SEAL BEACH, Calif. – Imagine you’re browsing the aisles of Target when you come across a $20 bill carefully folded inside a box of baby diapers. This is not a random stroke of luck; it is the work of those following the “she deserved the purse” trend.

In September, Danaesha Gonzalez (@danaeshagonzalez) posted a TikTok, not knowing the waves she would make. The video, filmed in the baby products aisle of a Target store, shows a gray purse with a price tag misplaced between medicine boxes and lotion bottles. Over this image was the emblazoned text: “She deserved the purse.”

Gonzalez, moved by what she saw that day, knew she had to share her video.

“It could have been anyone’s purse, but when you experience something like this, you interpret it in your own way. To me, this purse represented a mother’s right to care for herself, and that’s what inspired me,” Gonzalez said in an interview with People Magazine.

This video became about so much more than just a purse. It represented the sacrifice of a mother for her child. Going viral, the video clip reached an audience of over 22 million people, setting off a trend where other good Samaritans hide gift cards and dollar bills in baby product aisles of Target for parents to discover and use. 

However, not everyone is happy with “she deserved the purse.” People have taken advantage of this community-minded trend. There are online videos of Target stores with damaged baby products: ripped-open diaper boxes, open baby formula canisters and ransacked baby aisles. 

Gallery • 3 Photos

Leah Oh

Tampered diaper boxes and baby formula canisters are examples of this trend backfiring.

A TikTok video posted by @blue.collar.wifey captioned the takeaway from this trend and the effects that followed it: “She deserves the purse but also deserves baby products that aren’t tampered with.”

Another user echoed similar feelings. 

“My local Target had to remove the cans of certain brands of formula because the metal lids were also damaged. I had to drive another hour to Walmart for formula. No one can do good deeds in private,” commented @quinners011 in a video capturing tampered baby formula cans. 

Now, it has been almost two months after the peak of the “she deserved the purse” trend.

At the Target located in Seal Beach, employee Gina Garcia (nicknamed “Mama G” by other team members) was unaware of the trend but recognized a mother’s sacrifice. 

“I’ve done it several times: You put it in the cart, you want something and you have to sacrifice. And that’s what moms do. I’m sure it’s not only moms; it’s probably grandmas and aunts and everybody, maybe even a dad, but I understand the feeling,” she said.

Another team member, Ricardo, pointed out that there are many reasons for damaged products.

“It could be correlating ‘she deserves the purse’ with people putting money in products, but it’s really hard to tell which it is,” he said.

Alex Alvarado, a member of Target’s Asset Protection (AP) security team, plays a major role in ensuring the safety of the store.

“(Alex) goes throughout the store (and) monitors certain aisles that we know theft is higher, like the baby aisles. So what he does is walk around the store, making sure that items are not getting tampered with or looking for suspicious behaviors,” Ricardo said.

Recently, Alvarado hasn’t noticed significant disruption to baby products.

“Property damage-wise, not really much happens. The only thing that I could say, like our baby department, is taking a lot of baby formula. Apart from that, I’d say nothing really gets hit more than that,” he said. 

Whether the trend has died down or the negative effects of “she deserved the purse” were magnified on social media, the Seal Beach Target has not currently experienced many damaging effects. Despite the damage the trend may have caused for Target stores and shoppers, it came from a place of understanding and support for parents.