Walmart, Where Shopping is NOT a Pleasure!

The tag line for Walmart is definitely NOT, “Where shopping is a pleasure!”  The only pleasure you get is in your bank account.  Actually, there is quite a lot of pain and suffering when you shop at Walmart.  To be honest, some days I just can’t bring myself to go there.  It is just so dang cheap compared to Publix and with trying to feed five Wogs, we honestly just don’t have a choice anymore!  There actual tag line is, “Save Money, Live Better”  I think they should add, "Save Money, Live Better after you complete an Anger Management Class after shopping here!” or “Save Money, Live Better, Learn Patience!”  You know what?  Some days you just don’t want a lesson in patience!

I always try to sucker my mom into going with me to grocery shopping at Walmart.  For some bizarre reason, my mom loves to grocery shop and really doesn’t understand my personal loathing of it.  Because I was pregnant or nursing for most of my married life, Dan has done the bulk of the grocery shopping praise the Lord!  Only since Eddie has started school, have I returned to this awful chore.  My mom is so positive about it, I am secretly hoping it rubs off on me one day and I wake up without a sense of dread.

I am not even sure about my mother’s zeal for shopping after our last trip.  I really did not shop for two weeks.  Dan and I had both stopped to pick up things along the way like the 5 gallons of milk we drink a week, so I had a ton of stuff to buy!  My mom and I separated and I went through my long list methodically and got a bunch of random stuff.  The worst thing about Walmart is it’s so big. If you need shampoo, you have to walk a mile to get it.  Of course I forgot something that way and had to trek all the way over there AGAIN!  I always tell myself, that this will be my exercise for the day.

I had an overflowing cart, my mom even had some of my stuff in her basket.  We started looking for a line to get in.  They had 4 lines out of the 30 open. We were fourth in line.  I was in a time crunch too because I needed to get back to the beach to pick up the kids from school.  The longer it took, the more I started stressing.  I finally went up to the customer service to ask if they could send more cashiers out to move all of us along.  The girl looked me up and down with an attitude and said, “Nope, we ain’t got nobody else!”  Awesome customer service….

It started getting really bad when a non-English speaking customer in front of me started checking out.  She had all these WICA certificates in her hand.  We waited 30 minutes while she ran back to get the correct item with her government coupon.  It was pretty unbelievable. We had a spunky lady and her sister pull up behind us and go off the whole time.  She politically ranted and raved.  More people came behind them and it backed up all the way into the clothing area.  I thought we were going to have an angry mob incident.  Several more people went to customer service with no results. People were calling for a boycott and for all of us to walk away from our baskets.  I looked at my hour worth of collected items in my basket and decided I may want to persevere so that the 5 Wogs could have food for dinner but being an activist in my heart, I sure was tempted. The poor cashier was taking the brunt of it but I blame the management who understaffed this massive store and caused the customers to regret ever walking in the door.  I may have to send a copy of my blog to Arkansas (I learned from the spunky lady that you could call and complain there and that she has done it before and will most definitely do it again after our horrific experience!!) 

 

My mother and I hustled to the car at top speed, tossed the two baskets of endless flimsy bags in my truck and drove as fast as we could home to unload the completely defrosted groceries at my house.  I am pretty sure I was still sweating and panting when the kids got in the car.  It was definitely not a pleasure shopping there and I am not sure the discount was worth the trauma and frustration of it all!  I am not sure how long it will take me to recover from this most troubling experience but I certainly hope I can sucker my mother into the next trip to our Walmart adventure! I am too scared to go alone!