I post this in the education section because, in-deed, this was truly a profound learning experience for all the parties involved. Here you will read about my adventures in Wal-mart Land this past Saturday.

There is a Wal-mart across the street from where we live and we decided that we would be good citizens and walk, rather than drive and take our canvas bags, instead of plastic sacking it, to bring back some toiletries we were needing at home. The environmentalist thing is not the point of this exercise, bear with me.

So we are at the drug-store section of Wal-mart and I can't find the talcum powder. I find the attendant and I ask him:

"Hey, man... where is the talcum powder?"

To what he replies: "The what?..."

"The talcum powder..."

He says: "What is that?..."

(This floors me... really what is talcum powder)

I told him what it was:

"It is the stuff you use to keep your sack dry..."

To what he responds: "Oh! That! Here... it's over here"

Have you ever experienced this sort of "learning experience"? Please share, laughter is indeed the best medicine.

I don't talk to wal-mart employees. I just buy what I need and get out of there.

I am with you Bornbad. Half the time they don't know what you are talking about. They get that deer in the headlight look. It is not just wal-mart. But I do think they have a knack for it.

Ick. I avoid Walmart as much as I can, which is almost always.

I remember going to one in Galveston (? I think that's where I was that time) and seeing so many people riding the fat-people scooters. My brother and I could both fit on one seat side by side, and my brother's a giant football-playing sort of person. We got a good laugh out of all the people who could just barely fit on them. It's cruel, I know, but it was funny to see at the same time.

The other day, I purchased from walmart a wireless adapter for my internet at home. I went through the self checkout and after I swiped it, the screen told me to slide the box across one of the pads that nulls out the security device, and so I began sliding. I then hear over my shoulder from this goth kid with red and black arm warmers and eye shadow and a blue walmart vest (outta place, isn't it?) that said I have to hit the 'ok' button. I looked at him confused and he repeated himself. I said "Don't I have to slide it here?" He goes "uh..oh, well, yeah, and then you hit 'ok'. So I said "uh...oh, well, yeah, I kinda figured that."

He then shrugged at me and continued staring.

I was working the one of the local bars. The capacity of the bar is 75. Ever since great white burned that club down the fire marshal has been pretty fierce about capacity enforcement. So Its a nice Saturday night and I've got a line of about ten people. Two ladies ,who judging from haircut and fashion choices had'nt been out since some time in the 80's, walk up and join the end of the line. After standing inpatiently at the end for all of three minute one of them walks and says:
"Can I go in?"
I reply"thiers a line"
She replys"but nobodys going in"
Now I understand her confusion so I say:
"We are at capacity"
She actually says "Whats that gotta do with it"
Now shes got me confused. I don't understand what shes asking. At that moment a young lady at the front of the line barks out:
"thier full"
To this the eightys throwback replies:
"Well f**k that" and storms off. At this time I look backover at the young lady. We both say at the same time"She didn't know what capacity means". Welaugh and make fun of the lady untill they go inside. I Don't think I learned anything, but now one more person knows what capacity means.

That would confuse me too. I have heard the term "full capacity" but I have never heard anyone say we are at capacity.

Mess around with electronics engineering. I've heard that phrase fairly often. Usually with an exclamation point at the end, though.
...Admittedly, it's before a circuit blows, which happens more often around me than not, but what can you do?
(Hint: Running away is usually a good idea.)

Ok, sooo Im an a*****e. This is established? Ok good.

So Im sitting at a diner, and the waitress comes over and asks what we want. I was realllllly in the mood for a muffin. So I point to the picture of this glorious muffin, with perfect grill marks, and a delicious mound of butter on top and I say to her, "I want this!" And she looks at me and says, while pointing to the cover of another menu, "Sir the pictures are only suggestions." And I quickly reply with, "Well I suggest you get me a muffin that looks like this."

She was none too happy.

On a separate and earlier occasion I was at a drug store with my buddy, whos father had just gotten Knee Surgery, and needed some low level pain meds or anti swelling... to be honest I dont know what the meds are, or even remember, so Im going to make up three names and use them, it wont ruin the story I promise. So im standing in the isle with my buddy and we are looking for three different brands of drugs which are scribed down on a piece of paper... Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, naproxen. We are having no such luck finding anything but the Ibu, so we ask an employee of this Excard to give us a hand. She takes the list and looks at it for a moment, then looks back up at us, and says "You know these are three different kinds of medicine."

I quickly retort with: "Yes, hence the commas."

ok thats all for my a*****e stories now...

I don't know if any of you work service. I do, and I have a friend that does. She actually works for Walmart. Trust me. For as many "bad service" stories that customers have, we have just as many "what the hell was that customer thinking" stories.

At the moment I work at Books A Million. I run around like a crazy person helping 4 people at the same time, ringing people up and talking on the phone.

What really irks me is when I ask people for their phone numbers in order to look up their discount cards (if they don't have the cards on them) and people misunderstand me when I ask them to repeat themselves. That does NOT mean you YELL OUT YOUR NUMBERS! It means for you to SLOW DOWN!! I'm not deaf, I'm standing right there. Instead of mumbling, slow down and speak clearly.

Sheesh.

I am not allowed to go shopping.I revert back to childhood (so my wife tells me) and "have too much fun".

My wife took her grandmother to Walmart not long ago. A careless stocker had left a number of platform hand trolleys about. Grandma doesn't have the sense of balance or the eyesight that she used to, and she tripped over one of the trolleys and cut her chin open on the floor, chipped a tooth, and got a few bruises (thankfully nothing like she gets when DEP visits her). The store manager honestly didn't seem to give a crap, and offered her some lousy drink coupons at McDonald's as compensation. We haven't much cared to visit Walmart lately.

Yeah Wal-Mart is wack. In my old home town one opened up and the crime rate went up expotentially (which was to say 4 people got stuff ripped off from their cars). Where i live in B'more the Wal-Mart is Tre-ghet-o but so is the Target and everything else. Dry sacks btw suck, I'd rather have a moist one.

I think everyone should have to work in the service industry for a bit. I know I did my time! It usually makes me much more respectful of people working in that industry now, but it also means I have zero patience or tolerance for salespeople/waiters/etc who aren't doing their job properly.

"911 do you need police, fire or ems?"

"neither" (ok, I gave you THREE options)

"Ok, you need police, fire or ems?"

"police" (me thinking...well, that was an option.)

Next...


"911...(you know the rest)"

"I need the ____________"

"Ok, where do you need them?"

Sometimes I get "1924" (the street address) or just the street name. I actually kinda sorta need both to get services there. We aren't psychic and it is a long road.

Sometimes they will say "I live in Cleveland and am headed towards Toledo..." That is a two hr drive..we need to narrow it down a bit more.

But my FAVORITE that people get mad over is this one...

"911....."

"Non emergency....non emergency"

(bristling....you call an emergency line and think by saying that phrase over and over that it will still not be tying up an emergency line?)

"I want the non emergency number for the police dept."

"well, sir as you dialed 911 and are ON an emergency line, I have to transfer you that way, I don't have the number"

So I transfer to police and they repeat the non emergency thing, the police yell at them for calling 911 for a non emergency and the people try and throw ME under the bus as they don't know I am still listening and telling them that they told the lady it was a non emergency. But they never tell police that I TELL them I don't have the number and am transferring the way they came in.

Holy crap, I have so many of those. I worked the night shift at a cheap motel, man, that's all I have to say.

well ... overall, i didn't experience anythign near as terrible as the others have in this thread, but the worst experiences i've had with walmart, was when i'm looking for a new hair-removal product. though now i'm very familiar with the health and beauty, and hygene aisles, i usually can't find the very specific product, that i had previously researched for and made an educated dicision to buy.

when i ask an associate where it is, if they don't stare blankly and ask what it is, they give me their opinion about the general type of product it is. "oh, that's messy." "that brand's crap." "that hurts a lot, use something else instead." i didn't ask for your f**king opinion, i just asked where do i find it. of course, i don't say that ... every time, i find walmart doesn't even carry the type, and i order it online instead. for a better price, sometimes even with shipping.

Plus, imagine the increase in quality if all of us intelligent and skilled people were working in service, instead of those morons.

Dangit, you just blew out my Ironymeter! Thanks a lot.

You're welcome, and have nice day, sir.