Hot Date at WalMart

The IQ of the average WalMart customer must be in the double digits. I’m convinced. (Note: This is not a personal assault on you if you happen to shop at WalMart. Hey, I shop at WalMart. Not that I boost the average IQ of the customers any.) But, as I was saying . . .

It was pushing 10 o’clock when we went to WalMart last night. Fortunately, we only had a few items to buy. We were planning on going out for dessert but, by the time we got in the car to drive to our date, the restaurants had all closed. So instead, we went to WalMart. Kevin was dismayed by this. "I can’t believe I’m going to WalMart on my date night. That’s what my parents do."

When it came time for us to purchase our items, the checkout lines were all very long. (We are not the only idiots that shop late in the evening.) And we were tired. We thought to ourselves, "The self-checkout lines must be faster."

WRONG.

Before I continue, I will stop and reflect on why it is that I feel compelled to blog about all the interesting things that happen to me while I’m in checkout lines at retail stores. Or maybe they’re not interesting. I just think they are and blog about them.

Do you know how many hours we had to wait in line for the customers in front of us to figure out how to use the self-checkout system?!! Kevin had his arms loaded with our stuff and I walked around all the lines to try and find one that wasn’t being held up by someone having problems with the system! If we weren’t so frustrated, we would have been very amused. One lady was trying to push her item, a little plastic basket, down on top of the scanner. She didn’t seem to understand that she needed to pull it across the face of the scanner. I thought to myself, "Hasn’t she ever watched the checkout clerk do it all the years before they invented self-checkout counters?!" Then there were people who were having a tough time punching the right buttons on the screen. The screen kept blurting out: "Please wait for assistance. Please wait for assistance." I think I heard that little mantra in my sleep all last night. And then there were the people who just blankly stared at the machines, not even knowing where to begin - even though the screen said: "To begin, please press here."

It’s enough to make me reconsider whether or not WalMart is my favorite store. ;-) As we left, Kevin muttered under his breath, "I hate WalMart."

But I already knew that.