumping ground for any kind of c**p you can imagine. Power wheels are the big electric ride on toys.
Anyway, so it takes me DAYS but I finally get the power wheels rack cleaned up, and I can actually start moving the power wheels boxes themselves around back to where they are supposed to be. So, I grab one and it sounds all…rattly. I thought maybe some other toy had fallen in or a bag of screws inside the box had busted. But then as I move the box I see there is this wet streak where I am moving the box, and there is a hole in the corner. These things run from $75 to $300, and this is not what I want to see on an expensive item.
Oh no, I think. Mice.
Well, no sooner did I have that thought than 2 mice come bursting out of the hole and go sliding across the tile floor. I scream and jump back and recompose myself.
I push the box some more and it sounds like a f*****g rain stick. it’s all pssssssssssshhhhh. I’m like, what the f**k is going on in this box…
Then I think, well f**k it, I have to get it off the sales floor because we can’t sell it in this condition and I don’t want to break open this box on the sales floor because I don’t want customers seeing whatever is in here.
I get a cart and try to load the box. the bottom of the box basically gives way, and mouse poop just cascaded out. Bits of paper, liquid,. It was the most wretched s**t I had ever seen. Every time I moved the box it was just…s**t everywhere.
So I am about to hurl at this point and I get the stupid f*****g box onto my cart, go grab my PPE (personal protective equipment) and clean the S**T out of the shelf the floor the air, my hands everything. Usually I’m sort of “lol PPE” but I wish I could have gotten a f*****g biohazard suit for that.
Anyway, I take the stupid box to the back. This box is like 5 feet high, by 3 wide and 2 long, ok, so IMAGINE how much potential for s**t there is in this box. It’s everywhere.
So I get to the back, go to the area we take damaged goods and tell the woman there that I am throwing this thing out and explain to her what’s going on with it, please mark it down, but don’t touch it etc.
She throws a fit. Says she needs to talk to the manager. So we wait, and he comes and eventually decides that what we need to do is open the box and “wash” the merchandise. I say no way. This is for children and it’s completely filthy and I’m not touching it. it’s not safe or sanitary and no one should have to clean this thing.
He says fine leave it and we’ll get rid of it ASAP.
I think, thank F**K and I go back to work.
Next day that filthy f*****g box is back on the sales floor. I raged. Threw it back on the cart and took it back again. Mouse s**t was still falling out of it.
The woman says the manager said we couldn’t mark it down and we definitely couldn’t throw it away and we can just try to sell it as is.
Uh, no. We get into an actual screaming match. Like why can’t she see that a toy filled with rat s**t is NOT SAFE. She’s crying. I’m fuming. The store manager comes by and says that he told a maintenence guy to clean the box up and he’s sorry it looks like he didn’t do a very good job.
Mother f**k, I don’t care how good of a job he did. I want that thing GONE. Like, if it is in my department, I am leaving and I will never come back because this is sick, Walmart is disgusting, and I can’t even believe I’m having this argument right now. He said that was my choice but he’d have the item cleaned up “properly” by this afternoon.
So I sliced open the end of the box (they had retaped with actual mouse s**t in the tape!!!) and stuck my hand in and yanked the whole f*****g thing out.
Nearly fell over. Not only was it filled with s**t, it was a HUGE nest and there were corpses all over teh f*****g thing, and all over the floor and dead mouse babies stuck to the cardboard inside flap.
GAG.
The store manager looks totally disgusted, and gets on his walkie and calls the bike assembler.
The guy arrives and he says clean this up and sell it as a display. The bike builder looks like he’s about to faint.
I said, I’m done. Bye bye, and I left. I didn’t know what to do. I thought about calling corporate, OSHA, the news, the Health department…
What I actually did was went home and cried. The next day, I ended up going into work at whatever the f**k time I felt like it. I clock in and go to toys, and there’s that F*****G POWER WHEEL. I don’t know how long the poor assembler worked on that. But it did look a million percent better. But I didn’t care. I dragged that mother f****r straight to the compactor, but it wouldn’t fit, so I had to rip the wheels and mirrors off to cram it in. I was back there raging at the compacter for like 40 minutes. I took the battery out and took it to automotive to recycle and decided if they fire me, then f**k it.
Everyone in the store practically saw me the past three days fighting about this stupid toy with management. Everyone saw me literally throw a piece of “merchandise” in the garbage (instant termination btw).
No one ever said a word about it again, except the store manager who came by and said, “where did you end up putting that display?” I said, “in the garbage.” Boy, he fumed. He just turned and walked away.
I did turn that toy department around, got our pest control guys in (thanks to an assistant manager who made the call, since dept managers can’t do that) and rocked the s**t out of that department for several years. I won some awards for sales and improvement and no one questioned my s**t again and luckily I never had another problem remotely like that again. The store manager was demoted and moved to another store soon after.
Image source: ValkyrieNine
#39
Once I had a woman who was giving me a hard time about a coupon that was expired (coupon people are the worst). She refused to give up, she really wanted that dollar off. My line was really getting long and I was getting really frustrated. So I reached in my pocket and pulled out a Five and said “If I give you a five will you give up on this coupon?” She got pissed and said “I can’t believe you said that to me.” She told the CSM but I didn’t get in trouble for it.
Image source: Wright4000
#40
A friend of mine was working part time at Walmart – he’d been there for over a year, was working any and all positions/shifts they threw at him so he could try to provide for his wife and (unexpected) new baby.
He started to apply for any and all full time positions as they really needed the benefits. One day management took him aside and told him this was “not the Walmart way” and he needed to make a plan with steps on how to get to a particular position.
Apparently, “anything full time” is not okay, Walmart wants to help you achieve your (specific) goals.
Image source: donttouchmycoffee01
#41
I could write a novel about all the garbage i saw in my 5 years there while in college.
Main Rage-Inducing Moments:
1. People coming through the ’20 or less’ item lane with TWO F*****G BUGGIES FULL of garbage, and they look at me and ask, ” All the other lines are looong, so this is OK right?”
Me: -______________-
2. When you’re a cashier and you are CLEARLY closed with the light off, a closed sign on the conveyor, my dead-inside thousand yard stare , etc, people will ignore all of it and start stacking stuff on my line, then get outrageously angry when i direct them somewhere else. B***h, I have an exam in 8 hours, and I’ve already stayed 30 mins past time i was supposed to leave, GTFO.
3. My main job was selling guns and ammo. People had no grasp at all that willfully lying on the 4473 is actually breaking the law. I got really good at spotting BS a mile away.
3a. Had one guy walk up ( clearly mentally off) and try to buy a gun. After talking to him and probing a bit i was already going to deny the sale after i realized this man was a few fries short of a happy meal. After he gets denied he says to me , ” I was institutionalized for a few years back, but I’m better now. Why was I denied?”
3b. Had a woman walk up with a presumed grandson. Normal start. Instead of looking he goes directly to a shotgun, and points to it and says , we want this one. Ask who the legal guardian is, inform them of the sale and legality, blah blah blah. No big deal. Had an odd feeling, but i brushed it off.
This is where it gets interesting. As she starts to fill out the form, the kid gets on his phone and makes a call , and starts gesticulating towards the shotgun and starts mumbling. I walk closer and heard , ” *(Brand) is the one right?”* , ” *Are you sure”*. *INSTANT* red flag. I start paying real close attention and it starts to look like a straw purchase.
I start asking all the usual questions. ” Intended use?” “Whose it for”, “Hunting or self defense” etc. Answer are short and rehearsed. Another red flag pops up.
The final nail in the coffin was a guy comes up, walks to the grandparent, asks how it is going, then the kid points to the gun and asks , ” *Is this the one you wanted?*”.
**DING DING DING, we have a ~~winner~~ straw purchase.**
At this point i shut it down and tell the grandparent, ” Ma’am, I believe you aren’t buying this weapon for yourself or your ‘grandkid’, so i cannot continue with the sale. Is there anything I can help you with?
She promptly loses her mind. Shes screaming at me calling me racist ( We’re all white BTW), stupid kid, and generally berating me for all her life’s woes. She screams for a manager, and i get one, and let him know what’s going on.
Of course, by the time management gets here, she puts on the exasperated grandmother face and asks him ” Why won’t this idiot won’t sell me a gun. It’s my second amendment right!!!”
Manager:” Where’d the guy you were with go?” (Dude walks up at this point behind what looks to be his son) ” Ma’am is the gun for you or him?”
Grandmother: ” Uh-uh–oh yes, its for hunt deer with this (holds up birdshot)
Me: “You’re going hunt deer.. with birdshot…..?”
Manager: “Ma’am, I’m backing up whatever my gun guy says, he know more about this than i do. We can’t sell you the gun, have a good day”. (leaves)
Grandmother: “F**K YOU AND F**K THIS STORE, I’M NEVER COMING BACK!!!” ( Leave)
Me: “Thank you sweet Jesus”
4. Someone argued with me insisting .223 REM was the exact same as 5.56. Moron I do this for a living and I’ve hunted for 20 years, I know what I’m talking about. Too bad I couldn’t pimp slap customers when they needed it.
**TL;DR, People are stupid, people lie, and you should never lie about guns to the redneck selling them.**
Image source: 4thRok
#42
I wasted three years of my life at Walmart, primarily in the clothing and jewelry sections. In the latter, people would use our layaway program like a bank. They’d come in, pick out a ring, put fifty dollars down on it, come back a few days later and cancel the layaway to get their money back. It was amazing how many people would straight up tell me “I didn’t trust myself not to spend it and my phone bill is due tomorrow.” This happened ridiculously often. A general horror story is one black Friday we had people taking ladders out of the hardware department and use them to climb up to the top shelves where our general layaway was stored (we had run out room in the backroom). They started ripping open the packages and looting the stuff people had put money down on and just walked off into the store with it. The working conditions/corporate greed in general were pretty bad, but nothing you haven’t heard a million times before. Lastly, a second hand story: Apparently a woman had a miscarriage in the restroom shortly before I started, and the managers had the mentally challenged cart boy got clean it up so they didn’t have to hire an outside team to do it. I can’t confirm whether or not that’s true, but several people insist it was while I was there.
EDIT: Almost forgot, the amount of used tampons and pads we’d find in the ladies changing rooms was out of f*****g control.
Image source: angieohno
#43
I worked for wal mart for 3 months, figured I could start a new career in retail and earn my way up to management through walmart to get my experience.
1. One guy had a debit card with a chip and he didn’t know the pin. I said it needs to have the pin to work and he kept saying just swipe it instead. Swipe didn’t work. So he said your machine is the problem, not my card. Type in the numbers, it’ll work. I said “Sir, this is a debit card, punching the numbers in won’t work.” “Yes it will JUST DO IT!”. Fine so I go ahead and of course it doesn’t go through.
And he says to me “So what do you plan to do about it then?” As if I should f*****g do anything, he’s blaming me and the machine for him not knowing the pin. I took his product from the counter and put it behind me, told him to have a good day sir.
2. Once I was called up to the front to assist with checkouts as it was very busy. I hadn’t been on front tills before but it was of course very straightforward, simple job. I was doing fine and then the latest to my till paid for her stuff and left. The next person in line was just standing there staring at me.
There were no groceries on the belt and I said how may I help you? She just stood there and stared at me. Not a word. Then she started glaring as her eyes got wider. And I’m just like what the f**k is going on….
I hadn’t turned on the belt and she placed it all at the end and was just waiting for me to figure it out on my own. When I realized what was happening, I smiled and said “oh sorry! I forgot to turn the belt back on.” Still no words from her throughout the entire transaction. What a c**t.
3. When I was 3 months in, they did what they called an appraisal. I was a pretty good employee, and as far as I could tell worked harder than anyone else in my area. I was a quick learner too, already training others and helping customers with anything. I received a 3 in every category. I learned it was out of 5, so its as though they didn’t even try to evaluate me, they just said I was average. I’m better than f*****g average, I’m awesome and everyone likes me and I work f*****g hard all day. I told them to make most of them 5’s and throw a 4 here and there, they disagreed. So I quit on the spot. Went back to my old career making more than twice as much the next day.
Sc**w walmart dude. Sc**w em.
Image source: invalid_usr
#44
Someone left a baby in a stroller just chilling in one of the aisles one night. I was a cashier at the time so I don’t know all of the details. From what I know, authorities got involved and the guy came back after what we think was at least an hour or two, appearing oblivious to what he did wrong. Don’t think he spoke much English so it was just a confusing situation all around.
Thank God for the guy stocking who was looking out. We’re lucky it didn’t get any worse knowing how crazy people who come through can be. Let alone at night.
What’s weird was this wasn’t even brought up again with my coworkers so I don’t recall what ended up happening to the guy. It was just another stupid thing we witnessed.
Image source: JimmyBrakes
#45
I’ve posted a couple stories in /r/talesfromretail, but here’s a brief overview:
* Convinced a s**t bird dog a****r to shock himself with a supposedly defective shock collar (complete with dog fur and skin where it rubbed the pooch’s neck raw).
* Was told I’d probably give a good b**w job by a gay couple while I was sitting on the floor sorting overstock video games in the cases.
* Got to witness and almost be involved in a 7:30 AM shoe brawl.
* Received a creepy surprise back rub from a customer after showing him where phone chargers were. He walked up behind me, started rubbing, and whispered in my ear, “*You made my day…*”
And so much other s**t… Fun four years.
Image source: Jbanar
#46
The reason I quit Walmart.
I had started out at the bottom and worked my way up over two long years. I had gotten myself promoted to a department manager (pharmacy) but I was still very close with the cashiers and customer service associates where I had started. As a fairly young and relatively new manager, I wasn’t jaded and unkind yes. When people and other associates walked by me I said hello. Asked them how they were doing. Evidentally, I was one of the few. We had a new maintenence associate in the front who had Down Syndrome so he really appreciated someone being consistently friendly to him. And to be honest, he was a sweet kid and a hard worker. When he was confused or upset he would usually come to me and ask for clarification or for me to say something to whoever upset him.
One day I was about to finish my shift and another associate comes running up to me and says that I’m needed in the back. Evidentally the maintenence guy was crying and wouldn’t calm down. I run back there because I know how fragile he is. I reach the back to find 4 salaried members of management surrounding him and yelling at him to get back to work. Actually legitimately cussing at this kid and yelling. And this kid is a snotty slobbering sobbing wreck. I basically told off all the other managers (who were my bosses) and told them to go the f**k away. I calm him down, figure out what happened (there was a miscommunication about breaks) and then remind him of the policy and urge him to just do better next time. He hugs me and goes about his day. But I am pissed. This is not how you treat anyone! Especially someone with mental disabilities. I get the number for his case worker but before he calls me back the next day, upper management fires the poor kid because he violated the break policy. It broke my f*****g heart that they broke him down and then just threw him away. I put in my notice 2 days later. F**k Walmart.
Image source: britter94
#47
I remember the day I quit Walmart was when I realized the position I was in was not worth the money they would pay me. I was a Connections Center Manager/Photo Lab also ran toys since there was no manager. I was ok this is my first job out of high school not so bad I’m already a manager. S**t hit the fan after a year they fired the Electronics manager and still no toys manager so I had to pick up the extra work. All I look forward too was that quarterly bonus we would receive if sales where high so I worked my a*s off to make sure we would get that. Keep in mind this is for the whole store. All dept. sales where amazing we were in the positives. The quarter ends and we get the bad news that the store didn’t meet its sales criteria and no one was getting the bonus. Well s**t the rest of the store must of sucked so not so bad, can’t be my fault I worked so hard maybe people just aren’t buying like they used to. Well the last straw was when I got called into the office to congratulate me on amazing sales in the connections center dept which is where we sold cell phone contracts. Went down like this.
Store Manager
“Hey Griim004 great work in connections center you made the store a total of $26,000 in commission for the month and kept down fraud sales.”
Me
“No way that’s great does that mean that I get some type of bonus?”
Store Manager
“Um no the store didn’t hit sales criteria”
Me
“I know but I over exceeded sales that should count for something?”
Store Manager
“Look Walmarts a Team and if the team fails you fail, so if Walmart gave you a bonus how would that look?”
I looked at home dumbfounded I didn’t care that I didn’t get money I was just so pissed that they look at everything as a whole. I went in and resigned the next day didn’t give them two weeks notice just said I’m done. Three days later I get hired by a cellular company where I make 4x as much annually than I would at Walmart.
The kicker was that two weeks later at my new Job the co-manager calls me saying if I’m going to be back from vacation soon. I was like I quit 2 weeks ago actually and she lost it she was all you need to come in to get your last check. I go in he next day to get my check and the store manager is talking to the co manager about moving such and such pallet and sees me and says get griim004 to help. I say I’m here for my last check I quit 2 weeks ago.
Store manager
” you were serious?”
I thought to myself I didn’t show up to work for 2 weeks I think you should have fired me!
All I did was smile and say
“I’m dead serious”
TL;DR: exceeded sales quota at Walmart Phone center,quit and was thought to be on vacation.
Image source: Griim004
#48
Every day is something different, I will keep it to the customers because there sure are horror stories with employees and management as well. But, one day an older women was s******g herself down her leg around the pharmacy area. Walked through 3 aisles and her (what looked like) granddaughter was wiping the watery s**t off of her legs and left watery s**t around the floor. Smelled for hours and I felt bad for the woman because she seemed a little surprised by it.
Another customer came in in a hurry, because she had a taxi outside waiting for her and demanded assistance picking out tampons after I directed her to another item she was looking for. Well she never told me what she was looking for (absorbency, brand, etc) despite me asking and got very upset and loud yelling that I should be fired and she wanted to talk to my manager because I was refusing to help her and around that point I realized she was drunk as a skunk and there was nothing more I could do. I heard her several minutes later yelling at another employee a few aisles down.
A customer accused me of swearing at her to my boss. I told her the policy of pricing for something in the wrong place and then went back to work. I double check the policy with a coworker and get accused of talking about her behind her back. Thing is, she had her little girl in her cart. I take very good care not to swear in front of customers and even more in front of little kids. I had no reason to swear at her! Lol She shopped around for another hour or so and gave me dirty looks thinking I should be fired. People like that just make me sad because how bad is your day/life that you feel the need to try and get minimum wage employees fired because they gave you an answer you don’t like.
I’m pretty sensitive so these encounters took their toll on me those workdays. I had to go to the bathroom to clear my head after . People of walmart indeed.
Image source: ashlex11
#49
I’ve experienced worse situations at other jobs that I’ve worked, but here’s some from working as a cashier at Walmart.
– Going into the ladies room for a quick break, I opened the stall door and someone sh*t all over the toilet, walls, and floor. It was so disgusting, and I felt so horrible for the cleaning person having to clean up after such dirty customers.
One day, a woman tried to hand me her credit card, and as per the usual, I informed her that there’s a swiping machine that customers use themselves. She proceeded to curse, and say, “You people don’t treat customers with any respect anymore,” and mumble insults under her breath. All because god forbid she should have to swipe her card herself, as if she’d never encountered such modern devices before. Oh the horror!
Stupidly, I responded, “If you don’t like it here, then why do you continue to shop here?” The look on her face would make a baby cringe. She then proclaimed that she going to tell my manager of my poor attitude, to which I said, “Good. Go for it.” After paying, she did just that, and I started crying while helping the next customer, who felt sorry for me and gave me a few words of comfort. Afterward, my manager pulled me aside, asked me if what the lady said was true, and I admitted that it was indeed the truth. He laughed, because we’ve all dealt with a******s like that, but of course had to tell me that I shouldn’t talk like that to customers.
Fair enough. I should’ve known better than to talk back to her, but d**n. Sometimes it just slips out.
– At another job, a restaurant I was a manager at, the sink in the women’s restroom was filled with vomit. Like an entire sink full of it. So gross. There are toilets in there…
I should add, I only ever had problems with management once. All of my problems were due to customers being typical jerks. Overall, I actually didn’t mind working there, and feel like people target Walmart a bit too much in terms of poor management and bad pay compared to the s**t that goes on in other businesses, namely the food industry.
Image source: HarleySpencer
#50
Not as an employee, but I went to walmart at five in the morning to get some groceries with my friend. There was a middle aged employee puking her guts out into a plastic bag while a younger female employee held her hair back. There was a giant puddle of vomit below her so she either missed the bag a few times or tore through the last one. She was also sitting on the bag turner thing when this happened and we still continued shopping.
Image source: SheZowRaisedByWolves
#51
I used to be an assistant manager with Walmart, and they had no desire to let me be a decent and compassionate manager.
The reason I wanted to get into management was simple. There was this kid, maybe 7, who’s parents used to drop him off and leave for an hour or two. He’d grab a cart and mess up toys, and pretty much just be an annoyance.
One night we saw him walking around with a split lip, bleeding and sobbing. We knew there was no parents to page for, so we took him to electronics, put on Finding Nemo, and a couple of the girls cleaned him up, while a friend and I went to find a manager. When we did and explained the situation, one of those d**k managers said “I didn’t hear a code white (accident) or a code Adam (missing child). Not my problem”.
I thought I would be a way better manager than this d*******g, so I applied and got in. I learned a lot from that company.
While in training, they said when you’re doing your rounds, to “engage your associates, give them the impression that you care about their personal lives”. Think about that for a minute. “Give them the impression”. These exact words were used!
Another term they used more times than I stomach to remember was “Coach or be coached”. They actually told me that in order to keep myself out of trouble, to find an associate under me to take the heat. So, if I give misdirection to my department manager, I should write them up to avoid getting written up myself. In turn, that department manager could find one of their associates (if they delegated the task) to pass the buck to. It’s the true definition of “s**t rolling downhill”. It’s truly a disgusting position to be in, to jeopardize someone’s job/pay to save your own skin.
Shortly after my being promoted, the Store Manager was fired. He and the head of Loss Prevention were beginning to have feelings for each other, so she (loss prevention lead) transferred so they could continue their relationship. He was let go because they felt him being involved with her was an integrity issue, even though they did the right thing by holding off.
After that, it was a witch hunt for all Management, many quit due to the investigations. My one Co manager was on the verge of being fired, but she cried to me in the office because I didn’t get the training I deserved and it was unfair to me being out into that position. She was concerned for me when she was facing the guillotine. She was the best part of that job.
Another friend of mine became a manager in that store a year or two later, and stepped down sooner than I did. She said it was the most corrupt and deceitful place she’s ever worked.
I’ve worked in 4 different stores, and they were all pretty cutthroat when it came to managers. There were “clicks”, but if you aren’t in them, they’d turn on you in a heartbeat.
I stepped down from that job, because I couldn’t be the person they wanted me to be, and it was affecting my health. I wasn’t eating or sleeping well, working 14-18 hour shifts, 6 days a week while doing computer work at my local Walmart on the 7th because I couldn’t get it done at my new store without interruptions, driving 51 miles to get to my store, another 51 to get home. Many times, I would snap to, not even realizing I fell asleep at the wheel, several miles from when I last remember. That is a terrifying feeling.
I used to drive to work, thinking “if I hit that tree, I won’t have to go to work today”. Not thinking about getting hurt or having to replace my car, just thinking of getting away from work for a day. My doctor actually forced me to take a 3 month leave of absence due to anxiety and depression. If I didn’t take it voluntarily, he and my wife were going to have me committed. I never felt so low in my life, before or since.
I guess not all the stores are as bad as the one I was in, but most of the managers I’ve talked to have anxiety disorders and depression, except those total a*****e ones that have no issue being a d**k. I no longer work for that company, but I still keep in touch with managers/associates I worked with. Sometimes they still need someone to talk to that actually understand.
Image source: Tegamal
#52
I worked in the photo lab for a summer. On my first day, a Saturday, I was told to report to layaway for the morning meeting. As I get there, a crowd is gathering, and I stand toward the back. An old lady shuffled up, hunched over her cart, and says rather loudly “Where’s the bathroom?”
I point to the ladies room in layaway and the crowd parted as she shuffled by. After she passed by me, I involuntarily smelled hell. This viscous cacophony of nasal r**e forced its way into my middle face holes. Dead possum, hot dumpster, rotting fish blackened with burnt hair and tainted with undertones of raw sewage.
I held back gags as I realized what was about to occur. Dozens of innocent Wal-Mart denizens were about to be crop dusted with Satan’s breath.
As she passed through the crowd, you could just watch the countenance of the group melt. As soon as the bathroom door shut, the crowd erupted into merciless gagging fits. One lady puked.
Welcome to Wal-Mart.
Image source: jmanpc
#53
No real HORROR stories, per se… but I can dump up some scary s**t.
I worked back in frozen/dairy. Our team was so lazy and stock rotation so neglected that we once found a block of cheddar cheese that had expired over a year before. It was vacuum sealed, so no mold or obvious signs of decay, but definitely not something you’d want to eat.
I had a female coworker – pregnant with her third kid, who FAILED the employment quiz. F A I L E D it. She had her husband take it for her and ofc she got hired. Stupider than a bag of hammers – she thought that the CIA was reading everyone’s minds and that Obama was gonna round us all up and make us live in FEMA coffins. Did I mention she’s having kids? And offered (while very pregnant) to f**k/blow me in the walk in cooler?
A funny one, to cleanse the palate – for some reason the local latin kings kept tagging the men’s room. I’m sorry, but if your gang is so desperate as to want to claim a walmart bathroom, then maybe you’re in the wrong gang.
Speaking of bathrooms – once found the toilets in one bathroom covered in s**t – as well as the wall, floor, mirrors, sinks; clearly someone was inspired by the works of jackson pollock and decided to create their magnum opus in excrement.
I had an elderly lady on an electric cart back in my department – the battery died while she was going around a corner (they often did on weekends because so many people were using them) so she simply got up and walked away.
A week before christmas some kid knocked a fire extinguisher off the wall and (according to him) it landed on the handle and foam sprayed everywhere. Per protocol the fire department came and made everyone evacuate the store – you never saw so many people argue with FIREFIGHTERS telling them to evacuate. And ofc they all went to the front registers first because they might burn to death, but by golly they’ll give the waltons their money first.
Last one, sorry about this. One of the girls from another department apparently fell in love with me… and I didn’t even know their name. She had a face like ten miles of bad road, an a*s so large that it wouldn’t fit in the trunk of a VW beetle, and a moustache that rivalled Tom Selleck’s in length and density. And she fantasized about us f*****g in the handicapped bathroom.
I’m gonna go throw up now. Thanks for making me remember all that, reddit.
Image source: Isturma
#54
Worked overnight there for 2 years. All my horror stories involve one Black Friday.
Black Friday 2008: I am a fairly large chap (6’4″, about 250 pounds) so I was assigned to “guard” this stack of new flatscreen TVs. My store was supposed to be sent 12. We only received 4, and 1 was damaged and unsellable. By the time 5 a.m. rolls around, there are no fewer than 30 people locked onto these TVs, like vultures circling a dying animal in the desert. They drop the ropes, the madness begins, and I get bumrushed. The guy who ends up getting the last one is someone who makes me look like Peter Dinklage, and he actually lays down on top of the box to claim it. I start saying “That’s all folks! Move on!” and most people get the hint and start finding new c**p to buy. Then from behind me, this little old lady, standing at a daunting 5’2″ and weighing in at about 100 pounds shoves her way through the crowd throwing ‘bows like Rhonda Rousey. She bends down and begins to attempt to channel her inner Wonder Woman and tries to move the TV out from under the Andre the Giant doppelganger. I laugh to myself and tell her that he has it claimed and she should please move on. Not to be deterred, she then reaches her arm across the TV box the adjust her position and try harder. Fezzik uses his hand to get her arm out of his face. She screams, yells “Oh my God! He just bit me!” and proceeds to attempt to file charges with the local constabulatory. They laughed at her, because apparently she had a history of pulling crazy stunts like this.
Same night, but this event occurred in the electronics department by the video games. A buddy of mine was in charge of running that CF. He was not such a large chap (think Steve Rogers pre-serum), but he was a veteran of past Black Fridays, so he knew what he was doing. The glass containing the new games was left open, and at around 4:55, one customer who was about my size shoved my co-worker out of the way in an attempt to get a better spot, saying something like “Get out of my way, b***h!” or something equally derogatory that decent people typically refrain from saying to customer service workers. What he didn’t know was that my diminutive co-worker was also a combatives instructor for the National Guard. He politely helped the customer to the ground, got back up, closed the game case, locked it, and went to find the manager, who politely asked the customer to get the hell out of the store.
Again, same Black Friday (it was an eventful night/morning), different part of the store. For this story, we move to the front of the store. Another co-worker buddy of mine is assigned to hold the rope up at the front and let them drop at 5 a.m. This particular co-worker looks like what can only be described as a Mexican Super Mario. One of the managers made an announcement over the intercom that basically served as a 2-minute warning at 4:58. Of course, there was somebody that just had to set their watch 2 minutes ahead, and that person says “But it’s 5 o’clock…” A hush fell over the crowd, like the deep breath before the plunge. My friend manages to hold off the onslaught of humanity until it actually was 5, then lets the rope drop. Some genius had decided to bring their 5 year old girl to this event (brilliant idea), and then proceeds to abandon said helpless child in a greed-driven rush to fulfill all their wildest dreams of cheap DVDs and clothing made by only the finest sweatshops Asia has to offer. This poor girl winds up tripping and would have been trampled under the herd of cattle (I mean, completely orderly gathering of paying customers) if my co-worker had not gone down with her and shielded her with his body, sustaining a shopping cart to the ribs and several inadvertent kicks from customers. Thankfully, everyone was ok.
These are my Tales From Purgatory… And people ask me, “But jcalvert8725, it’s Christmastime! Why can’t you be holly-jolly like everyone else????” To which I reply simply “Bah! Humbug…”.
Image source: jcalvert8725
#55
I worked as an overnight stocker when the store was closed. I did my best work every night. Eventually they moved me from the little baby aisles and give me giant aisles, like paper goods, chemicals, juice and water aisles. Eventually they expected me to do entire sections of the store… In 8 hours… They “estimate” how much time it’s supposed to take in a computer program, you know the price scanners? Scan a employee badge there and it brings up a job interface. I would have like 1 hour to do 2+ pallets, but during training they said it should take 40 minutes per pallet. The problem was they would bring back yesterdays overstock but not make a job for it, so your job is to do the stock that you got in during truck and the overstock. THEN you would get in trouble when you couldn’t make the ridiculous time quotas. So when they tell me to do automotive, hardware, sporting goods and toys in 8 hours and I have both the new stock and old stock 9 times out of 10 I wouldn’t finish. Then when I was good enough to actually finish most or all of that work, they would send me to help other people get work done. At one point they had me doing the pets aisle. It wouldn’t have been bad if not for the cat cans and super small bags of dog treats. That aisle never ever got done, they would bring out 4 decently sized pallets to start, then you’d get 2 done and they bring 2 more out. Then you get 2 more done and they bring even more out again. That aisle only ever got finished by 2 employees. It wasn’t THAT bad until one day I had to do frozen and dairy. You can only have the pallets out for 30 minutes at a time and they are HUGE pallets. You have to work extremely fast to get it all done. So within 30 minutes you need to take the pallet out of the freezer, bring it to the floor, pack the entire thing out, then put it back in the freezer. In 30 minutes. I quit shortly after this seeing as I was getting paid $10 an hour to do half the stores work because over half of the employees were too d**n lazy to do anything, what would take me 30 minutes would take another employee an hour and a half sometimes. Also, they would constantly change your schedule without saying anything and if you didn’t show up you got in trouble. Somebody actually got fired for not showing up a couple of times because of what they did. The secret to not getting in trouble was to take a picture of the schedule since they all had “week x” on the top so you had proof that you weren’t supposed to work and it got altered. They also don’t tell you if you got fired so you come into work expecting to work and can’t clock in anymore.
Image source: anon
#56
Ask any Walmart employee who worked the holidays just what exactly Black Friday means to them and watch for the telltale horror to pass behind their eyes. The one I got to experience was extremely upsetting. Sales floor packed wall to wall as the shoppers vied for the best prospective spots when the sales officially went live. We were dispersed around the store to keep an eye on the countless pallets wrapped up tight in plastic wrap to keep them untouched until the right time. Yeah, like that would ever work.
With about an hour to go people started taking every opportunity to pick the wrapping apart and sneak clothing, DVDs, whatever they could find, into their carts to get an edge up on everyone else. It was pure and utter chaos.
With a half hour to go the managers finally just said f**k it and, like some sort of eldritch shopping horror, a wave of tearing plastic rippled from one end of the store to the other signaling the beginning of the end and that’s when things went from bubbling just beneath the surface to unbridled *insanity*. People clawing over each other desperate to grab that last Xbox controller or Pixar movie. Children being tossed aside in a scramble for just one more good deal. It was on that night I experienced true shame at our consumerist culture and vowed to never let myself be dragged out on Black Friday again.
Image source: Fawlty_Towers
#57
I worked at the Wal-Mart Deli for a few months in about 2005. You got all kinds of cliche and crazy clientele, but the most notable was the mother who came to the counter with her two daughters. The youngest must have been 8 years old, and when they turned to leave, it turned out this little girl was wearing a two piece outfit that read “jailbait” on the back of the sweater and pants. I was absolutely flabbergasted.
Image source: longus318
#58
People steal a lot from walmart. **ALLEGEDLY** prices vary depending on how much a given store loses from theft. So a store with high theft problems might charge 2% more for the same thing from an area with low theft issues.
Also, when you catch someone trying to steal the proper way to handle it is, “Oh, did you mean to purchase this item today?” Regardless of how they respond, they will probably be walking out with that item, we aren’t supposed to stop them either.
One guy (rightly) assumed that I thought he was stealing from the store. (He was.) And swung at me before rushing for the door with his cart. I don’t know what ever happened to that dude, but I don’t think the police ever got involved.
Image source: anon
#59
I’m not former, I’m active, 8 years actually. Hope that’s okay.
I had this old creepy guy who came up to me once and asked me if I was married. I politely responded “yes” and he said “oh, I’m sure your wife is beautiful, tell her she’s beautiful, because I love all the pretty girls”. Okay, whatever. Then, in the next aisle I see him talking to a good-looking mom and her young child, and next thing you know he’s handing the kid a dollar, and telling the mom she’s good looking. He did this about 5 times in my area of the store, and continued to stop and tell me each time that he loves to come in and look at the beautiful women. I was almost tempted to call management or AP if he kept doing it, but he went off into some other area of the store, and wasn’t anywhere to be found. I haven’t seen him since. (knock on wood).
Image source: ilikehockeyandguitar
#60
I worked for Wal-Mart for about 3 years out of high school. There were definitely a few times that I had a WTF moment. The worst was always Black Friday. We had a softlines associate once that ended up with a broken arm over some stupid thing that I’m sure the customer didn’t still have 6 weeks later. Ridiculous.
I did meet some awesome people, some of which I’m still associated with to this day (nearly 20 years later). I’ve worked on inventories, remodels, and new store openings. It was fun at the time.
Image source: BoldLookOfColer
#61
I worked at Walmart for a very short period as a sales associate in foods. One day I had an obese woman (this is relevant, I promise) ask me where low fat kettle chips were. I took her to the aisle where chips were. She begins talking to me and telling me that I am overweight and so young and better get it in check before I get old and it is just hopeless for me and how much of a medical concern it is. I nod my head politely and 15 minutes later get away to clock out for the end of my shift. As soon as I get to my car I start crying my eyes out… I was 9 months pregnant and due any day…
Image source: MrsBry
#62
Oh. Boy…
My dad has worked for walmart nearing “20” years. They let him go once because the greedy bastards didn’t want to pay him. He was making almost $18/hr working overnight maintenance lead. I have 2 little sisters that at the time were both in elementary school. So working over night he would be home in the morning to get them ready for school. While my mom was getting ready for work and leaving. They told my dad that home office said they were changing the maint crews’ schedule from 10pm-7am to midnight-9am. They knew he had to be home in the morning so they made that up to push him out. Basically told him if you can’t work those hours we have to let you go. He went back a year later and took an almost $5 paycut… idk why.
I’ve been fired from that same store 3 different times. All for “insubordination”. Pardon me for giving suggestions on how to increase productivity or suggesting which aisles for slower people to stock so we can get done faster.. Or for trying to figure out how were getting 25 full size 10′ pallets of dry groceries stocked with only 3 people and 9 full aisles during peak Christmas time.
One of the asst managers overnight got caught f*****g employees in the managers office.
Couple of people caught cut stealing high priced TVS and computers. One person worked electronics at night so they had magnet keys. Another had a way to trip the alarm on a side emergency door. They then had someone waiting outside with a truck and rolled out cart fulls of electronics.
Let’s see. One of my ex girlfriends was fired from another store for drinking on her breaks.
And worst yet. The day I watched then CEO Lee Scott walk into our store with police and escort our GM and 2 HR people out after being caught embezzling…
Image source: KRelic
#63
My mom works for Wal-Mart for going on like 12 years now and a few weeks ago she called and told me about watching an older (perhaps late 40’s) female customer dig at her a*s under her pants in the produce/bakery section. Gross right?
Well it doesn’t end there. Evidently she then smelled and LICKED her f*****g fingers.
Middle of the day, busy store, and this “person” dug in her butt under her clothes, and then sniffed and tasted it.
There is no way I could’ve witnessed such an act and not called that s**t out at full volume.
My mom is a much better person than I.
Image source: chickenrapist
#64
Not my story but my mother’s.
There was this guy who was known for stealing stuff, small things. One day here decided to steal a TV. Now, the weird thing about stealing is it doesn’t technically happen until you walk out the door.
So this guy grabbed the TV and left. Some other guy that worked there bolted after him. In the parking lot, the thief fell and dropped the TV, then when the employee caught up to him, the thief stabbed him.
The thief won the court case.
Image source: ParmesanPlatoon
#65
Mine isn’t as bad as some of those here, but it was its own special kind of awful. I worked on third shift for a summer between college years. The Walmart I was in had about 1 hour’s worth of music playing over the speakers all night, playing on a nonstop loop.
My sleep habits were already pretty f****d from trying to adjust to third shift, but the music is what really did it. I heard that same music loop over and over again, all shift, five days a week. When I left the store, I would still hear it running in my head. Then I started hearing it in my dreams.
Then, it got so ingrained, that I started just dreaming I was working my shift at Walmart. Several days a week, I would have the experience of working an entire 8 hour shift, then just around quitting time, my alarm clock would go off, and I would wake up and go work an 8 hour shift.
I quit a few weeks early at the end of the summer because I was losing my g*****n mind.
Image source: MrApophenia
#66
I do not work at walmart but I had to go there on christmas eve and it was a horror show, not just because of the people, but because it was about 120 degrees in the store. EVerybody was sweating and cursing, people fainting, and the employees were drenched in sweat. When I was at the checkout the cashier said “Welcome to walmart, or as i like to call it, the surface of the f*****g sun”. I laughed so hard I cried. I miss that dude.
Image source: cheesedanish93
#67
Former overnighter here.
We had an M/P truck came rolling it at five in the morning, 4-1 receiving had obviously gone home, so the overnight crew had to do it. The supervisor got on the intercom and barked that last break *will not be called* until the truck is unloaded. So we hang our heads and drag pallet jacks to receiving.
All goes well until the last pallet. The associate using the jack somehow lost control of it and it went flying down the ramp. It got caught at the very end and the wrap immediately ripped open. It was the unholiest mess I have ever seen. Tomatoes, broccoli, really any kind of vegetable you can imagine strewn all over receiving.
Only a few associates volunteered to stay behind and clean it, myself being one. The rest trotted off to the break room for their last break. It took a good half hour to clean up and I was already behind schedule in my department.
I took my break anyway, because f**k not having a break. I didn’t have time to finish zoning my department so I got yelled at for that the next night.
Image source: anon
#68
I worked there for two weeks. I explicitly told em I can’t work these days because I’m in college. So I get my first schedule after the training. And I’m supposed to work the two days I have class. I tracked my manager down told her that I can’t work those days. After telling them the days I couldn’t work about 5 times. The response I got was “you should have told us beforehand” I quit that exact moment. Also I made the mistake of greeting one of the higher ups who pretty much looked away in disgust, but as soon as the store manager showed up there he was all laughs and s**t….F**k that kissa**.
Image source: AwesomeAJ
#69
I worked there for about a year. It was a super walmart with a very large parking lot. I was a cart pusher. Anyway, one day they had me and one other guy collecting carts and my manager told us to take the trash out of each garbage can in the lot. When we were done the carts were overflowing from the corals and my manager b**ched us out. It was my “third strike” and they told me to keep my job I would have to write a paper to management saying why I should keep my job. I said okay and took my lunch break. After my lunch I quit. F**k them.
Image source: MustacheMark
#70
I worked for Walmart for only two weeks, and got the hell out of there because of how I was treated by the employers.
When I did my interview everything seemed as if it would be okay, and instead of a cashier position that I was being interviewed for, I was made a sales associate in the lawn and garden department. Keep in mind I know NOTHING about landscaping, grilling, or herbicides and pesticides, so I was pretty c**p at helping customers.
I thought that I would learn about the stuff in training, but all they teach you on their online training module is how to clean up spills (so they don’t get sued), how to keep yourself safe by using proper lifting techniques and box cutter safety (so they can say they demonstrated proper use so they can’t get sued), and how to become a mindless walmart slave.
I swear, the amount of emphasis in the training program placed on Sam Walton, the company’s founder or whatever, makes it seem as though he’s a f*****g demigod. I could not believe the hard on that these people had for spreading the message that the dear Sam Walton wanted to give to the customers.
Also, the orientation program includes watching a video telling you NOT to join a union. They use actors in their video to make it seem as though having a union is a bad thing because they don’t want to pay someone to tell walmart what they want, and that their “open door policy” with the management is much better.
Of course, by open door policy, you can enter the door, but the management wouldn’t give me the time of day. When I applied, I said I only wanted 24 hours maximum, since I’m a student on summer break, and I’m not trying to make a living right now, just enough to buy and Xbox or something.
So when the manager gave me 40 hours instead, I told him that I could not work that much. He said he would consider reducing the hours, after I WAS TOLD IN THE INTERVIEW that I would get 3 8 hour days a week.
Then when he told me they were not going to change how much I was working, I complained to him that this wasn’t what I signed up for and that I was being overworked. As a lawn and garden associate, all I could do for 8 hours was walk around and try to help customers as best as I can, but when they asked about the specifics of a lawn mower and I couldn’t get someone else to help them, I was cussed out and yelled at because I wasn’t trained properly for the job. I would be exhausted after 8 hours, and like I said, I never signed up for full time hours at part time pay.
So when I asked about my schedule, he said I was selfish for not taking the hours that I was given, and that I should consider myself lucky for getting to work a 40 hour week. I replied that he was selfish for working me more than what I agreed to, and that if I didn’t get a change, I would leave right now.
And that’s how I left walmart. I know that I didn’t work for very long, but I wasn’t going to put up with that c**p if I didn’t have to. Sorry if this wasn’t what you guys were looking for in terms of horror stories, but I just wanted to say how rude the walmart management was to me.
Image source: anon
#71
At the time i was a Customer Service Manager (step below an actual manager) and i had an older chinese guy come to the customer service desk complaining that a Toilet Snake he purchased from our store didnt work. Well to know it didnt work you would have had to use it on a toilet.. i asked him if he did, and of course he said yes he used it. So i politly tell him its against policy to return this type of item because of the hygene concerns. Well of course he starts swearing at me telling me to get a manager which i than do because f**k that s**t. So my manager proceeds to explain that im right and we cant accept it back. Well he starts swearing and cussing and yelling in chinese and causing a scene. So my manager refunded what i think was 10 dollars and told him to get the f**k out and never come back to our location. It was funny. I swear people go there just to fight.
Image source: IamtheOneWhoParties
#72
I was a cart pusher which also meant I had to clean the washrooms. Regularly it meant I just had to do a light spruce of the place. Sweep up paper towels, change the soap or whatever. A cleaning company did the heavy lifting every so often. Unfortunately I later learned that I was also responsible for cleaning up if an old man loses his bladder and poops all over the place in one of the stalls of the womans bathroom.
I was working with a guy who had special needs. I could have just sent him in there to do it. I could have just acted like I didn’t know about it and sent him and and told him he had to clean it since it was his turn to do the bathroom checks. We did it together though, I cleaned the poop off the floor and he cleaned the poop off the toilet.
The moral of the story is; if you want a free pair of pants from Walmart all you have to do is poop all over yourself and act like you have dementia.
Image source: anon
#73
I worked for Wal-mart for 2 years on overnights, to give a brief description of what management is like…. I was a fairly hard worker and I got my work done fast because I liked my smoke breaks on time. I started out stocking sporting goods. When I could finish that in half a days work they added Automotive to my slate too. this continued until I was expected to do sporting good, automotive, hardware, and pets all in one night. I quit and found another job. Some employees were only expected to clear 2 to 3 pallets of freight. I easily cleared 20-25 in a night.
Image source: SirBroseidonEsq
#74
Did a two-month tour of duty as an overnight “maintenance” guy. Basically it was our job to clean the floors, clean the bathrooms, wax the floors, etc.
My horror story involves the women’s bathroom. Guys, you have no idea how bad women’s bathrooms in the Walmarts are. Guys leave the washroom basically PRISTINE. Women… man, every second toilet was full of unflushed t*rds, it smelled very strongly of menstruate, the ‘napkin bins’ (basically garbage cans for the discreet trashing of used tampons) were always full and *moist*…
But the worst thing I’d ever found was a toilet full of pinkish water, and floating in it a cold, hard used tampon, bloody and disgusting. I had to pick the d**n thing out of the toilet and throw it away, as flushing it was not an option. I immediately changed my gloves afterwards and have been a changed man ever since. You know that thousand yard stare? Sometimes I get that, as I *remember*.
Image source: anon
#75
Worked as a cashier at a super walmart (has grocery store) in college. I’m scanning produce and pull a bag of apples off the belt. I’m turning over one of them, looking for the PLU produce code. The customer leans towards me and politely informs me, “Those are apples.” Gives me a kindly smile. Cue my look of incredulity, is this guy r******d? Or worse, he thinks I am, because I work at walmart. I *wanted* to say, “no s**t, sherlock” but I needed the job so instead…”Really? Apples you say? I didn’t know they still made those.”
Image source: Cherryboogers
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