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It seems that using self-checkout in stores is doing more harm than good, as many videos have surfaced online showing employees harassing customers about the items in their carts. Most often, they ask if customers have actually scanned everything they’re purchasing and demand receipts as proof. In fact, a recent case involved a woman in Maple Valley, Washington, who believes she was racially profiled during a grocery run at a local supermarket. She recounted what happened in a video she uploaded on TikTok, which included footage of how the incident was handled.
Here’s What Happened
The woman had just come from church and decided to head to Safeway with her daughter to buy groceries for the week. While the store had only a few regular checkout lanes open, she used the self-checkout and scanned over $200 worth of groceries, with her daughter bagging as she went along. As the pair were getting ready to leave, a worker approached their cart and opened one of their grocery bags. After looking through the items, the employee suddenly accused the customer’s daughter of stealing ice cream.
Shocked, the woman pulled out her receipt and showed that she had actually paid for it. The man then shifted his accusation, claiming they hadn’t scanned the bacon either. “At this point I could feel myself getting upset,” she recalled, adding in her TikTok caption that she immediately told him off for going through her personal items and racially profiling her family, the only Black customers in the store at that moment.
She Couldn’t Let it Go
The woman said she left the store to calm down, placed her groceries in the car, and checked the bag the employee had opened. After confirming she had indeed paid for every item, she returned to confront the worker. In her video, she approached the man and showed him the receipt, even mentioning that his boss had scanned it as well. When she asked him how he felt knowing that he had falsely accused them of not properly scanning all their items, the employee said, “It just looks suspicious.” The woman firmly told him, “You cannot accuse somebody of stealing something just because you don’t see somebody scanning. You take a bag and go through my private [stuff]… And then feel dumb because we didn’t steal [anything].”
She also reminded him that it wasn’t the first time her family had been targeted at that same store. “This is the second time you’ve done this to my family,” she said, referring to a similar incident involving her husband. The employee apologized repeatedly as she continued, “You have to stop that because you bring out a whole other side of me that I don’t want.” Before walking away, she told him she hoped he would learn from the situation.
What People Are Saying About the Maple Valley Store Confrontation
Many applauded the woman for her calm and assertive response. “And I am so glad you spoke up 🔥💯,” one person wrote. Another praised her demeanor, saying, “That was a smooth, educated, respectful yet firm confrontation. BRAVO! You weren’t overly dramatic and hollering and all over the place.” “Thank you for approaching him the correct amount of anger and urgency but also respect and class… hopefully he listened,” a further commenter said.
Some said they wouldn’t have handled it so patiently, with one comment reading, “The way I would’ve returned everything.” Another viewer remarked, “I will never understand minimum wage employees laying their lives down for this mess.” A third commented, “This is the second time I hope he understands this time.”
