I think I am gonna boycott WalMart... again!

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Many years ago, I became so completely fed up with the horrible customer service at WalMart, that I decided to boycott.   The straw that broke the camels back at this time happened at the Paola, Kansas WalMart.  I was looking at shoes for my daughter, Taszia.  She was about 4 months old at the time and I had a little shoe in may hand and was looking to see if they had a pair in a size 5.  A salesperson approached me, I did not call her over, and she asked if she could help me find something.  I smiled and looked at her and said, 'do you have this in a size 5?'  She looked me in the eye and said, 'do you see it anywhere?'  I blinked, confused, and said 'no' and she sarcastically said in reply, 'then I guess we don't have it'... I dropped the shoe on the floor, left my full cart sitting right there and walked out of the store! I did not shop with them for almost 2 years!

I am sure my meager $1000 a month (what I figure I spend there regularly since they became a grocery store) doesn't matter much to them on the grand scale of things.  But, I found that during the boycott, when someone would broach the subject, it gave me the power of telling my story.  I was making a point and passing on my personal experience, while putting my agenda into a concrete action.  In other words, I wasn't just crying and complaining, I was standing up for something.

After a period of time, WalMart won me back with their economics and convenience.

Today, I begin my boycott again.  I have to decide whether it will be all WalMarts or only the 2 really offensive ones.

I have been going to the Gardner, Kansas WalMart lately.  Since we have moved, this is the closed to my home.  I do not go there everytime, however, because I tend to become rather upset after shopping there and will drive a few minutes out of my way to a different store several times, before I give in and try again.

The first thing about this particular store that bothered me was:  they had their check outs furnished with stools.  The checkers would literally sit while doing their job.  Many of them would NOT get off the stool.  If something were too big, they would ask the customer to pick it up and carry it to the cart.  All the regular items went on top of the round bagspinner for the customer to bag themselves.  I could not believe this!  It was several months of not shopping in Gardner after that one.

Then, about 2 months ago, a very young girl was checking, and once all the bags were full on the round bagspinner, she did NOT walk around and place them in my cart.  She started tossing them on the floor in front of my cart.  When I asked her why she was throwing my groceries on the floor... she very sarcastically looked at me and said, 'I ran outta room!'... I walked out!  Another couple of months of not shopping in that store.

Last night, we went to WalMart in Gardner again.  I had about 20 items and a 14 pound fresh turkey and a 12 pack of diet sprite were 2 of the items.  When I unload my cart onto the belt, I always do so with the heaviest items going first so that they end up in the bottom of the cart and not on top crushing things.  This checker literally worked around the 12 pack and the turkey.  Left them on the belt and reached for all the other items.  Stretching and manipulating so she didn't have to put them on the bagspinner, much less in a bag.  She would lift the 12pack just enough to make the belt move while pushing and shoving on the turkey so she could reach other items.  When I asked her what she was doing, checker Terry told me she could not lift them because she had a bad back.... WTF?  She worked so much harder trying to avoid doing something than she would have if she had just done it.

I told the checker to unscan the items she was unable to sell to me and I would do without ... so she did!  As I was leaving, I said something along the lines of.. good luck finding someone to carry those very heavy things back to the back of the store.  She looked me in the eye and said... 'they will just throw the turkey away now anyway!' and grinned at me like she had won?

I went to Price Chopper and grabbed a 23 pound fresh turkey!  There were not tags on the 3 larger birds, but I had to have one, so I took it to the checkout, along with my 12 pack of soda.  The girl at the checkout had to call someone up to figure out how to ring it up.  The girl handed it to a young man and he took it and apologized and said he would be right back.  While we waited, she apologized a few times for the trouble and talked very sweetly with us and I felt like she cared.  When they came back, they weighed it and rang it up on a per pound and 3 people apologized for the trouble.

I will NOT shop WalMart.  They don't care, but... that's sorta the point, isn't it?

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