Wal Mart Story #1

Hello World!

Okay, so here is the story. I do not like Wal Mart. I believe I started boycotting Wal Mart several years ago when I was into politics and I had good, solid, educated reasons. Now, I must admit, my reasons are more like: the stores are too damn big, they are dirty, the quality of the merchandise is sub par, etc. I have held onto my one "political" reason as "I will not patronize an establishment that treats its employees poorly" - low wages, forced unpaid overtime, no health care benefits.

So I decide to go to Wal Mart and purchase a bat bag for my nephew. I walk in and the "Greeter" doesn't greet me. I don't really care, but come on, your one job is to welcome the customers and you can't do that? So I start the hunt for sporting goods. I find it relatively quickly and I begin looking for bat bags. I am not having any luck, but I can't really figure out the logic in the department. There are baseballs and helmets with the golf equipment. Then I find bats with the soccer equipment. I think it's possibe that I am just unable to locate the bat bags. I begin seeking assistance and I hear a page, "Customer needs assistance in sporting goods". I'm thinking, "Wow! They are watching me and are sending help. Maybe they really have changed since the last time I was here." I see another customer walk up to the counter and wait. I realize that is who the page is for, but who cares? I can get some help, too.

We begin to wait. Eleven minutes. Eleven freakin' minutes?! I am beginning to get irritated. I walk down an isle and see an employee walking toward me. I gesture to him to see if he is the one on the way to sporting goods to assist a customer. He makes no response. I keep walking toward him and make another gesture. No response. He is looking right at me! He is too far away for me shout to him. I keep walking - another gesture. NO RESPONSE! I finally call out, "Are you coming to help us in sporting goods?" NO RESPONSE!!! Are you kidding me? This man is not only not responding to me, but he is taking his good ole time getting to me.

He finally saunters up and tells me he can page someone to help us. I explain that we have already been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes. I further explain that I just want to know if you carry bat bags. He says he can look around for me. He begins to move (honestly, I have never seen a human being move this slow) and I realize he is about to wander through the department looking for my product. At this pace, this could take hours!

He also has a bit of a smirk on his face. I ask him if he is moving that slow on purpose? He is a little surprised by my boldness - as is the other customer. Hell, I even surprised myself, but what the hell, it slipped out so I'm going for it. He explains that he is a rather large man and this is how he moves. I acknowledge his size, but insist that he can move a little better than that. He smirks and shrugs. I then explain that I feel that he is just being plain disrespectful. I think on some level he actually respected my honesty, so he began to search for my product. FINALLY, the paged employee comes to assist. I ask her if they carry bat bags - she doesn't know either. I am just done at this point. I have been in the store for nearly a half hour and I don't even know if they have the product! I say thank you and begin to leave. Two other employees walk up and begin to search for bat bags. No one knows whether or not they carry them. The large man rounds the corner with another employee and they have a bat bag! I am appreciative that he put forth such tremendous effort in finding the item, but I am so pissed off that it has taken this much effort on MY part just to shop there that I don't want to make the purchase. I go back and forth on this a few times, but I decide to make the purchase. (Please note I had to return the freakin' thing anyway because it wasn't what my nephew wanted afterall!)

So here is where I am. This is not by any means a horrible story about Wal Mart. However, I find that I am boycotting a business mostly because of its poor treatment of its employees and the employees suck. Really. I am happy the large man found my item, but it took a total of four employees to accomplish that goal. And more than 45 minutes of my time. Yes, 45 minutes because I was in line FOREVER in the express lane with only one person in front of me who was already in the process of checking out! There was absolutely no sense of urgency from any of the employees and whogivesashit was their battle cry - I should say "battle sigh" because "battle cry" implies effort.

I am no longer boycotting Wal Mart because of poor employee treatment. Now, I just don't shop there because of crappy customer service.