Paige Yore's Walmart Experience
Earlier this month a Colorado woman named Paige Yore posted on Facebook a video describing an incident that occurred at a Walmart between a 16-year-old cashier and a rude customer. While in the check-out line the customer was complaining that the young male cashier was incompetent. Yore defended the cashier only to find out that the reason for the cashier's inept work performance was because his mother had committed suicide earlier that morning. Her inspirational video on being kind to people went viral with 25 million views in four days.
Let's see if her story rings true. Here is a transcript of the video Yore posted.
"Happy Friday everybody! I just had this experience and it really touched home to me that no matter where we are and no matter what we're doing, we are there for a reason. Plans change, people go places for a reason.
I'm in downtown Pueblo at this Walmart waiting in line for like 20 minutes, and this young cashier, sixteen maybe, young man, he's having hell, he can't ring anything up, he can't remember the codes, he's taking deep breathes, and I thought to myself, and I'm like, 'I wonder what happened to him this morning that made his day just bad.' And I'm like irritated because I'm waiting forever. Well this lady starts laying into this young man; 'You suck at customer service, I don't know why you ever, I don't know how you ever got hired here blah blah blah.' Just being so rude to this young man.
And we, finally I helped her get her groceries all loaded up just to get her the hell out of there. And, uh, she runs her card and it gets declined and then she really lays it into this kid that it's his fault that he can't run the computer and, 'There's money in my account, I just transferred it and it's your dumb-ass that can't' and goes off on this kid. And I grabbed her, and I was like, 'Ma'am maybe you should just step aside, let us cash out. This young man is obviously having a bad day. Like, let it go. It's not his fault that you don't have money or whatever is the case.' So, um, this young kid just stops in his tracks behind the counter and just starts crying and he comes around the bagging area and he just hugs me. And I'm like, I'm like weirded out and I hug him back. And he's sobbing. And he finally gets it together and you know, I'm like,'It's okay, it's okay, you know, everybody has a rough day.'
And he's like, 'No, no, no. You don't understand.' And I said, 'Are you okay?' And he said, 'Ma'am my mom just committed suicide this morning and I have to work because I have to pay our rent, and I have to pay our bills and I don't even have a mom anymore. And this lady is just yelling at me.' I started crying. I said, 'You know, hang in there, life is so hard, and it's going to be okay, it will be okay.'
So this lady is standing there absolutely humiliated in-front of there's thousands of people in there, this place is a zoo and this young man is just crying. I gave him all the money out of my purse and he can't even get it together. The manager comes over and he's just crying and crying and crying, and, that just showed me that no matter, no matter what, even if your customer service sucks, even if, whatever happens, somebody is rude to you, being your customer service, don't jump down their throat, because they are fighting a battle that none of us know about. Just like all of us, we all have stuff in our life that is hard, and some days just suck, but we just have to be thankful to be alive and treat other people like you want to be treated, don't lay into somebody like that because you never know what's going on in their life. I love all of you, I hope you have the best weekend, I'll talk to you soon."
"Happy Friday everybody! I just had this experience and it really touched home to me that no matter where we are and no matter what we're doing, we are there for a reason. Plans change, people go places for a reason."
The word "just" is a unique word. There are several ways this word can be used. Most of the time when you hear the word "just" the person is minimizing something. In this case, she is minimizing time which is acceptable. What she experienced recently happened. When a person minimizes his actions it is an indication he may have done more than he is telling you; "I just went to McDonalds and came home." The problem with this statement is that 17 times she will use the word "just."
"I'm in downtown Pueblo at this Walmart waiting in line for like 20 minutes, and this young cashier, sixteen maybe, he's having hell, he can't ring anything up, he can't remember the codes, he's taking deep breathes, and I thought to myself, and I'm like, 'I wonder what happened to him this morning that made his day just bad.'"
She referred to Walmart as "this Walmart." Is this the first time she went to this Walmart? Most people would know what Walmart they visited; "I was at the Walmart on 6th Street."
She referred to the cashier as a "young man." We will see if her personal dictionary remains constant.
In talking about the cashier, she said, "He's having hell." This appears to be a fragmented sentence. I thought she was going to say, "He's having hell of a day" or "He's having hell of a time" If her story was coming from memory, we would not expect her to have a fragmented sentence.
She said, "I wonder what happened to him this morning that made his day just bad." If you saw a cashier that was continually making mistakes, what would you be thinking? I would be thinking that this person does not know what he is doing. That he is incompetent. Her first thought is that something "happened to him this morning." Why is "this morning" important to her. Everything a person says has a meaning. As it turns out the cashier's mother allegedly committed suicide that same morning. This indicates she knew in her story she was going to mention the suicide occurring that same morning. Therefore, "this morning" entered into her statement.
For the second time she used the word "just."
"And I'm like irritated because I'm waiting forever. Well this lady starts laying into this young man; 'You suck at customer service, I don't know why you ever, I don't know how you ever got hired here blah blah blah.' Just being so rude to this "
She remains consist in her language referring to the cashier as a "young man."
She had another fragmented sentence; "I don't know why you ever." Supposedly she is quoting the lady that yelled at the cashier. It is possible she forgot exactly what the lady said.
This is the third time she used the word "just."
"And we, finally I helped her get her groceries all loaded up just to get her the hell out of there. And, uh, she runs her card and it gets declined and then she really lays it into this that it's his fault that he can't run the computer and, 'There's money in my account, I just transferred it and it's your dumb-ass that can't' and goes off on this "
She started out using the pronoun "we" and then changed to the pronoun "I." Changing pronouns indicates deception. If she was recalling this story from memory, we would expect her to remember that she alone and not others helped this lady load up her groceries.
She again used the unique word "just."
She had a change in language from "young man" to "kid." There are no synonyms in Statement Analysis. Every word means something different. A truthful person's language will usually remain consistent. For example, if a person views a firearm as being a gun, he will always call it a gun. He will not call it a pistol because to him it is a gun. Deceptive people will sometimes use synonyms. Because they are making the story they cannot relate to it and consequently do not always follow their personal dictionary. A change in language is an indication of deception unless there is justification for the change. I do not see a justification for the change in language.
She had another unfinished sentence; "It's your dumb-ass that can't." Can't what? Again, she is supposedly quoting the lady and may not have remembered exactly what she said.
"And I grabbed her, and I was like, 'Ma'am maybe you should just step aside, let us cash out. This is obviously having a bad day. Like, let it go. It's not his fault that you don't have money or whatever is the case.' So, um, this young just stops in his tracks behind the counter and just starts crying and he comes around the bagging area and he just hugs me. And I'm like, I'm like weirded out and I hug him back."
The word "grabbed" means to suddenly seize in a rough manner. This word does not fit the situation. We would expect her to say that she spoke to the lady and asked her to step aside. She does not tell us what the lady's reaction was to being grabbed.
She again changes her language. Instead of referring to the cashier as a "kid" she goes back to calling him a "young man." She will then go on to call him a "kid" again. I do not see a justification for the changes. It would be acceptable to call him a "young man" when talking about how he was having problems performing his duties, and calling him a "kid" when talking about the lady berating him. The problem is she said the lady was "laying into this young man" and the lady "really lays it into this kid." She makes no distinction between calling him a "young man" and calling him a "kid." Truthful people usually do not synonyms unless there is a justifiable reason to change the language.
She does not identify whom she is referring to when she used the pronoun "us."
She used the words "so" and "um" which indicates she is pausing to think about what to say next. If her story was coming from memory, it should flow rather smoothly. However, there are times when recalling an event we may pause to think about what to say next. This is the only time she paused in her statement.
Four times she used the word "just." In this case, it does appear she is minimizing what the cashier was doing. The "young kid just stops in his tracks," "Just starts crying," He just hugs me."
"And he's sobbing. And he finally gets it together and you know, I'm like, 'It's okay, it's okay, you know, everybody has a rough day.'"
Some people will use the phrase "you know" because they want you to take for granted what they are saying is true. The problem is we do not know. A person has to tell us something for us to believe it. We take nothing for granted. Other people will have a habit of using this phrase and it will appear throughout their statement. She only used the phrase "you know" three times.
"And he's like, 'No, no, no. You don't understand.' And I said, 'Are you okay?' And he said, 'Ma'am my mom just committed suicide this morning and I have to work because I have to pay our rent, and I have to pay our bills and I don't even have a mom anymore. And this lady is just yelling at me.'"
Twice she used the word "just" although she is supposedly quoting the cashier. It sounds odd for the cashier to say, "My mom just committed suicide this morning." The shortest sentence is the best sentence; "My mom committed suicide this morning." "I don't even have a mom anymore" also sounds odd.
"I started crying. I said, 'You know, hang in there, life is so hard, and it's going to be okay, it will be okay.' So this lady is standing there absolutely humiliated in-front of there's thousands of people in there, this place is a zoo and this young man is just crying."
When people use the word "so" they are often explaining why something happened. In most statements, the person should not be explaining why something happened but should be telling us what happened.
Her claim that there were thousands of people there seems speculative.
"I gave him all the money out of my purse and he can't even get it together. The manager
I love all of you, I hope you have the best weekend, I'll talk to you soon."
Most people would probably say that they gave him all the money they had on them. They would not be specific and say that it came from their purse or wallet.
Conclusion
There are several indications of deception in her story. She had what appears to be an unjustified change in language from "young man" to "kid." She changed her pronouns from "we" to "I." She used language that does not appear to fit the scenario; "I grabbed her." She also had several fragmented sentences.
There is also one other strong indication of deception that indicates her story did not come from her memory. If you haven't discovered it, reread her story and see if you can spot it. Then click here for the answer and conclusion to this story.