There are many advantages to getting your products into a major retail store.
As well as the obvious boost in sales, saying a store like Walmart is selling your wares lends credibility to a small business.
But there are also downsides: For one, youre putting the control of how your stock is presented in the hands of store managers.
So founders may be able to relate with the influencer-turned-business owner Jimmy Donaldsonotherwise known as, MrBeastwho has gone to pretty extreme measures to keep his products looking their best on store shelves.
He took to Twitter to show side-by-side images of Walmart shelves sporting Feastables, the confectionary brand he founded last yearone messy, and one tidy.
The popular YouTuber known for his generous giveaways (like curing 1,000 blind people) then proceeded to ask his millions of loyal subscribers to return the generosityby asking them to clean up the presentation of the chocolate bars in their local stores, until he hires a team to do this routinely.
I need your help! Next time you see Feastables in Walmart (and soon to be new retailers) if you could clean up the presentation and make it look better thatd make me very happy
Im building a team to do this routinely, just need help in the short term pic.twitter.com/CzYqOqQvta
MrBeast (@MrBeast) March 3, 2023
Surprisingly, members of his army of fans have actually followed his command; less surprisingly, asking his followers to essentially work for free has been met with backlash.
Unpaid labor
The notion that a millionaire would call on his fans, many of whom are children, to do unpaid labor has sparked fierce debate.
Some might argue that if consumers are voluntarily cleaning up shelves and engaging with the brand, then whats the problem?
But at an estimated net worth of $500 million, its clear that MrBeast could easily pay for the staff he needs to tidy his products, and critics said that his choice to call on his fans anyway points to an abuse of loyalty and peak capitalism.
Twitter user, @StrewthQueen noted that MrBeast has just unlocked a new form of capitalism before adding, I hate it here.
God, if I had 14 million every time a rich person asked poor people to do free labor another said.
Other commentators turned to satire, mocking that MrBeasts fans are irrationally loyal people who would go as far as to kidnap and torture hapless customers who disturbed Feastables displays.
Its fascinating to watch the stage of capitalism where people are honored to do free labor for rich people that dont care about them because they feel some kind of connection and loyalty like a dog wanting a treat, only the treat is an imagined feeling of connection, @DanDanTransient concluded.
The new world order
MrBeast fans eagerness to make the influencer happy also highlights the firm grip social media has on consumers today.
Roger that boss
Love what you do, happy to help! pic.twitter.com/cogdquHTyX
AITX | Mr. E (@MreSSB) March 4, 2023
And while that might be a terrifying notion for some, many were in equal measures impressed.
Being able to tweet something like this AND have it make an ACTUAL impact on shelf space is a key reason why i think creator brands will dominate shelf space this decade, @mws argued while adding that no typical chocolate brand could get consumers to care enough to do this.
I fixed the aisle at my Walmart pic.twitter.com/hq0snxs84h
Frank (Lets Be Frank) (@Letsbefrank2410) March 3, 2023
Similarly, @ItsJustinRhodes described crowdsourcing the clean up as brilliant while taking a swipe at the iconic chocolate brand Hersheys.
An amazing way to take care of the problem within your own influence. Proud of you. Watch out @Hersheys theres a new and better way of doing things, he added.
Plus you could be rewarded $5,000
Like many of his previous stunts, MrBeasts latest call has a philanthropic element. People who send before and after images of their cleaning were promised (in a later follow-up Tweet) to have the chance to win $5,000.
But its clear from the Twitter threads comment section that many fans werent aware of the monthly prize drawer, with some saying that they just wanted to help.
Since the March 3 Tweet, the YouTuber has further promised to give money to charity to show his appreciation (or perhaps to calm the mounting backlash).
To show how grateful I am to everyone that helped tidy things up Im going to donate $100,000 to charity. What charity should I donate to? Appreciate you all, he wrote.
Jimmy, Im a man of my word. I reorganized both sections of @Feastables @MrBeast bars at my nearest Walmart. Ill definitely be keeping an eye on these areas! pic.twitter.com/GbTWAgLVio
Justin Pearson (@JLP1794) March 4, 2023
But a handful of Twitter users noted that the move does little to improve how apparently unethical MrBeasts free clean-up call to action was in the first place.
How long until internet leftists decide that no ethical consumption under capitalism also applies to MrBeasts personal brand ventures?, @bennyclams wrote.
Like any other business owner, the YouTuber is ultimately just trying to sell chocolate, the Twitter user added, so we can stop pretending hes some saintly left-adjacent content creator, hes a capitalist.
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