Walmart is truly an emblem of life in America. It's a place full of wild discounts often made possible by a lack of quality where employees are routinely underpaid and overworked.
To add to the culture of unbridled capitalism, Walmart stores, by merit of their massive size and endless hours, are a veritable breeding ground for bonkers stories.
In a recent Reddit thread, former and current employees shared the craziest things they've seen on the job, and this is pure nightmare fuel.
1. FraustFortress does not miss it.
"Somebody put bleach ammonia and drain oh in the fish tanks. Another time somebody sprayed deer pee all over the toy section. I am really glad I don’t work there anymore."
2. Anekcm33 saw something and said something.
"Years ago, the Walmart in our town was selling fire bellied toads. I had some of my own at home, and was horrified to see these terribly starving toads at Walmart.. My seventh grade SJW heart couldn't take it. Toad looked like a twig in it's midsection, where my healthy ones were fat in the same place.. I bought one, took it home and got pictures of it, and took pictures of my own toads. (It ended up dying the next day with a cricket in it's mouth, think I was just too late.)"
"I wrote a letter about my experience, asking Walmart to feed their animals or stop selling them, and sent copies of it with the photos to our local newspaper, the SPCA, and Walmart. Walmart immediately wrote us all back and said they were pulling the fire bellied toads and newts out of all the stores. The newspaper ran a story on it, and I got to give a speech to my middle school about it. I know it sounds like bullshit, but my parents still have the newspaper article. Definitely one of the things I'm most proud of, even if it doesn't seem like much!"
3. pokerbacon watched a man huff in the store.
"Had a customer in a motorized scooter (his personal one, not store provided) come up to me at the sporting goods desk and he asked me where the cans of compressed air are. I walk him over to some and he thanks me, grabs a can off the shelf, and proceeded to start huffing it right in front of me."
4. batterymassacre saw a man die.
"So I used to stock the crafts section on overnights. I'm kinda an awkward person so no human contact was great for me. This old guy on a scooter insisted upon sitting in my aisle for like, hours. Just staring at the needles."
"Ok....whatever. I stocked everything I could. But finally I needed him to move...and honestly I was a little creeped out at this point.. I mentioned it to my manager on the way to lunch."
"After lunch he was gone.
....turns out he had died there like 5 hours ago."
5. NutInsideHer34 constantly saw human shit.
"When I worked at walmart a week wouldnt go by without someone shitting on the ground somewhere in the store, usually in the clothes section."
6. westcoast_wonder experienced way too much mace.
"I worked at Walmart for all of my teenage years, and there was so much poop where it shouldn't be. That's the most disgusting. The worst would've been when some thieves attempted to run out the door, followed closely by loss prevention, turned around and sprayed them with mace... Which then wafted into the store. A few seniors had to be taken to the hospital for respiratory issues. Everyone working in the store spent all day coughing as the mace lingered in the air, because heaven forbid they shut the store down and think of anyone else's health."
7. FrootLoopThroaway saw a tampon fly through the air.
"Ex employee. Saw some crazy lady probably on some kinda drugs take out her tampon and throw it at someone cause they didn't 'like her tone'. Crazy bitch just plucked it out and tossed it like a bloody hand grenade"
8. JohnWickIsMyPatronus saw something truly horrific.
"I worked at Walmart about 20 years ago, being the manager of the photo lab before digital took over. So my department was right next to the electronics department. I'm chatting with the manager of the electronics department, and all of a sudden we hear a woman yell "here it comes!"
"We then see a middle aged woman frantically scuttling down the aisle, holding her shorts near the back. She ran to the restroom, leaving a trail of liquid shit behind her. It looked like when a dog is sick and you're trying to get them out the door before they make a mess all over your carpet, and they keep stopping to shit every few seconds."
"An employee went in with a pair of pants off the shelf to help out. She put them on and made a beeline toward the exit without paying for them, leaving her soiled shorts in the stall on the floor."
9. Egosius feels truly bad for the man they saw.
"It’s kinda shitty to bring up because it’s sad and I’m not trying to make fun of the guy. But it’s like 4AM and this man dressed in a suit and fedora comes in. No face. I concluded some kind of cancer had ate away his face. All he had left was eyes and a massive cancerous hole. He just gurgled, we had to have him write down what he needed."
"It was sad but god damn it, it scared the absolute shit out of me and I never really forgot."
10. ae____ saw a scene from a movie IRL.
"Not an employee, but a very frequent Walmart shopper. All the Walmarts around me are pretty nice, never seen anything nasty going on. BUT, there was an incident once that still sticks with me to this day."
"When I was younger, my mom had to grab meds at Walmart in the middle of a storm. It wasn't a bad storm or anything, just very rainy with some thunder, but it was supposed to continue for several days, so of course the store was packed."
"So we were in line at the in-store pharmacy, and there was a man who was clearly mentally disabled, with a helper, in the front of the line. The man between us and them was this dude who in my young mind must have been a lawyer - did not fit the stereotypical Walmart look at all, wearing an expensive looking suit, perfectly gelled hair, literally carrying a briefcase. He looked annoyed that he was there at all. He intensely reminded me of Patrick Bateman, just an air of disinterest and arrogance, and was brushing his coat off every time anyone walked too close to him."
"Everything's fine, and the guy and his helper at the front of the line get their prescriptions and start to turn around. Just as they do, there's a huge thunderclap and suddenly, the power goes out in the store. It's not pitch black, but it's dark as hell, and immediately there's commotion in line. I look up just in time to witness disabled man punch lawyer dude square in the face."
"Lights flicker, come back on. Lawyer man is standing there holding his bloody nose looking like he's ready to murder someone, disabled guy is freaking out, helper is profusely apologizing and trying to help lawyer guy. Lawyer guy waves him off with a glare, walks to the front and calmly says his name+info and throws down some money. Pharmacist hands him prescription, which he snatches wordlessly and turns away, brushing past me still holding his nose, leaving a trail of blood on the linoleum floor."
"I don't know why but the entire thing felt so surreal I still remember it like it just happened. Wildest thing I've ever seen in Walmart."
11. Acevolts has seen a lot in two weeks.
"I've only been working at a Walmart for two weeks, I've had three people lose their temper on me, one woman slam her cart into someone else's cart because she couldn't buy alcohol with an expired ID, and one guy try to walk away with a whole cart of groceries, in which a different customer walked after him and literally dragged him back inside.
Again, two weeks."
12. BlackHearts_Envy cleaned up a literal crime scene.
"First job out of high school (2009), moved cross country to be with my girlfriend, end up working at a Walmart as a janitor overnight in the worst part of town in Tulsa (Admiral/Memorial for any locals). This place had everything it could under lock. High theft, and a few people had died there so the workers nicknamed it kill mart."
"One night, a guy is in the sporting goods area and wants to buy something. He takes his wallet out, sets it on the counter for a second. Thief walks up and grabs it, runs off. The victim proceeds to grab a golf club, chase the man down and violently beat him in an aisle. Blood, Broken neck (I'm like 95% positive the guy died), destroyed aisle."
"Everyone in the store flipped, a bunch were calling people to view it in the cctv room."
"My manager waved me down and asked me to clean up the aisle so the store would look nice for the morning. You know. The crime scene.
I clocked out for lunch, quit the next day."
13. angreesloth has seen the young and old be messes alike.
"Watched a high schooler stoned out off his mind trip over his own feet and slam through a middle aisle display of those egg crate file holders. Those suckers went everywhere."
"Also an old woman tracking diarrhea through the store trying to find the bathroom cause she shit herself."
14. AshamedCall saw a man try it with a mannequin.
"Somebody was standing next to a female mannequin and took of the clothes and tried to stick his dick into the mannequins butt. Can't unsee that for the rest of my life."
15. ssynec watched a dog die.
"Other than the people freaking out and throwing shit, and one junkie who continuously stole cans of compressed air for dusting computers to do whippets in the handicapped bathroom (how that didn't kill him I still don't know), one story stands out."
"This elderly obese woman came in with her "service dog" - a little chihuahua or something, probably for anxiety. Gets one of the electric scooters, puts the dog with its leash into the basket. During the course of her shopping, the leash goes through the grate of the basket onto the floor and gets run over by the wheels of the scooter. The leash gets twisted up in the motor of the scooter. Eventually, the leash gets yanked tight and begins to strangle the dog."
"The dog uses what little air it has to panic, but quickly falls silent. The woman does nothing about this. Once she gets to the front of the store, she decides to check on the dog - strangled to death 6 inches in front of her. She flips shit and screams at every employee she can find, telling them to do something, save her dog (I guess she didn't know it was dead), it was their fault, blah blah."
"The dog had been dead for almost 20 minutes before she decided to check on it. Piss and shit all over the inside of the cart that she didn't manage to notice or smell for 20 fucking minutes. I no longer work at Walmart. I unfortunately have no idea whether she sued or not, or what really came of it afterwards."
16. socksandpoptarts's mom saw a scammer get her comeuppance.
"I’ve posted this in another Walmart thread, it’s still one of my favorite stories from my mom."
"My mom worked at Walmart for about a year. She actually liked it as she was more active, but she decided to quit after the jewelry department manager had a meltdown and started throwing jewelry at customers. One old lady got pelted in the head with a heavy ring box and it was over."
"Turns out the manager was selling the jewelry to friends and family, but would keep the boxes and stuff them with rocks and trash so inventory would stay the same. She had the meltdown before she was caught. They had to drag her out of the store that day."
17. hymnalysis had a moment.
"Working 4am-1pm 1st shift stocking. This was a couple years back. Dude's shopping. Regular lookin' guy. I'm puttin' up cheese on the shelf. He greets me with a kind of passing-by-you type Hello. Then he asks me "hey man, y'gettin' any pussy?" I answered vaguely, "eh..". He responds: "Well, some is better than none, amirite?"
18. ShadowTheFallen casually sees pee.
"Mine actually happened yesterday. I was walking back to my area and saw one of my coworkers in front of a puddle. She said, “walk around.” I responded, “I don’t want to know.” Her immediate response was, “It is urine.” I lowered and shook my head and walked by."
19. dionyxes can't have cookies now.
"Someone throwing there used children diaper on top of the freshly baked cookies I just put out :/ had to throw out 700 cookies"
20. Steambunny saw terrifying photos.
"I worked as a photo lab specialist for two years and saw some really awful pics. The worst was a toddler surrounded by marijuana buds and guns. We had to get the on duty cop involved when the guy came back to pick them up."
"Edit for more info on why the cop was involved: I believe the guy was in the pic with the kid and had gang signs with one hand and almost putting a gun to the kids head. It’s been a while so it’s a bit fuzzy."
21. Mr_Flim_Flam saw a man's life get saved.
"I worked customer service at Walmart for a lil bit and one night just as I was closing customer service down a man came in screaming for help. He was wearing a white shirt but it was drenched red in some areas. He said he was shot twice and he thought he was gonna die. He lifted up his shirt to show us he wasn’t just some druggy, and really needed help. Low and behold there were two holes bleeding around this mans torso. Lucky for him an off duty paramedic was in line buying groceries and called it in fast for the ambulance."
22. tcusisb32t discovered a home made in a paper towel aisle.
"Not an employee but off duty police officer. Two homeless people dug out a hole into the paper towel section and were living in it. They finally found them when someone complained about “two people having sex in the toilet paper isle”. Also had a homeless person take a homeless/alcoholic shit in the bike isle.
Those employees do not get paid enough."