Walgreens worker films ‘racist’ customer who verbally abuses her

A Walgreens employee filmed a customer berating them, allegedly calling them racial slurs in a viral TikTok.

The video, posted by MsJaxxon (@tijjax89), begins with her saying “You’re awful” to a customer off-camera, who then hears the worker yelling, “You’re a friggin’ kid who deserves minimum wage. ” among other things. Even the TikToker walking past Toni at work can be heard trying to talk to him calmly, but the customer doesn’t seem to care and keeps telling the Walgreens employee to shut up The caption explains that Toni remained respectful of the customer even after he called her a racial slur.

At the end of the clip, the police appear to have turned up at the scene after Toni allegedly called them when she heard the commotion in the store.

@tjjax89 Even after being called as 🥷 I still remain respectful…. Shit what’s happening in customer service in 2017.. #walgreens #customerservice #nobullying 🛑 #fyp #nevergiveup #racistoftheday ♬ Original sound – MsJaxxon

Video of the incident was viewed 2.4 million times as of Friday, and viewers were quick to comment on the rude customer. They also asked Toni for a “storytime” to explain what led to the Walgreens customer breakout, and in a follow-up video, TikToker promises more details are yet to come.

The comment section of the first video, with Toni still in the store, was almost unanimous as viewers thought the man was completely out of line. Walgreens customers abusing workers appears to be an ongoing issue, with a number of former Walgreens employees sharing their own experiences.

“I hated working at Walgreens because that shit was the order of the day. I had a nervous breakdown about it,” claimed one user.

“I can’t take what I left when people come into the store and act like we’re not people,” said another alleged former employee.

Unfortunately, customers who find it acceptable to berate workers or treat them poorly in general is not a new phenomenon. Many customers have gained even more courage to act after the pandemic. However, Science Daily warns that this type of behavior leads to high turnover, with employees leaving their jobs at record rates.

In a subsequent Storytime video, Toni clarified exactly what happened to the client before she started recording him.

@tjjax89 in reply to @cityoflil ♬ Luxury fashion (no vocals) – TimTaj

According to Toni, she was going about her business to fulfill her duties at the store when she heard a loud commotion and saw a group of “teenagers whooping that man’s ass.” She says she immediately called the police and went to the front to see what she could do to help in the meantime.

Another deputy manager is said to have informed Toni that the man got angry at the group of teenagers for hanging out in the candy aisle and started using insults and racial slurs, including the N-word, at them. So the teenagers reportedly decided to spank him. The man also got angry at the assistant manager for not stopping the fight, calling her an “Earth.” When she heard that the man had also insulted one of her colleagues, Toni asked the customer to leave the store.

According to her, the man started screaming that the deputy director had not helped her and told Toni to call the police. “Now he’s mad at them for reacting to something he did and he started taking it out on us,” says Toni. Then she started picking him up.

A number of users in the comments section called on Walgreens to recognize Toni’s behavior in the face of the rude customer.

“@Walgreens are giving her a raise! She deserves it! Handled that situation perfectly!” said one viewer, who was impressed by Toni’s handling of the argumentative customer.

“@Walgreens is giving this woman a raise, that’s how she should have done it,” repeated another person.

Despite numerous comments urging Walgreens to give Toni a raise for handling the situation so well, she said in a follow-up video that she never received any recognition from companies.

“I wasn’t offered a raise…[and] my district manager never actually said anything,” says Toni in the clip. Not only that, Toni claimed that there have been numerous instances where she felt the company didn’t have her back. She also said that when there is a racist incident involving a worker, a supervisor usually asks what the worker did to provoke the customer. But, according to Toni, “you don’t really have to do much to trigger these people.”

The Daily Dot contacted Toni via TikTok comment and Walgreens via email.

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