Man goes to Target. Then he catches a ‘secret shopper’ dropping his disguise in real time

For one reason or another, TikTok is obsessed with loss prevention workers, or “floorwalkers,” dressed in regular clothing and often mistakenly called “secret shoppers.”

Videos of people following other shoppers, or someone telling a story about being followed in a store, often gain traction online.

Recently, another one has. In a clip that got over 886,300 views, TikTok creator Aleh (@bouttalogoff) films a man acting strangely inside a Target store.

“POV: you witness a secret shopper trying to catch someone,” he wrote in the video's text overlay.

The man appears to have some sort of earpiece in. He is looking at someone in the distance, seemingly not noticing that he's being filmed. He hesitates for a moment, then heads in the direction he was looking.

“The most unsecret secret… the [expletive]?,” Aleh exclaims.

“He was crouching under a shelf before this,” he added in the caption.

What's a secret shopper?

As mentioned above, the job titles of secret shopper, floorwalker, and loss prevention officer often get confused.

A secret shopper's job has nothing to do with following customers around. Instead, companies hire them to observe the shopping experience and rate things like how employees behave and whether they follow procedures and company standards.

Floorwalkers, on the other hand, are employees whose responsibility is to help prevent loss in-store.

Does Target employ floorwalkers?

Subplot News could not verify that the person in the video is a floorwalker employed by Target.

However, Target does employ Assets Protection staff, which is essentially its loss-prevention function.

A current Target posting for Assets Protection Specialist says the role includes using surveillance and “intelligence-led tactics,” watching guests through Target's video surveillance system, identifying potential theft risks, documenting cases, and helping with “apprehensions” whenever theft does happen.

One of the daily responsibilities listed in the job posting is to “resolve theft by using good judgment and conducting apprehensions in shortage focus areas while strictly adhering to AP policies and procedures.”

Target also hires Target Security Specialists. They work under the same Asset Protection department and are tasked with helping prevent, investigate, and resolve theft and fraud.

Have other Target customers noticed floorwalkers?

Other Target shoppers have shared similar stories online.

In one r/lossprevention post, a 19-year-old shopper said the same loss prevention worker repeatedly followed her through a Target location. She says the floorwalker once stayed so close at self-checkout that she worried the employee could see her card PIN.

“I have never stolen so I'm just confused?” she wrote, adding that the experience made her feel like she was being treated like a criminal.

Another Redditor said they had worked as a delivery shopper at the same Target for about a year when a loss prevention employee suddenly started following them closely during multiple orders.

“Every single order I did the same damn woman, often literally ducking behind aisles so obviously,” they wrote, saying the experience was distracting and “a bit demoralizing.”

@bouttalogoff

Viewers Also Share Their Own Floorwalker Stories

“I told a woman a secret shopper was following her one time and the workers got soooooo p-ssed. They threatened to trespass me,” one commenter wrote.

“Lol I know the secret shopper at my target. My son yelled stranger danger and he whispered I'm the secret shopper please stop. Lol,” another wrote.

“And they never be secret. They be obvious,” a third added.

“I work at Target and they always doing the most bruh,” another said.

Subplot News has reached out to Target via email and the TikToker via direct messages for comment.

The post Man goes to Target. Then he catches a ‘secret shopper' dropping his disguise in real time appeared first on Subplot News.