Are saints walking among us? That’s what Dollar Tree customers might be wondering after seeing a woman work an eight-and-a-half hour shift at Dollar Tree, even though she literally just walked in off the street. She even gave her two “co-workers” a surprise gift at the end of her self-assigned shift.
A TikTok video commenting on this free work day was created by creator Ugh Madison (@ugh_madison), and as of Sunday morning, the video had more than 2.3 million views. This was just 21 hours after it was installed on the platform.
The creator’s content depicts her in many public places to see how long she can stay before being kicked out. In this her experience with Dollar Tree, she started at 1 p.m. and was not approached by an actual employee until the end of her self-planned shift.
“I got to work right away,” she says at the beginning of the video. “I swept the floors, organized the shelves, and started handing out Dollar Trees to customers.”
She is shown handing a customer one of the Dollar Trees that defies explanation. She appears to have about eight one-dollar bills attached to a synthetic white pine branch. The customer gratefully accepted it and said, “Damn, it’s Dollar Tree at Dollar Tree.”
At one point, she said, “I wanted to go to the bathroom after a few hours, but I didn’t have any toilet paper. I have confirmed.”
That included getting down on all fours to clean the dirty bathroom floor.
She said one of the employees approached her with about 30 minutes left to close and asked if she needed anything. She then bought her two $200 gift cards and gave one of hers to each of her two “coworkers,” as she calls them.
@a_madison I went to a random Dollar Tree and worked for free.
This isn’t the first time she’s been forced to work for free for content. According to an article in the Daily Dot, she worked 6 hours at Kroger and 8.5 hours at Target. But given Dollar Tree’s reputation as a place where chaos sometimes reigns, such as an article in the Daily Dot showing how customers had to call after seeing no employees around, this may be even more impressive.
One commenter said, “Girl, we need you at every Dollar Tree.”
“This is great, but I feel like Dollar Tree is always understaffed,” said another.
“Cleaning the bathroom floor with your bare hands was so stressful, but this is so cute,” said another.
Many admired her selflessness, but also understood her desire to bring order to the discount store.
“I once spent an hour sorting through frames at Dollar Tree,” one person wrote. “I’m very satisfied.”
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via direct message on TikTok.
*First published: March 3, 2024, 4:00 PM CST
phil west
Phil West is a veteran professional writer and editor and the author of two books about soccer, The United States of Soccer and I Believe That We Will Win, both published by The Overlook Press. His work has recently appeared in The Striker (where he was editor-in-chief), MLSSoccer.com, Next City, and Texas Highways. He is based in Austin and is also an instructor in the writing program at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
