Viral WalMart ‘Self Checkout’ Staff Holiday Party Turned Collection Drive Helps Community

What started as a joke Facebook event has now gained national attention and nearly 50,000 followers - all over a very relatable topic to so many of us.

Self checkout at WalMart.

New Jersey Based "WalMart Self Checkout Christmas Party' Goes Viral

We know this isn't just a WalMart thing, as if you've shopped in-person in just about any retail store or supermarket somewhat recently you've encountered the controversial self checkout registers.

Some people (i'm looking at you, mom) are adamantly against the whole self checkout concept, while others find it easier to just hop on one of the registers and go about their day.

A Lacey New Jersey resident by the name of Drew Delgado, who has described himself as a prankster, started a bit of an internet craze last month when he posted a Facebook event for a 'WalMart Self Checkout Christmas Party' - a somewhat passive-aggressive nod at the idea of all us who have checked ourselves out at the popular chain.

Celebrating another successful year of picking, paying, and bagging your own groceries while actual employees just stand around and check receipts.

The event picked up steam, and when all was said and done, had nearly 50,000 RSVPs to the online event, and even a few regrets including another jokester who said he unfortunately couldn't attend because he had the 'Target Self Checkout Party' that same night, and another who shared it was the same time as the 'self unloading' of the Walmart trucks.

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Viral WalMart Self Check Out Party Turned Toy Drive in NJ

While it appears that the staff at the Lanoka Harbor NJ WalMart thought the party idea was funny, the Gothamist reports that the manager of the store contacted Delgado to say that WalMart was not interested in hosting the party.

Delgado instead took the interest in this spoof event to do something good for the community, and has invited people to meet up at the Elks Lodge in Lacey NJ Friday, December 15th to participate in a toy drive for local families in need.

Some began rolling in early, and were delivered ahead of the party.

Thousands of donations came in as a result of the event, toys, food items and infant supplies that all went to benefit individual families and local agencies in the NJ community.

Delgado, event organizer, provided a number of updates on the Facebook event page, and links to national coverage as well. In the end, it was shared that 300 deliveries came in from the Amazon wishlist alone, when combined with on-site donations, should help approximately 1,000 local families.

We didn’t have a whole lot of time to plan this but we did an amazing job nonetheless. We couldn’t have pulled this off without the Lacey Elks so we’d like to thank them tremendously for donating their space, time and effort to help make this possible. Also, the manager of the local Walmart store drove a truck to the event and unloaded a ton of toys and food etc. He’s actually a really great guy and I really appreciate him coming through for us.

There are plans to organize an even bigger event next year.