‘Why are earbuds normal to wear at work now?’: Walmart worker refuses to count change

A TikTok account that posts viral exchanges between retail employees and customers shared a video of a Walmart fuel station employee refusing service to a man who reportedly slammed change on the counter.

TikTok user SarahConner (@sarah_conner1) posts viral exchanges between customers and retail employees. In this case, SarahConner posted a video on Tuesday, which has since amassed 1.7 million views, that shows a man confronting a Walmart fuel station employee who appears to be refusing him service.

To start the video, the man filming says, "So you're not going to get your manager? You're going to ignore me?" The employee, whose name tag says "Trin," proceeds to ignore the man. 

The man doesn't take silence for an answer. "Because you won't do your job," he says. "Did you not understand the question? You told me to count it; I told you it was $8. You told me that's not your job to count money. What's your job? You don't know?"

@sarah_conner1 Walmart fuel station employee refuses to count customers change. according to the employee the customer slammed the change on the counter and was refused service #walmartgas #gasstation #countingchange ♬ original sound - ????SarahConner????

That's when the employee responds. "I do not give you consent to record me," Trin says.

In the caption, SarahConner writes, "Walmart fuel station employee refuses to count customers change. according to the employee the customer slammed the change on the counter and was refused service."

In a second video, the man continues to record Trin as she again requests that he stop. She also indicates that the reason she refused the man service is because he slammed the change on the counter. The man denies that he did that. Another employee is present in the video, and the man urges her to watch his previous video.

At the end of the video, Trin appears to follow the customer out to snap a photo of his license plate. The customer says, "You really don't need your job, do you? I've never been this rudely serviced."

SarahConner's account is proof that this is not the first time a customer has recorded themselves pestering a retail employee in public. A couple of years ago, a McDonald's drive-thru customer recorded himself insulting the employee who was taking his order. Viewers were outraged.

According to the Freedom Forum, the rules around recording people in public are a bit complicated. "Recording something in plain view, in a public space like a street or public park, is generally allowed. But all public spaces are not created equal – and some may not be 'public' after all," the article states. "The First Amendment also has been seen by courts as protecting recording in public face-to-face conversations when the recording technology is visible; everyone knows they are being recorded, and no one objects."

Ultimately, it depends on where the interaction is taking place. "Some states set different legal rules for making audio recordings in public; for example, some two-party states require permission in advance from both the person making the audio recording and anyone being recorded," Freedom Forum says.

The Daily Dot reached out to SarahConner and Walmart via email for comment.

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