Audio By Carbonatix
As any frequent shopper will tell you, it’s getting more common to see items locked behind glass at stores. Many customers find this anti-theft practice annoying. One Walmart location may have accidentally found a way to make the process of calling and waiting for help more pleasant—through its help button.
Shoppers really do not like the practice of putting items behind lock and key. In fact, a 2024 survey from Numerator found that 27% of respondents would rather switch retailers or abandon the purchase altogether than wait for a staff member to assist them with unlocking a product.
Retailers are well aware of this. In January 2025, the CEO of Walgreens admitted that locking up items behind glass cabinets hurt sales. Given that the company did not have a better solution to the issue of theft, it planned to continue doing so.
As a result, staff of stores like Walgreens, Target, and Walmart find themselves spending their days running from call button to call button, while shoppers are simply left waiting for long periods before a case can be unlocked.
So, how can retailers make this wait more pleasant for shoppers?
What’s So Unique About This Walmart Help Button?
In a video with over 11 million views, TikToker @novabeans02 shows viewers “the most American thing I’ve ever heard” while in Walmart.
The video then shows the Walmart shopper pressing the call button for assistance. After a second, a voice recording comes through.
“Somebody from Walmart is gon’ be right witcha,” the voice says in a rural American accent. Commenters tried their hardest to place the accent, with guesses ranging from Tennessee to Arkansas to general Appalachia. The TikToker later revealed that the video was recorded in Michigan.
Immediately, commenters noted how much of a fan they were of this style of announcement, rather than a standard, corporate voiceover or one produced by artificial intelligence.
“This is way more fun and human than a cold robot voice,” said a user.
“Honestly, as an American, this comforts me,” added another.
However, one question still lingered: Who made this recording?
Who Records the Walmart Help Buttons?
Several commenters alleged that, in some Walmart locations, the “Press for Associate” buttons are recorded by local staff members. Though, there’s no substantial evidence of this online.
“I work at Walmart and I can confirm that employees from the store you’re in record those for you,” a user wrote. “You’re welcome.”
“At mine they had associates record audios for them so we would get better responses,” offered another. “They don’t have an answer like this though. it supposed to make us think a real associate called so we’re more likely to check than if we think someone is just playing with the button.”
“Our asset protection associates recorded ours,” stated a third. “One meows at the end of the pet case recording.”
@novabeans02 @Walmart was this recorded by a store employee or is this like distributed throughout every Walmart electronics department in the US
Why Would a Store Record Employee Voices?
Although it may seem silly to some to use untrained people from the area in place of professional voiceover artists, there may be some psychological benefit to doing so.
First, there’s significant data to show that humans prefer other human voices over robotic simulations of the human voice. In fact, one study found that the closer a robot’s voice resembled a human voice, the more likely it was to be deemed likable.
Second, there’s some evidence to suggest that people would prefer a local accent over a neutral one. One small study found that participants often reacted better to local accents than to a generic, “NPR-style” accent. They rated those speaking in a local one as “highly credible.”
Not only that, but some local accents are viewed as more trustworthy than others. For example, a May 2025 study found that Americans are 256% more likely to trust an American Southern accent than one that sounds like it’s from New York.
Given all this information, it’s no surprise that a store might find that recording a local employee elicits better responses from customers than a generic corporate or robotic voice.
BroBible reached out to media relations for Walmart via its contact form. BroBible also reached out to @novabeans02 via TikTok direct message and comment.