James Donaldson, aka MrBeast aka that YouTuber who does weird charity videos aka that guy who sold me a terrible burger, is apparently visiting Walmarts and forcing employees to let him explore their storage areas and then making them restock his candy bars.
A little background before we jump in. MrBeast, one the most popular content creators in the world, has been expanding his empire beyond just creating videos with horrible thumbnails. One of his most recent side businesses is the successful MrBeast Bars, a line of chocolate candy bars that was initially only sold at Walmart. While the candy is now available at other places, a lot of MrBeastās fans are going to Walmarts looking for his chocolate and, more recently, theyāve been finding empty shelves. Donāt worry, MrBeast is here to personally step in and force overworked, underpaid retail workers to do a better job stocking his candy.
On February 20, MrBeast posted an image of a stack of his candy bars supposedly sitting in the back area of an unspecified store. He explained that after fans had complained of his candy not being available at Walmarts and Targets, he had personally spent 15 hours visiting stores and āhelping them.ā
I spent 15 hours yesterday visiting Walmarts/Targets and seeing if they had inventory in the back and helping them put it out.
This store was doing 0 sales and when I visited it had 0 product on shelf. I found these in the backroom and had them scan them in/I placed them on the⦠pic.twitter.com/byfd4MTy8a
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) February 20, 2024
āThis store was doing 0 sales and when I visited it had 0 product on shelf,ā explained MrBeast. āI found these in the back room and had them scan them in. I placed them on the shelf. The store then started selling a bar an hour haha.ā
Lots to unpack here. First is the fact that he didnāt just āfindā these in Walmart or Targetās backrooms. Stock areas are reserved for employees and are not places you can freely visit. Now, heās a popular star and the founder of the company, so Iām not surprised they let him back there, but itās still weird to frame this as if Walmartās staffers didnāt know the candy bars were back there at all until he went poking around.
It also sounds like a very bad day for those folks working at this store. MrBeast posted this image at 7:30 a.m. EST, the day after he said he spent 15 hours checking storesā stock. Imagine coming in early for your shift or getting ready to clock out after hours of work at a place you hate and meeting MrBeastās soulless eyes as he asks to go into your storage area and then makes you restock his candy bars RIGHT NOW! These places tend to have systems and schedules for this stuff. Itās not like Target wants to hold onto popular merchandise and never sell it.
Kotaku reached out to Walmart and Target for comment.
According to MrBeastāa man who once tricked his fans into doing free labor for him by asking them to fix up his candy bar displaysāmost products donāt have āvelocitiesā like his chocolate does. So, you have to āstock the shelves more frequentlyā or they sit empty. He ends the thread by saying heās learned a lot, which is funny. I think most people understand that popular products get restocked often, and when they arenāt, people canāt buy them right away. Seems pretty obvious!
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