Instacarting woman claims Target bathroom ‘traumatized’ her after she rushed to one for a period emergency: ‘Picked up a dirty tissue off the floor’

A woman’s routine Instacart gig allegedly turned traumatizing when she had to manage a period emergency at an understocked Target bathroom. The delivery shopper reportedly found herself stranded in the stall without basic supplies.

Content creator Amara (@mar.marslife) recounted the humiliating encounter in a TikTok video detailing what happened after wrapping up an assignment at Target. She explained that she had started her menstrual cycle earlier that morning while completing back-to-back delivery batches across town. Sensing a leak, Amara reportedly rushed toward the bathroom inside Target.

However, after addressing the immediate problem, she discovered the stall’s dispenser was empty. The resulting predicament forced her to wait out other people, handle soiled waste, and hop between multiple stalls before locating paper, prompting a blunt critique of store maintenance standards.

A mid-shift period leak led Amara into a Target bathroom 

Sitting in her vehicle shortly after leaving Target, Amara explained that a packed delivery schedule caused her to overlook the onset of her period until she finished shopping her order.

“I’m Instacarting, I had an order at Target,l she noted in the clip. “So I get done with the order and I’m like, ‘I have to go to the bathroom,’ because I started my cycle this morning, right? So I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’ because I completely forgot about it because I had been everywhere all day.”

Upon entering the Target bathroom, Amara reportedly realized that she had bled through her tampon. Reaching to resolve the situation reportedly left her hands covered in blood. So, she turned toward the dispenser, only to find that there was no toilet paper available.

“So here I am, pants around my ankles, bloody hand holding a plug, no toilet paper. None!” she recalled. With other shoppers moving in and out of the public restroom, she reportedly had to stay put until the room went silent. 

“When I tell you I had to wait until everyone left the bathroom… I picked up a dirty tissue off the floor, ‘cause there was like a string of toilet paper on the floor, and I was like, ‘Well, I have to put this plug somewhere,’” Amara explained. 

After disposing of the item and pulling up her clothing one-handed, she reportedly rinsed her hands at the sinks before checking two additional stalls. Thankfully, she found toilet paper in the last stall.

The operational realities of restroom supply failures

Amara’s frustrating experience highlights a potential gap between restroom sanitation standards and their implementation in commercial spaces. According to OSHA, workplace restrooms are legally required to provide running water, soap, and functional drying or paper supplies. Yet, experience like Amara’s show how routine maintenance schedules frequently fall behind.

A survey of 2,036 U.S. adults also found that 68% would have a low opinion of a business if its restroom had empty hand-soap, toilet-paper and paper-towel dispensers (via CMM). Moreover, if essential supplies like toilet paper or feminine hygiene disposal units are absent from public bathrooms, individuals experiencing menstrual emergencies face unnecessary biological hazards and social distress.

Furthermore, research on gig-economy labor highlights the unique logistical vulnerabilities faced by app-based delivery couriers. Unlike traditional office or store employees who have access to private, consistently stocked employee bathrooms, mobile gig workers rely on commercial customer facilities while working continuous shifts on the road.

Navigating a sudden period leak is stressful enough on its own. But having a simple cleanup derailed by poor store upkeep turns an everyday human necessity into an embarrassing logistical obstacle. While Amara managed to leave the store and laugh off the nightmare in her car, the incident serves as a glaring reminder that keeping basic dispensers filled is the absolute bare minimum any retailer owes the public.

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