My Latest Trip to Wal-Mart

I have a love-hate relationship with Super Wal-Mart. I love the prices. I hate the fact that I cannot get out of that store in less than an hour. And lately, the love of the prices is being drowned out by the other side.

I did venture to Wal-Mart on Tuesday evening. This is a recap of my experience.

Griff wanted Listerine - original flavor. The only bottles they had of that were the small ones, on the top shelf, pushed all the way to the back. There is no way my 5'3" self was going to be able to reach them. So, I asked the employee at the pharmacy for some help (bwa! ha! ha! - oh, I crack myself up). She paged for customer assistance. I waited patiently for almost 15 minutes and saw 2 employees 3 or 4 aisles away that made absolutely never effort to help me. I finally asked a different pharmacy employee for help. She actually came out, found a small ladder, and got it down for me. She was actually very nice and cheerful about it, even, so that was good.

After a couple of other items on that side of the store, I traipsed all the way over to the grocery section. First stop - milk. I have recently started buying organic milk. I don't know if you've ever looked at organic milk, but it typically has expiration dates that are weeks away. Weird, but there you go. First of all, they did not have skim milk. And the milk would expire in less than a week. Okay, so I got a gallon of 2% and headed off for the rest of my shopping.

I needed bread flour. Nope. They apparently don't believe in bread flour.

Griff eats oatmeal for breakfast most days. He likes the old-fashioned oats, not the 1-minute variety. Since he eats them so often, I always buy the 42 oz. container. They only had the 18 oz. container. What's up with that?! I bought it, but I wasn't happy.

After a few more items (and an unsuccessful attempt to find ham of all things!), I headed to the checkout. When I got in line, I noticed an employee cleaning up one lane over. Apparently a glass bottle of something like grape juice had broken on the floor. I know it was glass because I could see big pieces of it on the floor. The lane was blocked off and he was cleaning the whole thing up with paper towels!! I stood in line for at least 10 minutes and never saw anybody show up with a mop.

You know, I think could excuse the empty shelves part of my experience if it had been on a Sunday night. But this was a Tuesday night! They should have been restocked by then.

I think I'm pretty much done with Wal-Mart. It's just not worth it anymore.

NOTE: I wrote this post months ago and forgot to post it. After a couple more bad experiences at WM (including being basically accused of lying when I tried to return something without a receipt), I no longer shop there. My budget is sad, but the rest of me is rejoicing. :)