Emily Duprie
A recent exposure of Target customers attempting to fool employees into “price matching” select items has sparked a debate among TikTokers. The illegal “hack” involves bamboozling Target’s employees into thinking an item they sell in the store for “X” amount of dollars, is actually less through an online competitor.
Unfortunately, some customers are taking advantage of Target’s good nature and have begun faking the alternative cost of eligible price-matching items. One Target worker and TikToker called out the customers who have been attempting this fraud, saying “At that point they’re playing with your intelligence.”
Through their price-matching system, Target is obligated to match the cheaper cost to prove they have the best prices around, but with some customers persistently faking their price matching, employees are finding it hard to decipher who’s telling the truth.
After being hounded in the comments for caring so much about the attempted sham, TikToker Sariyah (kayystewie), called out why her and other Target employees are taking this scam so seriously. In her video, which was a stitch of another Target employee’s grievances, Sariyah reiterates that guest attempting this are basically challenging the worker’s intelligence.
“No way you just walked in her with a homemade screenshot saying that Amazon is selling iPad Pros for $70. You think that I’m going to believe that?” Sariyah questions viewers. “Like, I feel like you’re calling me dumb at that point.”
In the video she stitched by che.leche, a cashier voices over a TikTok sound that says “I’m gonna have to like, bring you down to Earth for a sec…” and has a text overlay that reads “When a guest tries to fake a price match to get $70 off an item.”
The viral video that ensued discussion on Target’s fake price matching epidemic brought in a collective 1.4 million viewers.
Given that this scam is a hard strike at the worker’s pride, it’s entirely valid that they speak out against it. However, many commenters believed that the employees who spoke out were taking their jobs way too seriously. Granted, it’s not their money that they’re losing, but having to pretend to fall for a trick like this could result in a hit to the ego.
“It’s not even about how much you get paid or how seriously you take your job, like, I just quite literally can’t let nobody take me for a dummy. That’s just it.” The TikToker concluded in her clip.
Some viewers in the comment section discussed corporate greed and the current economy on Sariyah’s post. Others who also work in retail discussed why they take the scam so seriously.
