The other day I made a quick trip to my local Walmart store. My husband works from home so if I am doing a quick errand and he doesn’t have a conference call I can usually go without the kids. Luckily this was one of those times. So I zipped into the store grabbed a cart and set off for the Dairy aisle. Without kids slowing me down I easily maneuvered around all the slow pokes and Sunday drivers. I had 4 things on my list and within 5 minutes I already had 3 of them and I was headed to aisle 9 to grab pizza sauce and then check out. As I rounded the corner past the meat department I heard the sound of loud angry voices. I noticed that everyone was stopped in their tracks and staring down the aisle.
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| Can of Contadina |
I slowed my pace as I approached my destination. As I peered down aisle 9 I located the noise! There were 7 maybe 9 angry adults with 4 or 5 carts clogging the aisle. They were yelling and screaming and pushing each other into the shelves. My first thought was “Crap I really need to get down that aisle.” My second thought was “I better get out of here before someone pulls a gun or throws a can of Contadina!”
I decided to make a B-line for the produce department so if a gun was pulled I could hide behind the potato cart. I clearly was not alone in this thought process as about 10 other woman were headed that way. Of course there were still several on lookers with their small children gawking at the brawlers. Heading toward the potato safety zone I passed about 10 Walmart employees armed with walkie talkies running toward aisle 9. I must note that the brawlers were all very large adult men and woman and the employees were all small woman and girls. I had my doubts on any real resolution to the fight or my ability to get my pizza sauce and go home.
Somehow the 17 year old employees were able to make the crazies disburse, at which point I dashed in and grabbed the final item on my list. As I made my way to the check out you could hear little pockets of fighting breaking out all over the store. It seemed to me that as the brawlers disbursed through the store they would randomly run into each other and start fighting all over again. The young employees with their Walkie talkies for protection stood all around the store with their fingers on the triggers. Ready at moments notice to call each other and say “They are fighting in aisle 5 now run away run away!” The girl at the check out said “Yeah we has fights here all the time, it ain’t no thang!”
As I left the building 4 police cars pulled up blocking the entrance of the store. The cops rushed in to save the day. I am sure the lovely ladies in blue and beige were thrilled to know they could finally release the buttons on their walkie talkies. They were now able to return to their registers where they can continue to not smile for the rest of the day.
I drove home through my middle class residential neighborhood which is less than 5 minutes from Walmart and wondered why fights break out all the time here. Why 2 minutes down the road at Target the employees are cheerful and clean and the shoppers are smiling and happy. What is the difference is it really as simple as trashy people go to Walmart? I mean the prices are about the same the merchandise is about the same. How can 2 stores in the same 4 block radius attract completely different employees and clientele? I can’t answer that question but I can say that I am grateful that my kids were not with me and I can guarantee you that I will not be shopping at Walmart any time soon.
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