A man in New York City filmed a confrontation at a Target store, alleging he was ignored by staff and later chased by security after spending hundreds of dollars. The video, posted to TikTok, shows the man expressing frustration over his shopping experience and a subsequent argument with a store employee.
The footage begins with the man showing a shopping cart filled with items at a checkout counter. He claimed he had been ignored for five minutes at the door after his shopping cart stopped working. “The employees just stared at me after I spent over $500 in here on s–t,” he said in the video.
He then stated he was “chased by the security outside begging for my receipt because he wasn’t there at his job in the station.” The video shows him later speaking with a male Target employee wearing a red shirt and a name tag.
Customer details his allegations to a store employee
In the recorded conversation, the man asked the employee, “You’re my employee store?” to which the employee replied, “Yes.” The man then asked if the employee had seen what happened, but the employee stated he had been on the phone and was informed by the team.
“I wanted to come talk to you about it,” the employee said. The man suggested reviewing security cameras, but the employee preferred to talk in person. “I feel like that’s more—” the employee began before being interrupted.
“I want you to look at the cameras to see what your employees did and how they treated me after I spent over $500,” the man insisted. “I’m also missing $9.” He detailed his experience “from the cash register to being chased outside to being stuck here because the buggy won’t move and everyone is ignoring me.”
The man connected his experience to broader tensions, stating, “Do you understand that we are already boycotting Target? There’s already tension between my community and this place.” He concluded that the incident “just proved to me why I should not be here. I should not come back here ever again.”
The employee responded, “I understand.” The man then criticized the staff’s training and communication, claiming, “The cash register guy is new, doesn’t speak English. You’re hiring people who don’t speak English, who can’t communicate, have to go ask somebody else to ask me.”
The employee attempted to address the situation, saying, “I want to focus on finding a resolution, but I can’t talk to you because I have a media policy that I can’t adhere to. So I’m going to help you.” The man agreed to finish his statement, reiterating his complaints about the staff.
He described “walking around begging someone to help me, assist me, and then they have an attitude for assisting me. They’re upset that they’re at work.” He then recounted the interaction with security, alleging the guard “chased outside and then cuss at me. He said he’s gonna beat my ass.”
The man claimed the security guard “was gonna push the cart over because I told him I didn’t want to show him my receipt because I was chased outside after standing there for 5 minutes. So he decided he wanted to hurl insults at me.” He ended the video by looking directly at the camera and asking the employee, “Now what do you have to say?”
Video caption highlights broader shopping frustrations
The video’s public caption reinforced the man’s feelings, stating he is “Sick of it.” It read, “Shopping in NYC as a black man is an extreme sport and I’m sick of it.” The caption continued, “If it’s not the mom and pop shops discriminating against us and selling us bulls–t it’s the cooperation threatening us with STATE VIOLENCE for shopping with them.”
The caption expressed a sense of limited options, saying, “Going out shopping as a single black man is too difficult. Too much disappointment. Too much annoyance just to shop in my own country. I don’t know who to give my money to anymore. No one deserves another dollar. The #Boycott continues.”
It also noted, “There are not a lot of places for a black man to shop safely in NYC without being humiliated.” The man wrote that he is “striving to get to the lifestyle where I trust things being delivered to my doorstep so I can avoid these issues.”
The video drew numerous comments from viewers on the platform. One comment read, “Not supposed to be shopping there anyway 🤷🏾♀️.” Another stated, “Thank you so much return it all give me back my money.”
Several comments focused on the act of returning the items. “Finally somebody returned their stuff 🙏,” one user wrote, while another said, “I’m glad you returned it all too.” A more emphatic comment urged, “Yup return EVERY MF THING!!!!”
Some comments addressed the practicalities of shopping in New York City amid calls for a boycott. One user explained, “Yes we are suppose to be boycotting target but if you live in New York City we DO NOT HAVE WALMART everywhere like the south do. I live in Queens they only got one Walmart. He’s in the Bronx.”
