Walmart: Ugh

I hate going to Walmart. In Virginia, in Louisiana, anywhere. I hate it. They're usually dirty, the employees are generally not friendly, and I feel like I am supporting a giant corporation that puts on the front of being great (low prices, convenience), but in actuality really sucks (poor benefits for employees, low quality items). Unfortunately I let my desire for those low prices get the best of me the other night when I decided to stop in and grab a few things. I consciously chose not to drive further away from the house to go to Target knowing that opting for Walmart would save me time. Time, the ultimate form of currency.

I had not even gotten out of my car when the regret started sinking in. Perhaps the store I went to is not in the best part of town and therefore the patrons are of a certain caliber. Perhaps my standards for humans are higher than the average demographic of this neighborhood. Perhaps I just don't like people and therefore find being surrounded by them less than pleasant. Whatever the case may be, I saw not one, but two instances of people putting their used shopping cart directly behind the car parked beside them. Meaning they loaded their items into their car then pushed their cart to a location where the owner of the vehicle beside them would now need to move the cart yet again in order to leave the parking lot. I suppose my days at Kroger made me more sensitive to buggy practices. It is rude and lazy to put your cart anywhere other than in a return corral or back inside the store. Rude and lazy. It is plain disrespectful to put your used cart in the way of another vehicle. What the hell is wrong with people?! 

Once inside there were employees loitering everywhere. Just hanging out chatting away. Oh, no, don't move when you see my trying to turn down the isle that you are blocking. I'm only trying to buy things from this establishment that pays your check for standing around being in my way. Maybe I was hyper sensitive to every obstacle in the store because I have it in my mind that I don't like being there, or maybe I happened to be shopping during social hour. I don't know. 

I attempted to procure the items on my list as quickly as possible and make a speedy exit. While waiting in line (what Walmart have you ever gone into that has an adequate number of checkout lanes open?!) I noticed a tomato sitting in a box of Snickers bars. Like the shopping cart situation, people discard whatever they don't want or need anymore at the closest convenient spot without regard for anyone else. Someone will find that tomato and, depending on how quickly this occurs, will either have to throw it away if it is no longer in a sellable state, or march it back over to the produce section and put it back with the rest of the tomatoes. If you change your mind about an item there are two acceptable options: put it back where you got it (preferable) or give it to the cashier with the simple explanation of "I don't need this". Done. 

As I type this up I know that Walmart is not the only place that these annoying things happen. All stores have these problems and more. It isn't the store's fault, it is the human's fault. People are selfish and rarely think about consequences to their actions, no matter how insignificant they may seem. My faith in people was ever so slightly restored when my outing was coming to a conclusion. I had unloaded everything into my car and was walking the shopping cart back to the closest corral when a gentleman heard me behind him, stopped and asked if my cart was a good one? I said yes and he offered to take it on into the store with him. While at the core this was a selfish act: he wanted a cart that didn't have any wiggles or obnoxious noises so he saw an opportunity and seized it, however, he did save me a few extra steps and engaged in a small bit of social interaction. 

My goal is to still avoid Walmart as much as possible.