Mini Rants

I lot of my fellow bloggers dislike Wal Mart, and I have friends who consider Wal Mart a sort of devils spawn.  I don’t have a case of
Wal Mart itis.  I rather like Wally World Most of the time.  I have learned to dislike some things about WM.  When they first came in, they had a massive supply of Hardware at prices far below the local ACE Hardware (which happened to be my favorite) and within two years Ace had gone out of business.  I moaned a little, but most of the hardware which I bought was theatre supplies which were purchased out of my very limited budget of state and student dollars.  When I really began to complain about WM was, when the local hardware store went out of business Wally World cut their supply of hardware by about half, and suddenly I was driving to Savannah for hardware.  Other stored opened up, including a couple of major building supply companies and everything evened out.

I hear a lot of complaints about the way WM treats employees, but I have friends who have worked for WM for years, retired with a good retirement plan, etc. etc,.  When my daughter was in High School she worked part time for WM and they quickly promoted her to a customer service manager, and when she decided to go away for college, they checked to see where she was going, contacted the Wal Mart in that area and arranged a job for her.  She never took it, choosing to work for the University instead, but their actions seemed to me to be anything but the predatory fiends  they were represented as by the (primary liberal, but not JUST liberal) press.

Does this sound like a rant?? NNOOOO.  But it is coming.

Anyone who has been in a Wal Mart almost anywhere in the country in the past two months is aware that Wally World has entered  a major physical reorganization.  Whole  blocks of “check outs” have been torn out to make room for what appears to be a chicken coop out of which the Pharmacy has been functioning..  NOTHING is anywhere near where it was before.  IN some parts of the store, they moved major blocks of merchandise to one area, then moved them again, sometimes two or three times.  If you need a particular product, and you are sure what it is, you can count on the likelihood that someone in a Wal Mart jacket is running around the store HIDING IT FROM YOU.

I am a thingmaker, and supplies of fabrics and craft materials are some of my favorite products.  I would think that my purchases alone would almost keep the place running.    Now, NO FABRICS and the craft supplies are limited to materials for elementary teachers and students.

One small advantage is that, anywhere in the US at this time, Coca Cola and Pepsi products  are on sale for 5.00 per 24 can pack.  this is anywhere from a dollar to two dollars below the price anywhere else.  They have been on sale at that rate almost since the remodellling started.  Friday I was loading up another four cases when the guy next to me (also loading multiple cases) when the guy next to me turned and said “When they started moving everything around, I swore I would never come back again.  Then the cut the price on coke and I have started coming again, but I have  over a months supply for myself and two weeks supply for graduation parties, and if they want me back after today, they are going to have to cut the H## out some other prices.” 

“I feel the same way,” I said, only to hear the comment “They know that, no matter what they want, everyone in the store is pissed off, and they know that as you are leaving you’re gonna pass this enormous pile of cheap Coke and Pepsi and it takes some of the burn away.”  His wife interjected with “Look they have their rotisserie cooked chickens for only $4.45 a piece, I have to get a couple of those for dinner tonight.”

It appeared that Wally World had found a new product to showily discount (the chickens were at the fast lane check outs).  We’ll see if they keep it up for awhile.

Rant # 2.

Not as lengthy but I pulled into the Post Office to mail some cards for my wife and realized that she hadn’t stamped the cards.  It was just after five, so the doors were closed.  I felt in my pocket and had five bucks which was enough for stamps, but the only stamp machine in the Post Office required a credit card, and I didn’t have one with me.  They had a sign noting that several supermarkets had stamps to sell so off I went to the supermarket, only to discover that it had a stamp machine that required a credit card.  Do you realize that once the Post Office closes its counters, there is no place in town where  one can buy stamps for cash money.  BLEAAAATH.

I have some other things that I planned to rant about (some of them political) but we just finished our “Mother’s Day Dinner” and my son cooked a couple of small pork loins so that they were just perfect and we had enormous dished of strawberry shortcake, and the rest of my vitriol just died out for the night.