What I Learned in Town Today

One week of being snowed in + the need for food and supplies + One more week of forecasted snow and low temperatures + one decent day with a bit of melting on the highways = a trip to Wal-Mart.

The line waiting to get into the parking lot.

The busiest day at Wal-Mart I have ever seen.  A 10 minute wait into the parking lot, up and down five rows until I found a parking spot, a ten minute wait for a cart before The Bean went and wrangled one out of the Cart Corral, a fight to get up and down every.single.aisle and a 40 minute wait in the checkout later and I was home again.  Whew!  One of the store managers was trying to take a photo with his cellphone.  I told him I had taken a photo too.  He said he had never seen it so crowded ever. 

I had some experiences today which made me think about how you should behave in a public situation.  It's really not that hard, people!

Let's talk for just a minute about grocery store aisle etiquette.  Scenario:  The person ahead of you in the aisle stops to pick up a can of tomatoes.  You wait behind her because you know she is only going to pick up the tomatoes and then proceed to pull out into the main aisle to go down the next grocery aisle.  Not only is it proper for you to wait, but for everyone behind you to wait too.  That is proper etiquette.  It is NOT proper etiquette to pull out of line five people back, push your cart up the center of the aisle, careen into the middle of the main aisle causing a pile up down all the aisles in every direction.  Might I add that it is MEN that do not understand the proper way to handle themselves in the grocery store.  (I won't even talk about those MEN that leave their carts at the end of the aisle and walk up and down to get what they want, deposit it into their carts and then proceed to do it on every single aisle.  My Dad is guilty of this and it drives me batty! 

Now let's discuss "why pushing your cart so close to me that you pull my shoe off is not acceptable".  I lost a shoe TWICE this week in the throngs of people.  The first one said, "SORRY" like I had a hell of a lot of nerve even being at the grocery store.....not nice at all.  Today, the lady was all over herself apologizing.  But, still......back off!

Since I am on a roll, let's discuss "Proper Behavior when you are a Checker".  After the grocery store, we went to The Dollar Tree, which was very quiet and very slow.  All around the store, I could hear this very loud voice talking and talking and talking and talking and talking.  Talking about her day, her night, her Mother, her car,her son, her boyfriend, what she had for dinner last night, what she had for lunch today, what she bought at the mall last weekend.  OH MY GOD, shut up!  When I checked out, she kept telling the other checker this looooong drawn out story about her Mom and the bank and icy roads and OH MY GOD, shut up!  When she was scanning my last item, she looked up at me like she had never seen me with this surprised look in her eyes and said, "Oh, how are you today?"  Like, helloooooooo, who do you think you were ringing up all this STUFF for??????

Well, that is my opinion of the day today.  Sorry for the rant.  I worked in retail a good number of years and I know how to treat customers and how to behave in a retail setting as both a customer and an employee.  I was bound to crack at some point!