A Midnight Adventure

This post is for you, Rich...

When poker night ended last night around 1130, I was hungry, Manuel was hungry, and there were some things we needed to pick up - milk and pineapple (for the stir fry we were supposed to have for dinner that night but couldn't bring ourselves to eat it without pineapple, so we scrapped that plan until we could get to the store.) Hungry and needing groceries, where does one turn? WalMart, of course, less than 5 minutes away with its McDonald's and grocery store all in one.

Let me say that we were absolutely amazed at the number of people there at midnight! And kids - so many kids! I know it was Saturday, but kids should be asleep at midnight, regardless of the day of the week.

So we go inside and get snacks first - we split nuggets and fries. We ate them there, in the McDonald's, fascinated with the 65-70 year old man pulling the graveyard greeter shift. THAT guy should be asleep too.

Then we cruised around the grocery section to see what they have and how much it costs. Fortunately we are very blessed and money is rarely an issue for us, but I admit that I like a good deal, I like a bargain. And man, does WalMart have them! We got a can of Dole pineapple for 88 cents, whereas at Safeway it would have cost $1.20-something. I often think about taking those little frozen Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers meals to work for lunch, but they are so expensive. Not at WalMart! The WW meals were $1.29 each!! And the Yoplait yogurt we buy - at Safeway it's usually on sale 10 for $6. At WalMart they were 48 cents each!

Oh, the bargain hunter in me was getting excited. So excited, in fact, that the vomit incident nearly left my mind. I told Manuel that I could get past the vomit incident for these prices.

I hate what I've become...

Then something happened to reaffirm that no matter how good of a deal they offer, I can not be associated with WalMart shoppers.

We were standing in line, waiting to pay. In front of us were 2 women, close friends or sisters, with a baby, maybe a little over 1 year, sitting in the cart. They were eating a 4-pack of Reeses peanut butter cups they picked up by the register as they unloaded their cart. We watched them intently, as we both had the feeling they weren't going to pay for them.

They discarded a few things as they unloaded their cart, a shirt, which they hung on the magazine rack, and a throw pillow, which they put on a shelf next to the register. I asked Manuel why they wouldn't just give them to the checker and tell her that they changed their minds?

They kept giving the kid bites of the candy. I mentioned to Manuel that they better not get mad at that kid when he won't go to sleep at 2am because of all the sugar they gave him.

When their cart was finally unloaded and all of the items scanned, the checker told them the amount, and they had to start giving stuff back because it was more money than they had - which one of the ladies confirmed after she looked in her bra for more - NO LIE!

We noticed a bolt of fabric laying on the bottom part of the cart that they didn't give to the checker lady. We pointed it out to each other and had a discussion on whether they forgot about it (which we both knew they hadn't) and when was the appropriate time to say anything, and who to say it to, the customers or the checker.

Sure enough, just to confirm the thievery for us, when they started loading their cart, they put the big, king sized pillow they bought on the bottom part of the cart, right on top of the bolt of fabric. If they had forgotten about it, they would have seen it at that point and said, "Oh crap! I forgot about this." But no, they were intentionally trying to steal it.

By the way, the Reese candy wrapper was laying inside the cart, not paid for either.

Finally it was our turn. As we unloaded our few items, we asked the checker if she got the bolt of fabric on the bottom of the cart of the candy they ate while they were in line. She was surprised, excused herself and ran after them. She came back with the fabric and said they said they'd be back to pay for the candy. When I mentioned that that was a load of crap, she agreed.

Then we laughed at the lady who looked in her bra for more money.

The checker thanked us profusely, and we felt good for doing our good deed for the day.

So no matter how good the deals are at WalMart, I'm not sure I can be associated with a store who has that kind of clientele. I mean, are those the kind of people drawn to WalMart, or are those the kind of people who shop at midnight? It's an interesting question...