Alex Carson
Spending a Night In a Department Store
What kid didn’t dream of spending a night in a store? You can play with all of the toys that you want, and eat all the treats on the shelves; it could be amazing. Two brothers, Ricky and Nick, set out to make fantasy a reality. On YouTube, they are known as the Ireland Boys, and when the reached three million subscribers on their YouTube channel, they wanted to reward their followers by posting a video of them staying in Walmart for 72 hours. This is no easy feat since if they got caught, they would likely be arrested. Boys hide inside Walmart for 72 hours and video tape what they see.
Practice
The boys’ Walmart attempt wasn’t their first. They practiced for this challenge by spending 24 hours in a Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, and an abandoned water park. This helped them get the practice that they needed for their three-day stay in Walmart.
Day 1: Setting Up Camp
When the boys first got to Walmart, the first thing that they had to do was find a place to hide. They knew that if an employee saw them multiple times during the three days, they would start to get suspicious. The ideal place would be an area that isn’t restocked too often, and where there weren’t too many customers. At first, they considered the toilet paper aisle. They could easily build a fort with the toilet paper, and it was soft. The only problem was that toilet paper was restocked often because it was a household necessity.
Finally, they settled in the diaper section. They could still build a fort to hide out, and diapers aren’t restocked too often. They rearranged the boxes to hide at the back of the shelf. Their fort was larger than some bedrooms. After finding their shelter, it was time to hunt for food.
Day 1: The Food
The boys didn’t bring their own food into the store, but that was fine since it was filled with every type of food imaginable. The boys aren’t thieves, so it was up to Nick to buy the food and somehow get it back to the fort. Nick put a bunch of frozen food in the cart, and then he went to the appliance section, where he purchased a microwave. He also bought a blender so that he and Ricky could make smoothies. The boys found an outlet in the back of the store to plug in their appliances. They waited until 3 am to make their smoothies and cook their food because there weren’t as many shoppers in the store at the time.
Day 1: Decorating Their Shelter
After having something to eat, the boys decided that it was time to get some rest. The store would be very busy early in the morning, so they had to get a good night’s sleep before that happened. They didn’t want to sleep on the bare shelf, so they went and got some blankets, pillows, and decorations to make their shelter look and feel like home.
Day 2: Almost Getting Caught
The boys woke up at 8:23 am when an employee was restocking the diapers on the shelves right above them. Fortunately, they weren’t discovered. They stayed quiet while the employee finished restocking, and they came out of hiding. They had many more challenges on the itinerary.
Day 2: The Dare Wheel
The boys knew that there was no point in spending 72 hours in Walmart if they weren’t going to do anything potentially dangerous. They created a dare wheel. The object was for one of the boys to spin the wheel, and he would need to complete the dare that the wheel landed on.
Day 2: Dare #1
Nick and Ricky’s friend, Rohan, didn’t stay in the store, but he wanted to be in on the dare. He was the first one to spin. His dare was to get overly excited about a product and then throw it into a shopper’s cart. He went over to a woman in the chip aisle, and he found a bag of Flamin Hot Cheetos. He started jumping and yelling in excitement, and people began to stare. Then, he forgot to put the bag in a shopper’s cart, so he had to do the dare again. This time, he chose a man in the snack section. He picked up a box of granola bars, and started screaming, “No way! Dark chocolate chunk!” He took four boxes and dropped them in the man’s cart. The man did not react at all, and Rohan completed his dare.
Day 2: Dare #2
The dare day was almost shut down when Rohan caused a commotion during his dare. An employee told the boys that if they didn’t leave, they would call the police. Ricky didn’t let this stop him, and it was his turn to spin the wheel. His dare was to have a loud and awkward conversation on the phone near a crowd of customers.
Ricky went to the kitchen aisle, and there were a few women in the aisle. He had a fake conversation with a friend who said that his cat had peed in his cereal and that he ate it. Ricky told his “friend” that he had told him many times that cat pee isn’t cereal. The women were baffled and tried to get out of the aisle as quickly as possible. The one woman who remained in the aisle left immediately when Ricky told his “friend” that frog pee was fine to drink, but cat pee was gross.
Day 2: Dare #3
When it was Nick’s turn to spin the wheel, it landed on “Intercom Prank.” He knew that if he did this dare, they would be kicked out of the store immediately. He didn’t want to waste two days in Walmart without reaching the goal, so he moved the wheel to the next dare, “Sneeze Prank.” This dare was to sneeze around customers while spraying them with water, making them think that they had been sneezed on.
Nick had no idea at the time that the “Intercom Prank” would have been safer. He did it once to a man, but she said nothing. When he did it a second time, the man told him that he would knock him out. Nick quickly let the man know that it was a joke. The man wasn’t happy because he knew that he was being filmed, and they drew attention to themselves. Unfortunately, they attracted the attention of the employee who threatened to call the police on them earlier. When the employee started to call the police, the boys had to retrieve their things before leaving the store.
Day 2: Leaving the First Walmart
The first thing that the boys tried to retrieve was the microwave. When they got to the back of the store, it was gone, and they were bummed. They didn’t have time to dwell on it because they had to get the rest of their things. When they got back to the shelter, they noticed that there was an employee there restocking the diapers. She didn’t know that the boys were kicked out or that they build a fort in the diapers. They decided to be honest, and they told her that they made a fort behind the diapers. She assumed that they were just playing around. The employee was shocked when the boys pulled the blender and the food that they stashed in their fort. When they had their things, the boys ran toward the door.
Day 2: Dare Continues At Walmart #2
The boys wanted to complete their challenge, so they had to find another Walmart to finish. When they got to the second Walmart, Ricky didn’t want to worry about food and shelter. Instead, he got right into spinning the dare wheel. This time, the boys’ friend, Mason, was going to spin the wheel. He landed on, “Get Mad.”
For this dare, he had to put on a ridiculous headband that made him look like a troll. He had to approach a store employee and ask for Ireland Boys Productions merchandise. (Ricky and Nick have a clothing line) When the employee didn’t understand what he was looking for, his dare was to get really angry. Mason feigned anger and told the employee to mind her own business. The employee got security, and the boys were kicked out. It took just 25 minutes this time. Ricky and Nick had to find a third Walmart, but they had to go alone this time. Mason and Rohan had things to do.
Day 3: Walmart #3
When the boys got to their third Walmart, it was midnight, which meant that it was the start of day three. It was Monday, and Nick had school in the morning. The boys decided to find a place to sleep for a few hours before Nick’s dad picked him up for school. Ricky was going to stay in the store, and wait for Nick to meet up with him when school let out.
Day 3: A Toilet Paper Fortress
The boys decided that the toilet paper section would make a good fortress, despite that it was right beside the employee entrance to the storeroom. Since it was their third Walmart, and they had just reached three million subscribers, they decided to sleep on the third story shelf in the toilet paper section. Ricky climbed to the third shelf and had a great view of the store.
Day 3: Setting Up a Bed
Since Ricky found a place to sleep, it was up to Nick to find some bedding to make sleeping more comfortable. They decided that since they were thrown out of two Walmarts already that they would save the dares for the finally 72-hours of the challenge. The decided to sleep for the night.
Day 3: Leaving For School
The boys got three hours of sleep because Nick had to be up for school for 5 am. When his father arrived, he was shocked to find his son on the third shelf in the toilet paper section. When Nick climbed down, and the employee saw him but was cool about it. He told the boys to get down from the shelf, but he didn’t force them to leave the store.
Day 3: Setting Up Camp For the Day
With Nick off at school, Ricky was on his own for the next 8-hours. He was tired, so he decided to find a place to sleep. Since the diaper section worked out great at the first Walmart, Ricky set up a fort there so that he could get some sleep. He needed pillows and blanket, which was a bit difficult because there were customers and employees in the area for over an hour. He was in the fort when a customer came shuffling through the diaper boxes, but Ricky managed to move so that he wasn’t spotted. Finally, he got his pillow and blankets to the fort. To pass the time, he watched old Ireland Boys Productions videos.
Day 3: Nick Returns
When Nick got out of school, he headed back to Walmart. They decided that it was time to do the group dare. This dare involved them getting on the store intercom and playing a song that they made. They were to play the song, and run back to the fort if an employee spotted them.
Day 3: Turn It Up
The boys were going to play classical music, but they decided that it would be too easy. They made a song that featured their friends yelling and screaming. They knew that they had to do it, “Ireland Boys” style. When they got the song playing, the boys started to dance. Nick rand down the aisles to see if any employees were coming. A smart employee came up behind the boys and asked Ricky what he was doing. He told him that he was playing the number one song on iTunes, but the employee wasn’t amused. The employee alerted security, and the boys were thrown out of the store, with security following them out. They were told that the police were on the way, so they ran to the car, ready to go to the fourth Walmart.
Day 3: Walmart #4
When the boys got to their fourth Walmart, they hadn’t bathed or brushed in two days. Since Walmart sells shower supplies, they bought some and got cleaned up in the bathroom sink. They set up camp in the dog bed section this time. It was smaller than the diaper section but more low-key. Their third dare was Hide and Seek With a Twist. They went on Instagram Live and invited their followers to meet them there to play. While Ricky was talking to their followers, an employee spotted Nick in the fort. He was sure he could talk his way out of it so they wouldn’t be kicked out.
Day 3: A Close Call
Nick tried to explain the 72-hour challenge to the employee, but he didn’t care. He told the boys that they could stay in the store as long as they were shopping, but they couldn’t be loitering. They were told that they had to leave their fortress.
Day 3: Hide and Seek Continues
A guy named Derek saw Instagram Live and wanted to meet the Ireland Boys, so he went to play the game. Ricky was up first as the seeker and found Derek in just one minute and 55 seconds. He made a rookie mistake by peeking out to see where Ricky was. It took six minutes and 52 seconds for Ricky to find Nick.
When Derek was up, Nick hid in a basket of balls, and he was discovered in six minutes and 19 seconds. When it was Nick’s turn to seek, Derek and Ricky didn’t make it easy on him. Derek hid in a locked dressing room, and Ricky hid in a locked bathroom stall. An employee caught Derek, but he asked for five more minutes, and the employee agreed. It took Nick 11 minutes to find Derek and Ricky. As his punishment, they got to squirt mayonnaise in his mouth, and Nick hates mayonnaise.
Day 3: Kicked Out
The employee that found them in the dog beds found the Ireland Boys videos on YouTube and threatened to call the police. They had to leave. The challenge ended after 68 hours and 50 minutes. They say that their next goal will be to reach 100-hours.
