Whenever shoppers or workers go into a Walmart, they're bound to witness some odd things. For some reason people wear whatever they want when they going shopping there. It also tends to attract the weirdness of America. Here are some of the oddest things employees have ever seen while working at Walmart. Content has been edited for clarity.
What’s That Smell?
“I worked for Wally World for nine months. during this time saw the most messed up individuals of my life. Many come to mind, but I only have the time to name a couple:
The Turkey Injector Lady:
I saw this woman at least five times a week for the entire time I worked there, but my first encounter was by far the most memorable. She approached me, in a panic, and was practically begging me for a turkey injector. However, it had to be less than two dollars, and it had to have a sharp needle. Now, let’s take a moment to describe this woman: she was probably about six feet tall, very lanky, and was covered in little red dots. She was frantically biting her nails, and itching those red dots. It took me a while, but we eventually found the right turkey injector, but it was too expensive. She realized she had two gift cards with eight cents on them, giving her just enough. She then ran to the checkouts.
The Filthy Baby Doll Lady:
Now this lady, let me describe her: take a moment and think of a ‘middle-aged white trash woman.’ Do you see someone? Well, that’s what she looks like. Anyway, I was called over to help her in crafts, my native department. I smelled her before I saw her and it could’ve been two separate things. As I walked up to her buggy, I glanced in her cart. Sitting in the center of the cart was a baby doll, covered in dirt and filth, and its head was shaved. I looked away in horror, and she asked me what was wrong. This is when I noticed how messed up her teeth were. They were all jagged, pointing towards the center of her mouth, and they had holes that you could see through. Her breath could make a grown man cry. She was looking for a crochet kit, which we didn’t have in stock. She left, but I never found out if the stench was coming from the baby doll, or her rotting teeth.”
The Legend Of Sample Lady
“Her name…was Sample Lady. Stocky, robust, and rude as all get out. She used to ride around in the power scooters the store has, and I always knew when she was in the store. How? The ear-piercing screeeeee I would hear as she drove her fat rear to the deli where I worked.
She would always be chewing on something, anything, asking us for samples of cheeses and deli meats. Of course, I had to oblige and cut her a sample or two and await her order/decision. Nope, let’s try two more. Nope, six more. I would hit 11 items before I was forced to stop (it used to be less but customer forced us a long time ago to change that). I’d let her know that she had to make a decision because at this point she was basically stealing food. She would always reply, ‘I will get my sister, she has the money.’
Okay.
Well, one night as I left the store, and was blinded by the always present cop lights outside, I saw her getting arrested, and she was screaming and fighting hardcore, yelling ‘assault’ and whatnot. I asked some of my co-workers outside what was going on, and I kid you not here is what they told me: management found her on the bench near the meat department digging her hands through raw ground beef and eating it like that. When they went to make her leave because she refused to stop, she got up from the bench and halfway ran towards the front whilst stuffing the beef down her bra, yelling, ‘You can’t steal America from me!’
Yeah, the police got her shortly after because she got tired out at the doors.
Thus ended the saga of Sample Lady. Her reign of annoyance came to a halt and the scooters never did scrape the floor the same ever since.”
Here Comes Hagitha
“Us cashiers call her Hagitha. She has told us that she comes in with two goals: buy groceries and make a cashier cry. She’s been banned once, but allowed back on promise of good behavior (she broke that promise on her second visit). She has accused our only black cashier of increasing the prices on all of her items and said a choice word about him. She screamed in the face of a new cashier. Tried to break my hand with the bag turn wheel once she realized her coupon didn’t go through (it happens sometimes), she literally pushed the customer who was being rung up back to yell at the cashier.
It got so bad the manager was called, the customer she pushed left all his groceries there and the customer behind the push offered 50 cents just so she would leave. She’s called almost every cashier incompetent at their job. She’s had so many problems our CSM’s (customer service managers) will take over a register if she is there because they don’t want her to talk to a cashier. I’ve also seen a man punch a self-check once.”
The Infamous Wheelchair Guy
“The Wally World I work at has the infamous ‘wheelchair guy.’ He’s this older dude who putters around in a powered wheelchair. He’s perpetually unshaven and slovenly in appearance and he is there literally every day for hours and hours on end. He rolls about, buys something, eats it, rolls around, buys something, eats it, etc.
HOWEVER, what makes him infamous is his comments to the female cashiers.
First, he would refuse to go through any check out line that was manned by a dude. He’d hunt down the youngest and prettiest of our female cashiers, and make the most inappropriate comments. He’s said he’s not a gynecologist, but he’d love to get in touch with one young lady. He told another one she had lovely legs, but the only problem was that they weren’t around his head. He keeps hardcore adult content in his backpack and asks the female cashiers to get his wallet out of it. He’s been known to drool and leer while going through one particularly buxom cashier’s line.
It got so bad with this chucklehead that our female cashiers would close their lines if they saw him coming, or I’d step off my register and go to them for a quick replacement (I’m a large dude). When he saw me, he’d make a quick retreat, and try to hunt down another female cashier. Once I went through six lines, ready to replace any and all of them to keep the wheelchair guy from bothering the ladies. I earned quite the scowl that time.
Anyway, management finally had enough (y’know, after only six months of constant complaints), and took him to the office and warned him that if it kept up, he’d be banned from the store. So, of course, he started coming through my line, trying to show how good a guy he was over and over and over and over. Every day. I finally moved to Pharmacy and he kept trying to bother me there. The other day he demanded help with the electric shavers, so I instead, directed him to the head of the health and beauty department, a stern lady who doesn’t put up with his nonsense. He tried some stuff about ‘I need a man!’ to help him out and I shut him down.
I told him, ‘Sorry, she’s the one that knows that stuff,’ and he rolled off in a huff.
So, in summation: wheelchair guy is a misogynistic bean head.”
The Spectre
“Worked at The Wal for 5 years.
Aside from the usual trashy people, the one that sticks out to me was ‘The Spectre.’ She was a tall women probably in her 70s. She would come in and shop always wearing a white dress and a corset (synched up extremely tight) over the dress and wearing white face paint and lipstick. Like kabuki makeup.
This wasn’t just one time, coming home from a play or something, this was several times a week for years. Nobody I know at the store ever talked to her, we were all too afraid.”
The Spirit
“I work in the photo lab. I have this one customer who comes in weekly. She recently lost her brother. He was murdered at a football game for trying to stop a girl getting beaten by her boyfriend. It was an awful situation and this woman is still obviously grieving and working through her loss.
Anyways, she came in a few weeks ago to print off some more pictures of her brother, and I think nothing of it. She ordered her normal 40-50 photos, and a 16×20 poster. Everything is going well until the poster starts printing. As its printing, I notice that it’s coming out just solid black. ‘That can’t be right’ I say to myself. I open up her order in the computer, look at the file for the poster, and lo and behold, it’s just solid black. ‘She must have made a mistake,’ I thought to myself as I cancelled the poster, not wanting to waste all that paper and ink for a solid black 16×20.
When she comes back to pick up her order, I tell her that there was a problem with the poster she ordered, the file came through as a solid black image. She says that can’t be right, and proceeds to pull up the picture on her phone. She hands me the phone, I look at it, and see…a solid black image. She then tells me that the previous night, she called out to her brother’s spirit, felt him wrap his arms around her, and took this picture of them in the mirror. In the complete dark.
I feel for this lady, I really do. I even printed her solid black 16×20 and let her have it for free, but the fact that she was so intent that there was actually something in the picture was heartbreaking. I hope she is able to process her loss and come through it okay.”
What A Thrifty Shopper
“I had a guy come through my line wanting to buy a Flowbee (that 90s vacuum haircut thing). He wanted to barter with me for it. I tried telling him that corporate sets the prices, but he seemed to think I was personally profiting from it. He was extremely irate.
He finally said, ‘Fine! I’m not going to buy it then!’ I got a lot of people like that, that think I control the prices or care if they buy something or not.”
Tiramisu Containers
“During my one summer working at Walmart, I was approached by a man in his mid-50s who asked where he could find ‘tiramisu containers.’ I never heard of such a specific item, so I asked if he wanted Tupperware and walked with him to the aisle where they could be found.
Along the way, he proceeded to say the most stereotypical Italian phrases: ‘Bene!,’ ‘Bravo!,’ ‘Mamma Mia!,’ etc. When we arrived, he thanked me and the other associate (a college-aged girl) who tagged along and gave me his card; it was plain white with ONLY his name and address. We were invited to his house for, ‘music, tiramisu, and ROMANCE!’ (we didn’t go). He then bought (I kid you not) at least 30 Tupperware containers.
A month later, while stocking, a strange Italian accent behind me told me to ‘stick my hands up!’ This same guy returned and wanted to know where he could find ‘tiramisu containers.’ I asked if he wanted Tupperware and he proceeded to buy 30 more. I still wonder why.”
Nothing’s Sketchier Than Walmart After Midnight
“You know, I still have trouble believing how many moms will bring in 3 to 5 year old children at 2 am to go clothes shopping. It irks me as a soon to be father.
Okay I get that some of y’all have gone shopping late at night with restless little ones. If you saw these individuals I’m referring to, though, I really don’t think you would identify with them so much. Unless you also have a cart full of clothes that you’re trying on in front of a Walmart mirror while your little boy or girl sits there rubbing their eyes saying, ‘Can we go home momma?’
That being said, during my last six months on overnight maintenance for Walmart I was just freaking shocked by the sheer stupidity the trashy folks have in this area. One tried to dig his knife through the cardboard/wood like back to the video game case and ran away in a panic when a stocker was like, ‘Please don’t do that sir.’
Another actually got a cart full of stolen junk food and electronics past the sensors without any alarms going off but he circled the parking lot screaming for his buddy, so security followed him and his cart until he panicked and jumped into a BMW and left the cart.
Then there was the time I had to sit by a stocker for a half an hour because some idiot kept bugging her between 2:30 and 3:30 am and the last time he saw her box cutter, he TOOK OUT his own KNIFE and started flipping it around, basically saying, ‘Hey baby, lemme show you a real knife.’
Freaking Walmart people, man.”
Penny Pincher
“I once had a customer who bought an item, then realized she had a coupon so had me return the money to her and then do the purchase over again entirely with the coupon. No biggie. I guess there was some kind of calculation issue/discrepancy with the register and it wanted to refund her the entire amount minus a single penny. I informed her of this and she was adamant that she wanted the penny.
There was no line or anything, so I said, ‘I don’t mind getting you that penny back, but just to let you know, to correct this, I’m going to have to call over a manager and this could take 5-10 minutes for them to get over here.’ (It was a very large multi-story department store and the managers were notoriously bad at responding to calls).
She said, ‘I don’t see why I should get burned because your register can’t do simple math, I will wait for the manager.’ She ended up waiting about 10 minutes to save herself a penny. That’s the kind of work that could net her a whopping 6 cents per hour. What a thrifty shopper. I would have just given her a penny out of the drawer to save everyone time, but the store was incredibly strict about the drawers balancing out at the end of the day, and if the transaction wasn’t done properly, I would be 1 cent short.”
Meet The Mullets
“As a long term Walmart associate, I have a list of favorites. The mullet family. Mom, dad, two boys, and a girl. All had amazing mullets and easily the best part…they always arrived in an El Camino. That’s right, with the seats in the back like My Name is Earl. Of course this is several years before the show came out so they might have inspired that part of the show for all I know.
Then there was the wrestler magician. This one was and still is an enigma. A younger guy looking somewhat like Jack White would come into the store every couple months in a wrestling singlet, tall boots, and a top hat. He would wonder the store wringing his hands together like Mr. Burns and wish random people a happy holiday greeting in a high pitched voice. It was never a holiday that was close. He wore a different singlet every time and if he wasn’t special needs, then he had the act down perfect. This led to the enigma. Either he had acting chops that made DiCaprio’s performance in What’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape seem like a bit performance in Twilight or he had a guardian with the best, darkest sense of humor ever. Either way, pure excellence.”
“At Least I Don’t Have To Deal With Him Anymore”
“I have 3 favorites:
1) It was a bit past 12:00 am. I was working overtime for inventory night, so I didn’t leave at my usual 10:00 or 11:00. Then, out of nowhere comes this true, straight out of a tv show cowboy with the toothpick in his mouth, hat, boots, and the slow, lower than I expected southern drawl. He asked me where our Wasp Spray is, so I showed him. He looks at the can and proceeded to tell me, for over 20 minutes, about the chemical factors and such of wasp spray. He also explained why it makes for a very effective replacement for Mace in areas or jobs you’re not allowed to have it. Then, he patted me on the back, said, ‘Here’s to hoping you never hit on my daughter,’ and walked away.
2) This was more of a PeopleOfWalmart style outfit. This big, black chick who I swear should’ve been wearing a size of pants in 3 digits walks in wearing a dress. A very tight dress on her, but her stomach was so large in comparison to what the dress was likely designed for, that she cut a hole in the front of it to let her stomach hang out, reaching down to around her knees. The rest of the dress was fine, and the cut wasn’t a tear, it looked like it was legitimately cut, but goodness I have no idea how she got that thing on.
3) During the latter half of my employment at Walmart, I was working in the Sporting Goods department. In the Walmart that I worked at, we did not sell weapons, but we did sell ammunition. We had one regular customer who became a MUCH more regular customer after he moved to an apartment complex that was just a two minute walk away from our Walmart, just so he could be there and shop more often. He was a weird guy. He always had a bruise on his forehead, as if he rammed his head into bricks for entertainment, but I always tried to be nice to him just like every other customer, unlike the rest of the store. As a result, he took a liking to asking me questions over everybody else.
The thing that always bugged me about him was his obsession with weaponry. While that’s far from rare in my area, he wasn’t exactly somebody with a stable state of mind. He kept applying at the state to get his shooter’s permit, and his mother kept testifying against him, calling him mentally unstable (which was accurate, most likely), etc. He kept this battle going on for a while, at least longer than the year that I had known him. The entire time he was doing this, he kept asking me information about weapons, which was a subject I knew very little about. He’d show me pictures of them and ask me, ‘Which one of these is most likely to kill somebody?’ quite regularly. It was actually pretty terrifying. But hey, I was on his good side, so I had that going.
He was also just interesting in other small ways, but that was the main one. He was one of the ‘I know the manager’ people just because he knew his name (only because it was printed on the receipt). He would get calls from his mom while shopping and just yell at the phone and scare our customers. He was also known to be rude to workers who he thought didn’t like him, which was most of them. He got kicked out of the building at least a dozen times while I was working there, probably much more by now. He was an interesting case, but hey, at least I don’t have to deal with him anymore!”
Hairspray Isn’t Just For Hair
“I used to work as a supervisor for electronics in Walmart. Our store had a hobo colony living in the small wooded area next to our store. It was pretty common for customers to complain about being heckled, or employees expressing concern at night because the hobos would get…well, violent from time to time.
One night, I was working the customer service counter on a suspicious TV returned when one of the cart attendants came running in, wide eyed, saying that the ‘HOBOS ARE FIGHTING EACH OTHER WITH FLAME THROWERS.’ Turns out, the hobos had stolen hairspray from the cosmetics department and were attacking each other with them and then beating each other with sticks…”
Packaged Bacon
“While working store standards (fancy name for a cart wench), I had a sketchy guy come up to me asking for a large box, saying it was for some rabbits he was selling to someone.
Before I could respond, he spotted one beside a cart corral, and ran over to it. Thinking it was kinda strange, my coworker and I went on our way. A few minutes later, we heard a loud squealing noise that was definitely not human. We looked around to find a man, with his arms around the belly of a squirming, mid size pig. He proceeded to throw the pig into the box which he had placed in the trunk of someone’s car (the buyer, I would assume) and then get in his old beat up truck and peel off.
Basically I witnessed a super sketchy pig deal, easily the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”
I Wonder Why She Didn’t Like Her Gift?
“Not the weirdest, but definitely memorable: I worked at the customer service desk and late on Valentine’s evening a guy comes in absolutely dejected. I ask him how I can help him and he puts an unopened box on the counter with a receipt and says he needs a refund. It was a Thighmaster. For his wife. On Valentine’s Day. Took everything I had to not laugh while I gave him his money back.”