The Wallyworld Experience

Today while Big Sis was in school, Little Sis and I ventured out to Walmart.

For those of you who are employed by or love Walmart, please don't take this personally, but I can't stand Walmart. Given the choice I would go to Target or Biggs or possibly even K-Mart (though K-Mart ranks #2 in horrible retail stores). And given the choice I would rather be subjected to five straight hours of a Wiggles/Teletubbies marathon than have to enter a Walmart.

But, as you know, my digital camera croaked a couple weeks ago. My agency sent me an email yesterday reminding me that our 12 month post-placement report is due soon, and we must include 4 recent photos of Little Sis and our family. So, I need a camera. And I admit, I miss having one.

After researching online, I found what seems like a good camera by Canon and it seems like only Walmart sells this model. So, today I sucked it up and Little Sis and I made the 20 mile trek out to Wallyworld.

There are many reasons why I can't stand Walmart. First of all, I have yet to go to a Walmart store that doesn't have a gazillion stray shopping carts in the parking lot. And for some reason, Walmart shoppers don't understand the concept of the "cart corral." Instead of putting their cart in the marked corral space, the lazy Walmart shoppers just leave their carts willy-nilly, usually next to their car as they drive off. Of course, the wind will blow the carts into innocent vehicles like mine also parked in the lot. Today I found a great parking spot, close to the door, but some idiots left 2 carts in that space, thereby preventing me from parking anywhere near the store entrance.

Another thing about Walmart...those "door greeters." What exactly is their purpose? I have yet to actually be "greeted" by one of these employees. They just stand there and watch you enter the store. Today I was holding Little Sis in my arms while trying to balance my heavy purse and grocery list and sippy cup. The Walmart greeter stood there and watched me trying to pull a cart from the line of carts and did not assist nor "greet."

Third thing about Walmart...logistically their stores don't make sense. Every Walmart store is set up completely different. Since I was already subjecting myself to the Walmart experience, I thought I might as well pick up a few groceries. Seems easy, right? Wrong. I was looking for some tortilla wraps for Big Sis (she likes me to melt cheese on it and fold it up). They had an aisle marked "Latina Foods" (???) that had hard taco shells but no soft tortilla shells. When I finally was able to find an employee she looked at me like I was nuts and said the tortilla shells are over in the refrigerated section, next to the milk. Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense (not!).

I go to the deli to get some lunch meat and there is one employee behind the counter. I'm not sure what she was doing, but it looked like she was just standing there. I was the only customer. I stood there for a minute and then cleared my throat to get her attention (even though she was looking right at me). She mumbled something I couldn't understand that then yelled to "Patty" in the back. Patty said, "I'm busy trying the put a lid on a tray." I'll be out when I'm done." Three minutes later and I'm getting ticked. She finally comes out and assisted me, without an apology and without a smile.

After my fun deli experience I go to Electronics to buy the camera. On the Walmart site it lists the camera as $139. I go to the camera counter and don't see any for that price. I ask the employee and she said, "Oh, it must be this one" and points to any empty space. Underneath is a tag that has the description of the camera and someone hand-wrote "last one." I asked the lady and she said, "Oh, it says last one, but we sold that one." Uh, ok, then maybe you should removed the tag that says "last one." I ask when they'll get more in. She said she doesn't think they're getting anymore in, but I can order it online. The tag in the store read $149 and I asked her why the Walmart web page is for $139, which is $10 less. She said, "That's how it always is," but tells me if I order it online I can have it shipped to any Walmart store for free. So, basically Wallyworld is charging you an extra $10 if you want to purchase something from their store?!

So, $53 later and with no patience left, Little Sis and I left Wallyworld. I ordered the camera online, which means that in about two weeks I get to have another wonderful Wallyworld experience when I go there to pick up the camera. Yippee.