Woman Gives Shopper a Polite Smile While Waiting for Help at Kroger. Then Gets Dragged Into an Unsettling Relationship: ‘Never Thought I Would See It’
An encounter one doesn't expect in public.
Going on a grocery run is a relatively normal errand for most folks with little excitement to expect, but one woman’s recent shopping experience took an unsettling turn she didn’t foresee. Content creator Kirsten (@lil_tachy) shared a video on her TikTok detailing the encounter she had with a fellow customer at Kroger.
Kirsten’s story began when she was at a Kroger doing self-checkout with her groceries when a store clerk allegedly came to ask if she needed help with anything. The TikToker was seemingly blushing as she shared a reenactment of her supposed interaction with the clerk: “This clerk comes up to me, and she says, ‘Hey, mamas, did you find everything okay today?’ And I said, ‘Yes, thank you, I did.’”
The Kroger clerk allegedly called Kirsten “baby girl” before telling the content creator to come find her for help and then left. Not long later, Kirsten claimed that a woman using a motorized scooter came up to ask her if there was an employee around who could help her.
A phone call in Kroger that left Kirsten speechless
“I said, ‘Yeah, I actually just saw the clerk. I’m sure she’ll be back any second,’” Kirsten said. The Ohio-based TikToker recalled that the woman also had her phone placed near her chest, and that a man’s voice could be heard speaking from it. According to Kirsten, the mystery man was allegedly asking the woman if she found help or if she needed his help to find someone for her.
The incident didn’t seem so strange at first, since talking to someone on the phone isn’t a unique occurrence. Kirsten claimed that the woman and the man kept talking back and forth, so she assumed he was either the woman’s husband or son.
“None of my business. I keep scanning my groceries, but I accidentally scanned my chicken twice. And it’s the last thing in my basket. So, now I also need help from the clerk,” Kirsten said, seemingly blushing again at the mention of the staff. Kirsten claimed that she looked over at the woman and “gave her a little Midwestern half smile” while they waited, only for her to find out something about the woman she allegedly didn’t need to know.
“As I make eye contact with her, she tells her phone, ‘Hey, just be quiet for a second, okay?’” Kirsten recalled. “Looks me dead in the eyes, and says, ‘It’s my AI boyfriend. Best I’ve ever had. Best boyfriend I’ve ever had. Really.’”
AI is harming the environment
The information seemingly left Kirsten stunned and made her question the woman’s thought process: “Why did you think that I was a safe person to give that information to?” Amid the shock the interaction left her, the TikToker also highlighted the growing concerns of AI’s effect on our environment.
“Yeah, I’m pi****d that you’re using tens of thousands, maybe millions, of gallons of our water to have a romantic relationship with a computer,” Kirsten said. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a tool that, in recent years, has been widely used to understand and give information without the need for human intervention and intelligence—mimicking human learning and autonomy.
While AI is used to power numerous systems that have intricately woven itself into our daily lives, the impact it has on the environment can’t be ignored. Per the U.N.’s Environment Programme, powering AI data centers consumes large amounts of water, a resource that has become largely scarce in some areas, and produces electronic waste as a result.
To keep these data centers up and running, a substantial amount of electricity, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and limited elements and vital minerals are also needed. With the use of AI, numerous jobs are also being taken away from humans. So, Kirsten’s anger over a woman engaged in a virtual relationship that continues to harm the environment is understandable.
Kirsten alleges that the woman had also gotten mad at the clerk for allegedly failing to give her Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. “But to be fair, that clerk came over to me and called me ‘baby girl’ and ‘mamas’, like, three more times while she was voiding my chicken. So, you win some, you lose some,” Kirsten concluded.
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