Maryland mother buys baby formula at Walmart—then she realizes another shopper bamboozled her: ‘How do you let a person return formula?’
A Maryland Walmart customer has sounded the alarm due to a concerning discovery after purchasing baby formula from a Walmart location in Towson.
In her video, which has garnered over 748,900 views, TikTok user Alivia (@alivia_8) warns other parents to be extra careful.
“If you are a good parent, please watch this,” she exclaims. “If you care about your child, do not go to the Towson Walmart and buy infant formula.”
Alivia claims someone had tampered with a returned container of baby formula before it was placed back on the Walmart shelves.
“[Parents] will fill up infant formula with flour and then Walmart workers will let them return it and put infant formula back on the [expletive] shelf,” she alleges.
According to Alivia, the container she purchased appeared off from the start.
“I bought this… half of it was [gone], so that was my first red flag,” she says. “Look how thick it is. And it smells like flour.”
Filming from her car, she compares the contents of the suspected container with another unopened can of formula she had on hand.
“This is what normal infant formula should look like,” she says, showing the powder inside.
She Makes a Batter With the ‘Formula’
Alivia then pours the contents of the Towson purchase into an empty cup to demonstrate.
“Does anybody have an egg?” she says. “We could literally make some [expletive] pasta right now.”
When she begins mixing it, the consistency resembles that of pancake batter.
Alivia says her child could have seriously injured if she hadn’t noticed the difference right away.
“I literally mixed the flour with [water],” she says. “I was gonna feed my child that.”
She claims that when she tried returning the product to a different Walmart location, an employee told her the store was not supposed to accept formula returns in the first place.
“They weren’t even supposed to take the formula back from you,” she recalls being told. “There’s a whole procedure with that.”
“Sleep with one eye open [expletive],” she concludes, “Whatever [expletive] mother did this.”
In a few follow-up videos, Alivia shared that she spoke with Walmart, the police, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She says an investigation is underway, though the manager at the Walmart location where she purchased the item was reportedly uncooperative and only offered a replacement.
Has This Happened to Other Parents?
A local media outlet reported an almost identical case in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2019. In that instance, a mother had actually been feeding the compromised formula to her infant, making the 9-month-old sick.
Thankfully, the baby didn’t suffer any long-term health effects, but the parents also warned the public to pay attention.
An Oregon mom experienced something similar in 2017 after buying a can of formula and noticing something was off. In her case, she sent the formula back to the company, which then informed her it was actually flour.
While these reports are somewhat infrequent, they do appear to be occurring across the country and may be a cause for concern.
Commenters Are Appalled
In the comments section, horrified viewers recommended she file a lawsuit against the store. Others questioned how something like this could have happened.
“Okay thank god you caught this. What if you were extra tired, what if you were new to using formula, there are so many what ifs,” one commenter wrote. “This could’ve gone REALLY badly. I hope you sue.”
“Walmart should NEVERRRRRRR allow formula returns,” said another. “Glad you caught this could have been worse. I’m sorry you went through this.”
“It’s a food item, regardless of whether it was opened or not, it should be disregarded,” another chimed in. “It’s handled like meats, cheeses and other perishables like that.”
Does Walmart Accept Baby Formula Returns?
Walmart accepts returns on most items within either 90 or 30 days, depending on whether the purchase was made in-store or through its Marketplace platform. The nature of the item also matters; for example, customers typically have 30 days to return electronics.
While there are exceptions to what can be returned, such as alcohol, collectibles, and firearms, baby formula is not explicitly listed among Walmart’s non-returnable items on its general policy page.
As for reselling returned items, Walmart does not appear to have a publicly available policy outlining how returned consumables like baby formula are handled after being brought back to the store.
@alivia._8 THIS IS THE WALMART 8118 PERRY HILLS RD, NOTTINHAM MD!! WHITE MARSH!! I was so mad in the video I didn’t mention the Walmart is RIGHT OUTSIDE OF TOWSON! #foryou #babytok #walmart #infantformula #storytime ♬ original sound – alivia
The Mary Sue has reached out to Walmart via contact form and Alivia via TikTok messages for comment.
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