“They Are Marking Everything up” — Walmart Shoppers Outraged After Store Removes Price Tags

Walmart shoppers are reporting that clothing items sold at the chain aren't carrying price tags. And when one TikTok user found a pair of shoes with its original tag intact, she noticed a difference in cost, prompting many to believe the retailer is engaging in shenanigans.

A TikToker who goes by Tempy (@tempyb1128) on the application asked others in a video if they've noticed tag prices were missing from clothing items at the respective stores they frequent.

"Hey y'all. I don't know if it's just me or what. But have y'all noticed in Walmart they're taking all their prices off their clothes? Where a lot of their items don't have the prices on it?" she says into the camera before looking around the store.

"Like I was looking at some jeans and look," she says, grabbing a price tag attached to a pair of pants.

Following this, she shows off the pants to the camera lens to indicate what she's talking about. "There's no prices like ... they're snatching off the prices on certain clothes and stuff," she says, befuddled.

Indeed, there doesn't appear to be any indication on the sticker as to what the item she's referring to costs.

"So I'm like that's weird. Like, look," she says, continuing to walk throughout the store in order to show her viewers more examples of this strange retail trend. Soon afterwards, she approaches what looks like a brown garment.

This product, like the pair of jeans she noted on camera, also has a sticker without a tag. Sizing information is on it, but no monetary value.

"They snatching the prices off the clothes like ... have y'all noticed that? Or is it just me? Like, like look. The clothes don't have no prices," she says, again, going to another article of clothing. It, too, doesn't have a dollar amount written on its tag. Tempy makes a face into the camera in order to intone her disapproval with this practice.

"What y'all doing Walmart? Why y'all snatching the prices off clothes? I don't know," she says after highlighting another instance of the retailer keeping the cost of clothing a mystery to its patrons. "I don't know, but Walmart: what's going on?" she repeats in a sing-song voice as her video comes to a close.

As it turns out, she isn't the only one who's seen this happening in stores. Another TikTok user also recorded themselves walking through one of the massive retailer's locations.

Leah Jacobs (@leahjacobs79) decided to look into this practice herself after hearing some hullabaloo online about the Arkansas-based chain keeping buyers in the dark with regard to its clothing costs.

Additionally, Jacobs' clip indicates an extra detail. According to her, she's heard tale that employees are intentionally ripping off the bottom of these tags that otherwise include this price data.

"Okay, so everybody has been saying that Walmart is removing the perforated edge on the bottom of the stickers."

Next, she shows off a pair of And1 sneakers to the camera. "At Walmart, the price tags like these," she says, bending the bottom of the tag. Like Tempy's video, there is no price info displayed on the paper attachment dangling from the kicks.

But Leah believes that sometimes, store workers miss a tag or two. She tells her audience that she located an item that didn't have its price tag removed, which she shows to others in her TikTok.

"Well, I just found one that they forgot. So, let me show you how much that it says they are," she tells other social media users.

Leah goes on to flip around her camera's orientation to reveal two identical pair of shoes inside of her cart. Initially, she reveals the item that hasn't had the bottom portion of its price tag torn off. According to the sticker info, they retail for $12.98.

She wanted to see if there was any discrepancy in what the store charges for the item once it's scanned, versus what Walmart was originally attempting to sell the shoes for.

"$12.98. So, we're gonna scan it and show you how much..." she says before whipping out her phone.

Not before long, a phone appears in the camera's frame with its camera activated. It recognizes the bar code on the shoes and it indeed displays a different price: $16.98 — a whole four dollars more. "$16.98. So they are marking everything up here at Walmart. There's your proof."

Leah's video may be a cause of concern for Walmart shoppers who've already criticized the retailer for purportedly attempting to place self-checkout behind a "paywall."

Once Walmart rolled out its Scan & Go functionality for Walmart+ shoppers, some customers noticed that self-checkout turnstiles were disabled in their stores.

Either that, or these aisles were being blocked by store pickers fulfilling mobile orders. Whereas others claim workers are purportedly looking through their carts and individually scanning all items while in the self-checkout line. Which begs the question: why are there self-serve kiosks in the first place?

The pricing disparity shown in Leah's video may only lead to further critiques of the retailer. Because, if there are recurring differences in prices on ticketed items versus mobile scan & go purchases, this could mean that Walmart+ customers are being double taxed for their Scan & Go option.

First, they're paying for the privilege of being a Walmart+ customer. And second, when they scan items, then Walmart can change up the cost of items whenever they feel like it.

It's worth noting that the children's shoes video Leah uploaded was on August 10th, which is around the time back-to-school shopping occurs.

So is Walmart using real-time supply and demand sales data in order to inflate/deflate the cost of its items, without having to engage its employees in manually adjusting prices?