Wal Mart

So as I mentioned in the previous post, I don't care for Wal Mart. However it is the closest of that type of store to me so I find myself there occasionally. I bought a bunch of stuff there last week for a Primary activity. I needed to return the items that didn't get used so our Primary wouldn't have to pay for extra stuff. While I was there I decided to pick up a few things I needed including colored ink for my printer.

Yesterday when I went to put the ink in (so I could print Alyssa's Valentines) I noticed the ink cartridge box was stapled closed. When I opened it the foil wrapper around it was cut open. I thought maybe someone just bought the wrong thing and when they realized it didn't fit their printer they returned it. So I put the ink cartridge in my printer to see if it was full of ink. It was almost gone! Somehow someone used up a cartridge of ink and returned it to Wal Mart, and even worse, somehow it made it back on the shelf.

So when Jason got home I ran to Wal Mart to make the return. I was the only one in the customer service area waiting to be helped. I stood at the counter for about five minutes waiting for someone to help me. They were all off in the corner filling up Valentine's balloons. This probably wouldn't have bugged me quite so much except that the day before when I returned the Primary stuff I waited about that long while they all scrambled to help some guy make change for $1. That's right a dollar. How hard is it to make change for a dollar? And, does it take all three customer service ladies to help make change for a dollar? Then, when they did help me she gave me a hard time for returning two packages of Capri Sun juice boxes. She said they would have to throw them away because all returned food items are put in the trash. They were unopened boxes of juice packets! You have got to be kidding me. It was like she wanted me to not return them. But it was the church's money, not mine. So I decided to return them and let them make the decision to throw away.

Anyway, when I finally got up to the counter and explained how they had sold me an empty ink cartridge she told me to go ahead and get another one. Thankfully there was no hastle here. After making the exchange I decided I needed some potatoes for dinner. I quickly went to the produce and got my potatoes. Next I headed for the checkout. I thought since getting only one item the self-checkout was the way to go. Down one self checkout aisle there were two huge lines for the two machines. On the next aisle over one of the machines was out-of-order (which is what I thought was the reason why everyone was waiting on the next aisle.) In front of the out-of-order machine was one woman checking out her items at another checkout machine. She had an entire cart full of stuff (is it just me or is the self-checkout sort of like the 10-15 items or less kind of thing.) She was SO SLOW! She was talking outloud to herself the whole time. "Hmmm, where's the little barcode on this item. Here it is. I guess I should bag it with these items." and on and on it went like this. {insert rolling of eyes here}

Finally--FINALLY when she was done which took at least 10 minutes (seriously, no exaggeration) she swiped her card (as she talked outloud to herself about it) and asked for cash back. The machine made the noise like what you hear from an ATM of producing the bills. Then it starts beeping really loud. The guy in charge of the self-checkout area came running over to see that one of her bills got jammed in the machine. She had just pulled it out so he tried to reset the checkout machine. No luck. It wasn't responding to all his button pushing. Then he turns to me and says, "Sorry, I guess it is out of order."

I think he must have been able to tell I was on the verge of punching him in the nose after I waited behind that lady for so long that he paused for a minute and then said, "I guess I can help you up here." Yeah, I guess he could help me. He better or I was going to explode.

I thought I would run over there and back in like 20-25 minutes. I was easily at Wal Mart for more like 45-50 and barely made it back in time to get Alyssa to dance.

So that's my Wal Mart story. Next time I try to go there I will try to remind myself that where I live I have plenty of other choices.