Walmart is rolling out a new security initiative — and shoppers are not happy with the corporation’s latest attempts at curtailing crime in store parking lots across the country.
A customer in Bentonville, Ark., posted a TikTok video that captured the robot security guard patrolling the store’s parking lot.
The now-viral video featured the TikTokker, Goldpinemusic, following the robot around the parking lot, asking it questions like “What’s your name?”
Nearby shoppers appeared equally interested in the corporation’s newest security guards, as evidenced by one woman in the video who was seen kneeling on the pavement to try to take a close-up photo of the roaming robot.
The bizarre scene depicted in the video quickly amassed online attention and reeled in thousands of views and comments.
Amid the tariffs, rising prices, and supply chain disruptions affecting businesses across the country, Walmart has recently been under criticism by customers.
“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,” warned Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on a mid-May earnings call.
This latest robot-related expansion, as seen in the TikTok video, only sparked further outrage. “That’s why the prices are gonna be going up,” said one viewer.
“Pricing fluctuations are a normal course of business and are influenced by a variety of factors,” a Walmart spokesperson previously told The Post.
Many additional commenters also expressed disappointment in the corporation.
“Walmart will do anything and everything to not pay somebody,” posted one user.
“We should have kept our local grocery stores in business,” another disgruntled commenter wrote.
Walmart originally began testing the efficacy of robots in select stores in 2015, when they were first used to stock and label shelves.
In the years since, the company has continued to utilize new and improving technology in robotics, AI, and surveillance in an effort to modernize stores, keep up with competitors, and offer guests a positive shopping experience.
In an effort to prevent and more efficiently report parking lot crime, Walmart began installing lot cops — tall solar-powered security towers manufactured by Live View Technologies — in parking lots in select states.
Though they’re stationed in Walmart parking lots, the bulk of the surveillance footage captured by these Walmart lot cops goes to local law enforcement in the event of a criminal incident.
“The information is actionable, whether it’s getting a license plate off a vehicle. All of that functionality is in the platform,” Live View Technologies Director of Business Development David Studdert told WHNT19.
“Mostly I see litter, [people] throw trash all over the place. I have some friends who experienced car break-ins, too,” Hawaii resident Makakilo Richard Suzuki told KHON2 regarding parking lot crime.
Much like lot cops, which solely serve as surveillance and crime deterrents, the Walmart robot security guards are intended to increase visibility in parking lots, and as many commenters suspect, are operated remotely by loss prevention staff working inside stores.
While many users expressed displeasure at this costly surveillance expansion, others extended a degree of understanding toward Walmart.
“Definitely not the first of its kind,” one commenter wrote. “The hospital my wife works at has had robots like this for the past five years.”
For now, the Walmart robot security guards are only stationed at select locations across the country, but as commentators on the viral TikTok noted, perhaps this move is simply another potential recession indicator.
