Here at "The Wall"

Wal*Mart. The holy grail of retail stores. At least for those who are/were overseas (like me) or for those who do not have any close by (what a shame!). You know the place you go to get just about everything at anytime of the day and to go laugh at people. Lemme tell you, when I was in Germany I missed "The Wall" as I've come to affectionately call it. I missed the people of walmart. I'd look at the website and laugh for hours. Some people.

Anyways after reading Traci's rant about customer service and driving etiquette I decided to recall some of my favorite stories from when I used to work at "The Wall". As many of you don't know when I was in college up in Greeley (oh Greeley...) I worked at one of the Wal*Mart store's up there. Now Greeley is quite the town, 15,000 college students, a meat packing plant that pays cash (so you can guess who works up there), and then the "good" side of town. Thankfully I worked at the Wal*Mart on the "good" side of town. But that doesn't mean we didn't get our fair share of crazy people.

I worked as a sales associate but I would "moon light" as a cashier most of the time. They were always short handed and too busy, especially on the weekends. We'd always have people coming in buying 2 and 3 shopping carts full of food. Nothing really out of the ordinary, especially around payday. However, there were always people who would make checking out difficult. We always had one group of people who didn't speak English and would bring their 2 (at least) shopping carts through the 20 items or less line. *glare* Unfortunately we weren't supposed to turn them away, however I have to admit I had a few times. I just couldn't deal with it.

There was one time, I was working a belt like and we had the same family come up to the check out. They unload their cart as I start scanning and making the typical small talk. "Hi, did you find everything okay?" I knew they wouldn't answer but it was worth a shot. I got the typical blank stare and then the nodding of the head. I continued to scan all their random food purchases. After a while, everything blurs together and it doesn't even matter what they are buying. I get about half way done with the belt and I come across a shirt. I had walked past this display that morning, it was right outside the infants department. Everything in there was $5.88 cents, Wal*Mart special. I rang up the shirt, spun the triangle around and went to load the shirt in a bag and the man puts his hand out.

"No, no different." He said to me, in his thick accent.

I looked back at him. "No sir, I saw this display myself. These shirts are $5.88" Sometimes people like to say that it was a different price than what the items ring up so that they can save a few dollars.

He shook his head at me and continued to tell me, "No different." I closed my eyes and tried not to get irritated with him.

"Sir, they are $5.88." He put his hand out and I returned the shirt to him. He placed it at the end of the belt and repeated, "Different."

I nodded finally understanding what he was trying to say, "Oh you mean separate. SEPARATE." I placed the black divider at the end of the items and he placed the shirt at the end of the belt and I continued to scan his order. I totaled everything up and I gave him the amount. He paid in cash and I handed him back $5 in change. I scanned the shirt that he didn't want added to the previous order and gave him the total. It was just over $6. I gave him this total and he handed me back the change that I had given him.

"Sir, I need .35 (or so) more cents." He turns to look at me.

"Huh?"

"I need .35 more cents. You gave me $5.88 (or whatever it is), I need .35 cents." He looks puzzled but I show him the total on the little screen, he reaches back into his cart and hands me a can of beans. What the heck am I supposed to do with this?! We aren't bartering, you can't hand me a can of beans and expect me to take that as the .35 cents you owe me! "Sir, if you want to return that you have to go to customer service."

He took the can of beans back to customer service and returned handing me the money to pay for the rest of the shirt.

Sometimes we gotta love people of "The Wall"