Wal-Mart Insanity
we are down to one vehicle, I am doing things differently. Last Wed.,
Lindsay and I made a run to Wal-Mart at about 10:30 pm. Let me explain
our Wal-Mart situation here in Katy. We have the "bad" Wal-Mart, which
is about 2 miles away, and the "good" Wal-Mart, which is about 6 miles
away. I usually go to the "good" Wal-Mart because it newer, cleaner,
its lines aren't as long, it's better lit, and it just "feels" better to
me. Many times I have walked into the "bad" Wal-Mart and thought about
turning around, getting in my van and driving the additional 4 miles to
the "good" Wal-Mart. Last Wednesday night was certainly one of the
times I should have done this.
Lindsay and I got what we needed and then headed to the lines. For some
unknown reason, every line had 2-3 people in them. I guess they had all
waited until after Lost to do their shopping. We looked for the line of
least resistance and decided on one that had two carts; though they were
quite full, this still seemed to be the shortest line. Well, as we all
know, things are often not what they appear to be. There were two
carts, but 4 young women (early 20's). I did notice that this checkout
had several carts loaded with merchandise beside the carts these women
had, but didn't think much of it. I should have been paying more
attention! The young woman who had the conveyor belt loaded with all
types and colors of lingerie and baby products looked at the display
that showed her what her subtotal was and she went a little nutty. She
apparently didn't realize that she couldn't get the $800 worth of stuff
she had for $200. This is not an exaggeration; she didn't have any
clue what she was spending. This is where the story became
interesting. The other three girls began looking in their carts to see
what they could discard, ya know, what lace undies they really didn't
need. The one thing they all kept were their diapers. So I'm assuming
these were all unwed mothers(none were wearing rings) who were on some
kind of shopping spree. I stood there-no I wasn't the picture of
patience, maybe eternal hope-for about 10 minutes, then something
happened that made me want to scream. (I didn't, but boy did I want
to!) Girl number 3 pulled her cart in front of mine as girl number 2 was
finishing. Remember those merchandise laden carts? Well, they belonged
to the other 2 girls! And they were all paying together! At this point
I went to get into another line.
Things didn't go much better for me in the other line. After I emptied
about half of my cart, the cashier told me I needed to move up to the
next register (ya know how they stagger them, it was the one behind
hers). So, being the obedient child that I am, I put my stuff back in
my cart, only grumbling under my breath so Lindsay could hear me, and I moved to the third register. When I arrived at the register, there was another
woman there. The cashier came and told her to step back to the
register I just left, and then proceeded to check her out.
I was still in close proximity to the girls, so we could see their
progress as time marched on. They all took about 10 minutes checking
out, and they all had to void many things off of their tickets. They
ended up getting mad at the cashier (I think she earned an all expense
paid vacation for dealing with them) and then things became really
interesting. When they all finally decided what they had to have, one of
the girls stepped toward the counter to pay with her credit card. She
looked at the other three and said, "O.K., you all are going to pay me
back, right? Are you sure?! When will you pay me back?" I was
thinking... "You have spent 45 minutes in line, put everyone out, and
you are just now asking this question?" She then proceeded to swipe her
card and they all left.
It was a few more minutes before I was finished, and on the way to the
van I was quoting MLK to Lindsay.
"Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!"
I'm sure the time will come when I will visit the "bad" Wal-Mart
again... but it won't be any time soon!