A Target employee posted a viral video in which he was forced to close the store alone after his manager left mid-shift.
Ket’s (@ketamilorde) video had more than 277,000 views and 45,000 likes by Tuesday. Kett added an on-screen caption to her video, explaining: The morning manager left at 3pm and no one else came. ”
Kett begins the video from inside Target, saying, “We literally only have four people working right now, so we have to manage 24 cash registers, guest services, self-checkout, etc.”
“I’m like the only person who knows how to do it,” she added. “We don’t have a manager yet, so I have to close the store by myself.”
In the next clip, Kett is seen moving through the store, with an on-screen caption that reads, “Whether you like it or not, it’s happening.”
She then recorded herself from behind the guest services counter and said, “There was one rude person complaining that no one would help him (even though there were literally 4 people in here).”
“32 registrations will be closed,” she updates.
Kett added another on-screen caption to the original clip, saying that the number of cash registers was actually closer to 50 “if you include those at High Tech, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and CVS.”
The later clip is a photo of Kett in the back room of a Target with the caption, “Help me.”
“We’re staying in business,” she added. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I’m scared. I miss my mother.”
Kett then records himself using a walkie-talkie to talk to one of his four colleagues who were in the store that day. “Hey, you took a 15-minute break about 30 minutes ago, where are you? Come here,” she says.
She added another caption explaining that the colleague in question “didn’t come back for another 15 minutes after this.”
At 11:12 p.m., Kett took a photo of herself with a timestamp and the caption, “Please don’t do that again.”
At 11:40 p.m., Kett finally closed up shop. “I came. I saw. I conquered,” she wrote. “Please be back here tomorrow at 7am for your shift… Yay!”
Kett captioned his video: “Considering there was no preparation and no warning, I can honestly say they did a great job.”
One viewer told Kett he had a similar experience when closing Target after his shift. “I was a team leader for Starbucks inside Target and one day they told me they were closing all the damn stores and I was like, ???” I don’t even know how to process returns. ”
“As a former Target employee, this doesn’t surprise me at all,” said another.
@KetamineRode To be honest, I think I did a great job considering there was no preparation or warning for this #the goal ♬Original Sound – GIRLS MODE
One viewer told Kett: “I want you to say you got some kind of compensation.”
“Nothing extra, no,” Kett answered.
Another said: “One goal I worked on was doing the job of an untrained manager for three days, only to be told that’s what I had to do. The goal is messed up.”
“I had a total of 15 to 30 minutes of hands-on training. Everything else I had to figure out on my own,” Kett replies.
In recent headlines, a former Target employee also revealed that the store requires employees to do all the work, even though there are no assigned jobs.
The Daily Dot reached out to Ket via TikTok DM and Target via email.
*First published: April 16, 2024, 7am CDT
Grace Fowler
Grace Fowler is a summer reporting and media fellow at the Daily Dot. She just graduated from Texas State University, where she studied mass communication.
