The Wal-Mart rant

The Wal-Mart rant has begun.
I need to preface this by saying I’M A WIMP! I wanted to boycott Wal-Mart because of their unequal treatment of female employees. But the first time I needed a sleeping bag, tampons and a birthday card and I wanted to do it all at one place, I succumbed and threw my activist self to the curb. I am pathetic.
Now that we are clear on that, let me start my rant.
My Wal-Mart is a mess! One day you walk in and toys are on aisle 12 and pool supplies are on aisle 30. Two days later you run in for a quick birthday toy and aisle 12 is now school supplies. So where are the toys? Hmm…..Oh Gee let’s go ask someone who works here. Now where the hell would you find one of those? I’m sure there is an employee somewhere close by. There are baskets full of stuff shoved into half-empty aisles all over the store. To me this would be a sign that someone is working in that area. Jokes on me. It means nothing more than WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). So by accident I happen upon an aisle where toys are half on a shelf and half in a basket. There are NO prices. No problem that’s what those little price scanners are for. I’ll just tote my lot over to the scanner and…Oh crap they moved the scanner. I remember seeing one over in housewares. Off we go…. It’s broken. No luck finding another scanner. You’d think as I traveled the store, I would happen upon an employee. I usually find an employee by listening for the loudest group in the store. There I will find a two or three people wearing a “How can I help you?” vest chatting about what they did the night before. I’m glad “How can I help you?” is written on their backs because I have NEVER heard those words come out of their mouths. The next trick is actually getting one of them to assist you. You have to be rude enough to interrupt their ever so important conversation, and then you have to be able to duck the dagger eyes they throw at you for even bothering to ask them something. Even more important is finding someone who doesn’t seem to be on break. Oh dear, I’ve forgotten where I was going with that part of my rant, other than the “How can I help you? “ vest is merely a figment of your imagination. I think we are missing the small print that says, "DON’T ask me “How can I help you?” Case and point. On one lovely visit to my local Wal-Mart, I was checking out when the receipt machine ran out of paper. I was writing a check so the checker needed me to be able to sign something. She called for a CSM. I think in every other place CSM stands for Customer Service Manager. At Wal-Mart I think it stands for something else. Not really sure what at the moment but the words Crappy and Moron come to mind. Okay, we wait 5 minutes and no CSM shows up. Another worker goes in search of said CSM. He comes back and reports that she is coming. 10 minutes later still no CSM. I’ve parked myself on the floor with an impatient child. The call goes out again for a CSM. Another 10 minutes go by and another worker goes in search. Now there are two customers waiting for the CSM. After 28 minutes (you betcha I was timing it) a young woman shows up in a red vest. (Ooh that power color red)
I’m standing there at the register and I say, “I’m so glad you are here. We have been waiting 25 minutes.” You know what she says to me? This little you-know-what doesn’t even look up at me…she just says in a snotty voice, “Yeah, I know.” Welly well she just pissed off the wrong person. In front of the customers and everyone else, I started a rant, “Excuse ME???? Did you just say, “I know?” Maybe you didn’t understand me! We have been waiting 25 minutes for you to show up. The proper answer would be, I’m so sorry Ma’am for the wait. I don’t care what was making you not come to the register to help. I don’t want a cheap excuse. I want a friggin apology!” She doesn’t even look up. I can see she is a bit surprised by my outrage. She doesn’t say one more word to me. I was fuming! I fumed even more when she told the cashier that the machine would not print another receipt and to just keep my check and let me leave. HOLY CRAP! Couldn’t she have just told her that over the phone? AAAAARRRRGGGHHH! So my opinion of customer service and Wal-Mart is…well…there isn’t any customer service.
And why can’t anything be in order at my Wal-Mart? I don’t understand how it can vary so greatly from one store to another. Imagine my surprise when I visited another Wal-Mart and found my size clothing on the rack where my size was supposed to be! There is no such thing at my Wal-Mart. There are racks upon racks of mixed up clothes with no size groupings. Now I’ll tell you there are one or two racks of new stuff that are grouped together but never in sizes. Why should I have to drive to the ends of the earth to find a store that has it together? Where is the management in my Wal-Mart? Why don’t they let me mystery shop there? Oh…I know why they don’t want me to do that…. they don’t really want to hear me rant. That “How Can I Help You?” vest isn’t a statement. It’s there to test you. Do you have the nerve to shop here? Do you REALLY need what you came here for? Why don’t you just go home and come back when the shift changes. Oh wait…..they’ll be on break.