Florida woman places Walmart curbside pickup to save some time. Jokes on her when she sees the wait time: ‘I canceled and went to Publix’
Ever since the pandemic, curbside pickup has become a popular option for shoppers across the country.
The process of ordering for curbside pickup is simple. One places an order, receives a confirmation, and then is told when they can arrive outside the store to get their purchase, which is generally delivered to their car by an employee.
In theory, this should be faster and easier for nearly everyone involved. In reality, however, things get a little more complicated. Curbside pickup customers have reported everything from missing items to stolen purchases.
Now, a user on TikTok is calling out another unfortunate issue with curbside pickup: long waits.
What Went Wrong With This Walmart Pickup Order?
In a video with over 1.4 million views, TikTok user Britt (@wateringwildflowers) shows herself waiting for curbside pickup at Walmart. She is located in Ocala, Florida.
“POV: You placed a Walmart pick up order thinking it would save you some time in your busy week,” she writes in the text overlaying the video.
The video then shows a worker hanging a cardboard sign. The sign reads “Wait Time 1:30+.”
In the comments, Britt says she ended up cancelling her order. Then, things got worse.
“Rescheduled my order for today, waited another hour at my time slot before canceling [too],” she said. “Walmart employee I flagged down told me they had ‘no idea’ when they would be bringing it out.”
She adds that this order had been made the day prior. The issue, she says, is that the delivery of finished orders was slow.
“I place[d] this order the day before, got a notification it was ready during the window I picked and was at the store within 10 minutes. I asked an employee and this was the wait time for them to bring it to your car AFTER it was ready,” she explained.
Why Did This Happen?
While this may be frustrating, it’s not particularly uncommon.
Social media is filled with stories of people waiting for significant lengths of time for their Walmart order, even if it’s already been marked as “ready for pickup.”
Internet users have reported waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to over 2 hours for their pickup orders. Threads on the topic also amass comments affirming that this is, occasionally, an issue.
As for why this happens, Walmart does not give an official reason. However, many internet users who claim to work for Walmart say that the issue simply comes down to staffing.
“Corporate is giving the department more orders than what the department can handle which is pushing the workers further and further behind, therefore pushing back when your order is ready,” reads one comment on social media. “The department also gets so busy that new hires started quitting on the spot for a while because it was so bad.”
Under Britt’s TikTok, other users agreed with this assessment.
“Because they make 4 people do picking on over 6,000+ picks a day usually during these busier seasons,” wrote a user. “This department IS walmarts busiest department and they have no where near the amount of staffing they need.”
@wateringwildflowers Jokes on me I guess ?
♬ original sound – shokanvisuals
Commenters Have Theories
Additional comments under Britt’s video offered further explanations as to why something like this can happen.
“It’s because corporate does not put a limit on how many people can order per hour. there could be up to 50 orders just at a certain hour,” explained a user. Some users responded that this was not the case in their store.
“That’s the problem with WalMart. You can select 9am pickup, but if you don’t come til 2pm thats fine. They’ll get it for you,” suggested another. “If they would start cracking down and only let you pick it up during the selected time you chose at checkout they’d never have another issue.”
“I’m honestly surprised they haven’t made a separate store just dedicated to Walmart online shoppers, because it’s hectic seeing them do online orders while also running the in store with customers,” wrote a third.
The Mary Sue reached out to Walmart via media relations contact form and Britt via TikTok DM and comment.
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