A routine trip to Walmart turned into an unsettling privacy moment for lawyer John Graham when he received an unexpected email from the retail giant. The message asked about his store visit and raised serious questions about how companies track customer movements without their knowledge.
According to Bro Bible, Graham shared his confusion in a TikTok video that has now been viewed more than 1.1 million times. He explained that he received an email from Walmart asking if he had been at a specific store location two days earlier. The most troubling part was that he had not made any purchases during that visit.
“I didn’t make any purchases at that Walmart on that date. And I made no Walmart purchases at all at any Walmart on that date,” Graham said in the video.
Turns out Walmart has been watching shoppers way more closely than anyone realized
He explained that his family was sick, so he went to the store looking for warm apple cider. After finding the item out of stock, he simply left without buying anything or signing in anywhere. The email from Walmart proved they knew exactly what he did inside the store, even though he didn’t buy a thing. So, what actually happened here?
The answer lies in multiple tracking technologies that most shoppers don’t know about. According to Walmart’s own Store Pilot Test Project documentation, when a customer has Wi-Fi enabled on their phone, the store can record the location of their mobile device as it moves through different areas.
These phones send out signals that include a unique identifier called a Media Access Control address, which helps Walmart understand shopping patterns.
But the tracking methods go even deeper. The Counter reported that Walmart patents describe systems using Bluetooth beacons for customers who have downloaded the app, Wi-Fi tracking for those who log into the store’s network, and even facial recognition through security cameras.
One patent describes coating store floors with invisible substances that stick to shopping cart wheels, allowing cameras at checkout to photograph the wheels and map a customer’s entire path through the store.
Walmart analyzes around 200 billion rows of transaction data every couple of weeks and combines it with weather reports, social media trends, gas prices, and local events. This massive data collection helps the company optimize store layouts and place high-profit products in the best locations, similar to how other major chains are using customer data in unexpected ways.
The incident led Graham to turn off location services on his phone. In the comments section of his video, people expressed concern about the privacy implications. One person joked “Flock camera” while another asked “wal mart or MARTial LAW ??”
A commenter shared their own experience, saying “Geofencing advertising. I ran a campaign for a law firm in 2014 where every time someone walked into one of their competitors offices they would get an ad from our office.”
Another person suggested turning off “sensors, camera and mic access, location, VPN” to avoid tracking. One commenter simply noted that “walmart watching this” with eye emojis. These concerns echo growing worries about how businesses track customer behavior in retail spaces.
Published: Nov 4, 2025 02:30 pm