I’m often amazed at how many people Walmart employs and – let’s have a special cheer for them for providing jobs to so many – I appreciate the fact that they hire everyone, from the kid with three lip piercings and 12 eyebrow ring/spikes/plugs, to the old crusty fart that stares at you as you walk out with your purchases.  It is a great way to keep a lot of us employed.  I hope I never end up there, but one never knows the full extent of what will happen with life.  And I would work before I sat back and waited for someone to feed me or care for me…since I can’t win at poker, Walmart is an option.  That out of the way, let’s talk Walmart.

Isn’t it kind of charming how they look at your purchases instead of just running them over the scanner and bagging them?  Or is it because I look like a demented, gun packing, poker player and they have a read on me?  Knowing that I’m mental, they want to see what I buy so they won’t buy it and become like me..TWISTED!  *That little run was fun*  Yes, they do look at it, holding it and sometimes reading what the label or box says before they go ahead and scan it and bag it.  Sometimes they query me about the product.  I always politely answer, sometimes in a boisterous, laughing mode, instead of saying, “Just bag it you bitch!”

Today I did some Walmart shopping and, along with my other purchase, I bought Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste.  The person checking me out didn’t look at it but another employee that was just standing there doing jack squat picked it up and looked at it, reading part of the box instructions before setting it back down so the checker could put it in the bag.  Relay team!  One works, one reads labels.  Must be a government project.

My shopping needs are mostly satisfied at Walmart.  I no longer need a white shirt and black slacks so I slouch all the time in relaxed wear and T-Shirt/tank top type of garb.  Hey, what else are you supposed to wear when you live in the desert, do yard work, and lead a very low profile lifestyle?

I buy fresh veggies, Root Beer (TIP: don’t buy the decaffeinated, it sux), the essentials like Digiorno Pizza for one, house cleaning/body cleaning goods, etc.  TIP:  I never, NEVER buy meat at WalMart.  I don’t know what animal their beef came from or the process of getting it cleaned, cured, packaged, and shipped but it’s not real meat.  It’s meat made in the basement of a mad poker player’s home with cut up Kem cards and busted poker chips and a few crushed keyboards and mice thrown in.  All of my meat shopping is done at Albertsons…man they have the best Ribeye Steaks.

Riot has a Peg Perego John Deere which requires a 12V battery – that costs as much as a regular car battery BTW.  His mom had bought him a new one recently and it’s been in my shed, the John Deere and the battery.  When Riot comes out, he drives like a drunken sailor around the property and I usually chase him around, sometimes having him carry pieces of wood from the tree limbing/pruning to our firewood stash (winter evenings out on the patio).  I charged the battery up according to the instructions and plugged it in as directed to keep the charge.  The battery apparently doesn’t want to cooperate, where it once had plenty of zoom power for an extended Riot run, it now has a grinding, dead crawl to it.

So…here’s another little Walmart TIP. I had the receipt and the box, loaded the battery up and headed for my friendly neighborhood Pahrump Walmart.  I returned the battery and went to purchase another one.  Kee-Rist!  $69.95!!!!  I went to Customer Service, where I had just returned the faulty battery and asked them about the huge price discrepancy between the battery I had just returned – purchased at a Las Vegas Walmart that cost $48.95, and the price they had on theirs.  Here’s what I got, “We aren’t competitively priced here in Pahrump, because we don’t have to be.”

My reply was that it was really bad business and that I definitely would NOT be buying a battery from them.  I left the store.

I spoke with my sis about it, the truck driver, she said that they did all of their road trip shopping at Walmarts because it was easier to park the truck and Walmart also had everything in one store that they would need.  And that the prices varied across the country.  Here’s the funny part, the Walmart store that is in Arkansas where the whole Walmart world began, is the most expensive Walmart they ever shopped at.  They don’t stop there now, they do their shopping somewhere else.

I figure one day when I run into Las Vegas for the afternoon, that $21 I save from not buying that battery here, will definitely pay for my diesel in and out.

Done talking Walmart, g’nite.