Florida Woman Places Walmart Pick-Up Order. She Ends Up Doing The Shopping Herself When The Employee Lies To Her: ‘I Started Reducing Their Tip’

A Florida woman placed an order for curbside pickup at Walmart. She ended up doing the shopping herself and found items that were previously marked as “unavailable” by an employee fully available—right on the shelf.

Brenda Joseph (@rodwaveandcocacola) shared a video with over 2.4 million views. In the clip, she tosses items into her shopping basket. According to the caption, Joseph placed an order for pickup but ended up going into the store herself after several items were marked “unavailable.”

In her video, she appears to be making up for the missing items one by one. She adds to her basket what she had apparently expected to receive through curbside pickup.

The woman claims the experience left her so frustrated that she planned to make it her first and last time using Walmart’s curbside pickup service.

One detail seemed to especially annoy her. She says kale was substituted for parsley.

That is quite a substitution when you expect one leafy green and receive another.

The video itself does not establish why the items were marked unavailable or whether the specific products were actually unavailable when the order was being fulfilled.

However, viewers immediately recognized the frustration of arriving at a store and finding something they had been told was out of stock.

How Does Walmart Curbside Pickup Work?

Walmart’s curbside pickup allows customers to shop online or through the app.

Shoppers can select a pickup time and have employees gather their items. Customers then check in and have their order brought directly to their vehicle. This should eliminate the need to shop inside the store.

However, an item can become unavailable between the time an order is placed and when it is picked. This can lead to discrepancies if stock levels fluctuate or inventory counts are out of sync in real-time.

Walmart may offer a substitution or remove the item from the order. This can leave customers frustrated when they later spot the supposedly unavailable product on the shelf.

Walmart Employees Weigh In

In the comments section, current and former employees shared their experiences shopping for customers. One said, “When I shop for customers, I take pictures to show them that it’s really out of stock for this very reason.”

But one commenter gave a completely different perspective.

Another viewer claimed that as an employee, managers encouraged her to move through the orders quickly and warned the system would “kick you out” if she took her time. “In my opinion they’re too focused on speed and not about getting the customer what they ordered,” she stated.

Is This Common?

Brenda’s experience struck a familiar nerve with other shoppers. One commenter said they had been given an unavailable notice for an item they considered difficult to believe was actually missing.

A shopper wrote, “They told me that didn’t have floss like gtfo they’re so lazy.”

Another viewer suggested customers should receive something extra for the inconvenience when they have to come into the store themselves to find an item that was listed as unavailable.

“I fully believe we should get gift cards as an inconvenience for having to do this when this is in stock,” they wrote.

Then there was the issue of tipping.

A customer said she removes her tip when items are marked unavailable, explaining, “Because if you’re gonna be lazy to not find my items I’m going to be lazy to pay you!”

In a Reddit post, one Walmart customer shared a nearly identical situation. They claimed items marked unavailable for pickup were actually found “pretty quickly” after they walked into the store. The shopper said they did not bother checking another supposedly unavailable item because it wasn’t urgent.

However, they added that they sometimes felt Walmart substituted higher-priced products.

Together, the stories show why some customers question the ‘unavailable’ designation. For Brenda, the curbside pickup service left a lot to be desired.

BroBible reached out to Walmart via contact form and Brenda by email for comment.