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I went to Wal-mart last night...Good Friday night. I wasn't going for any particular reason, just to grab cat food and some cokes for my mom, and while I was there, a cheapo bottle of vinegar and box of egg dye (me and my sister still do Easter eggs, heh heh). I figured since it's Friday night and the weekend of a holiday, that it'll probably be a little busier than normal, and I don't have my headphones to help me with the overstimulation, but I figure I'll grab my stuff and just run for the check-out, and I should be out fairly quickly.
So when I got there and noticed the cars were literally out to the street, I did hesitate a minute and wonder if I should just go home and come back some other time, but I figure hey, I'm grabbing like, five or six things, I'll be out fairly fast. So I park in the first available space (within fifty feet, not shabby) and head inside.
OH MY GOD. Talk about letting the inmates out of the asylum. EVERY SINGLE REGISTER was open and every single line was stretched back into the clothes sections. Screaming kids and maniac gangbangers everywhere you looked.
I figured my best bet was going to be to grab the Easter dye first and then get the normal groceries, so I hurried over to the holiday section, and it literally looked like a tornado had hit. Shelves were ripped off the walls, plastic eggs were crushed underfoot, toys were strewn halfway to the pharmacy, etc. And in the midst of about four mini-rows were easily a hundred people, elbowing, grabbing, snatching, stealing from each other's carts, and every other general ruckus one can imagine. Fortunately, there was a completely intact box of PAAS sitting on an endcap and I grabbed that one and made a break for it.
If you thought my earlier assumption about the rest of the store being calmer was right, then we were both wrong. Every single aisle had at least three carts in it, usually being pushed by a solo mother who was being trailed by no less than three shrieking elementary-school aged children. The teenagers were branched off into their own sets and roaming wild throughout the store in whatever random direction seemed to suit them best, and the fathers were either doing the fighting in the Easter section, or hiding out in the garden department or sporting goods.
Not to mention the poor stockers were going to have their work cut out for them. Toys were wedged in the cooler vents, hams were slowly thawing on aisles of cereal, and I'm almost positive someone let a lobster loose by the bakery. If that wasn't a lobster, then this particular Wal-Mart needs to get National Geographic to come photograph their roaches. And the emptiness of particular product seemed completely random. Lucky Charms, gone. Cheese, cleaned out. There wasn't even a SHELF left where there was once fish fry batter...someone had torn it out and left it leaned up against the endcap.
Fortunately, I managed to get the rest of my things and bolt for the registers without any really major incident, aside from one lady accidently hitting my cart with her's (and that one was a total accident, she was stepping to avoid a literal herd of running kids). But I seriously had to keep my hand on the box of egg dye at all times because there were several people who swung near to my cart looking as though they might try to reach in and grab it.
Of course, since all this insanity is going on about Easter, what better place to put the pallets of insanely overpriced Easter crap than RIGHT in the middle of all the overstuffed registers? I was fortunate to avoid the $40 Easter baskets filled with basketballs and porcelein dolls at the other end. (WTF, I was ecstatic to get a little dollar store crappy action figure in my basket when I was a kid, this generation gets basketballs??) But I was still wedged between the $20 and $10 baskets, which contained tons of cheap plastic princess crap and race cars, so the entire 25 minutes I was in line (I was timing it), I was nonstop surrounded by screaming kids demanding overpriced crap.
Unfortunately, this was not particularly good for me and I was getting very, very overwhelmed by the whole situation...clinging very hard to my cart and just trying to keep from running for the door, cold sweats, the whole fun nine yards. And just when I've finished getting my merchandise on the belt-boom, black out. Thank God, I didn't completely faint, I stayed on my feet with the help of the counter and my cart, but I got very dizzy for a couple of minutes and had to sort of crouch down and rest my head against the counter for a minute to try and get some semblence of order back.
Obviously, of course, the poorly-aged grandmother with seven of those damn $40 baskets in her cart didn't notice me swaying back and forth before I started to go down, because her concern was "Move up, we all want to get out of here!" Gee, thanks, granny. Count your lucky stars I'm concentrating all my energy on trying not to look like I need an ambulance called or else you'd be in a world of hurt right now.
Thank God the cashier, poor thing, herself understood why I was completely white and shaking and got me checked out and out the door as fast as she could...she even told me to just stay put and she put the groceries in the cart for me. Note to self, go back, get that one's name, and write a letter to corporate about her.
Of course, I had a parking lot vulture on my way out, too, but I was so damn drained and weak at that point that I literally couldn't have driven, so she just had to sit there and get pissed because as soon as I put my groceries up and put the cart away, I curled up in the backseat of my car with my hands over my ears for about fifteen minutes until I got my composure back enough to trust that I could make it home.
I don't know if this was an isolated thing in this particular store or if this was everywhere, but I kid you not when I say Christmas was a freaking party compared to what Good Friday was like last night. At least at Christmastime, I didn't see wanton property damage like I did last night.
I still have a massive headache but at least it's controllable with excedrin.
Lesson learned, never EVER go to Wal-Mart without my headphones and some spare batteries again.
So when I got there and noticed the cars were literally out to the street, I did hesitate a minute and wonder if I should just go home and come back some other time, but I figure hey, I'm grabbing like, five or six things, I'll be out fairly fast. So I park in the first available space (within fifty feet, not shabby) and head inside.
OH MY GOD. Talk about letting the inmates out of the asylum. EVERY SINGLE REGISTER was open and every single line was stretched back into the clothes sections. Screaming kids and maniac gangbangers everywhere you looked.
I figured my best bet was going to be to grab the Easter dye first and then get the normal groceries, so I hurried over to the holiday section, and it literally looked like a tornado had hit. Shelves were ripped off the walls, plastic eggs were crushed underfoot, toys were strewn halfway to the pharmacy, etc. And in the midst of about four mini-rows were easily a hundred people, elbowing, grabbing, snatching, stealing from each other's carts, and every other general ruckus one can imagine. Fortunately, there was a completely intact box of PAAS sitting on an endcap and I grabbed that one and made a break for it.
If you thought my earlier assumption about the rest of the store being calmer was right, then we were both wrong. Every single aisle had at least three carts in it, usually being pushed by a solo mother who was being trailed by no less than three shrieking elementary-school aged children. The teenagers were branched off into their own sets and roaming wild throughout the store in whatever random direction seemed to suit them best, and the fathers were either doing the fighting in the Easter section, or hiding out in the garden department or sporting goods.
Not to mention the poor stockers were going to have their work cut out for them. Toys were wedged in the cooler vents, hams were slowly thawing on aisles of cereal, and I'm almost positive someone let a lobster loose by the bakery. If that wasn't a lobster, then this particular Wal-Mart needs to get National Geographic to come photograph their roaches. And the emptiness of particular product seemed completely random. Lucky Charms, gone. Cheese, cleaned out. There wasn't even a SHELF left where there was once fish fry batter...someone had torn it out and left it leaned up against the endcap.
Fortunately, I managed to get the rest of my things and bolt for the registers without any really major incident, aside from one lady accidently hitting my cart with her's (and that one was a total accident, she was stepping to avoid a literal herd of running kids). But I seriously had to keep my hand on the box of egg dye at all times because there were several people who swung near to my cart looking as though they might try to reach in and grab it.
Of course, since all this insanity is going on about Easter, what better place to put the pallets of insanely overpriced Easter crap than RIGHT in the middle of all the overstuffed registers? I was fortunate to avoid the $40 Easter baskets filled with basketballs and porcelein dolls at the other end. (WTF, I was ecstatic to get a little dollar store crappy action figure in my basket when I was a kid, this generation gets basketballs??) But I was still wedged between the $20 and $10 baskets, which contained tons of cheap plastic princess crap and race cars, so the entire 25 minutes I was in line (I was timing it), I was nonstop surrounded by screaming kids demanding overpriced crap.
Unfortunately, this was not particularly good for me and I was getting very, very overwhelmed by the whole situation...clinging very hard to my cart and just trying to keep from running for the door, cold sweats, the whole fun nine yards. And just when I've finished getting my merchandise on the belt-boom, black out. Thank God, I didn't completely faint, I stayed on my feet with the help of the counter and my cart, but I got very dizzy for a couple of minutes and had to sort of crouch down and rest my head against the counter for a minute to try and get some semblence of order back.
Obviously, of course, the poorly-aged grandmother with seven of those damn $40 baskets in her cart didn't notice me swaying back and forth before I started to go down, because her concern was "Move up, we all want to get out of here!" Gee, thanks, granny. Count your lucky stars I'm concentrating all my energy on trying not to look like I need an ambulance called or else you'd be in a world of hurt right now.
Thank God the cashier, poor thing, herself understood why I was completely white and shaking and got me checked out and out the door as fast as she could...she even told me to just stay put and she put the groceries in the cart for me. Note to self, go back, get that one's name, and write a letter to corporate about her.
Of course, I had a parking lot vulture on my way out, too, but I was so damn drained and weak at that point that I literally couldn't have driven, so she just had to sit there and get pissed because as soon as I put my groceries up and put the cart away, I curled up in the backseat of my car with my hands over my ears for about fifteen minutes until I got my composure back enough to trust that I could make it home.
I don't know if this was an isolated thing in this particular store or if this was everywhere, but I kid you not when I say Christmas was a freaking party compared to what Good Friday was like last night. At least at Christmastime, I didn't see wanton property damage like I did last night.
I still have a massive headache but at least it's controllable with excedrin.
Lesson learned, never EVER go to Wal-Mart without my headphones and some spare batteries again.
), refershments and freebies, door prizes, and a show race car sponsored by the clinic company. So that brought in even more lookie-loos.
$30-50 worth of chocolate? Well... I can see the appeal of the last one, but....
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