Return to the Dark Side

About a year and a half ago, after hearing some horrible things about how Walmart treats it's vendors, I made a command decision that I would not longer support their dominance. Since that time, I have avoided Walmart at all costs.

However, due to outrageous food prices and the fact that the people on CNN said that the only major retailer who had not increased prices was Walmart, I felt that I had no choice but to return to the dark side. I figured I could save a little money as well as get everything that I need with one-stop-shopping.

Here are my keen observations:

1. 79% of all Walmart shoppers talk to themselves (and it seems that there are at least a million people in the store at any given time).
2. Despite the fact that Beaumont Walmart employs approximately 35 billion people, it would be simply silly to assume that their job description includes assisting customers.
3. You must carefully plan your shopping route or you will end up walking from one end of Walmart to the other at least six times.
4. The checkers at Walmart are not educated in the names of vegetables - and they will feel free to ask you to identify EVERY vegetable you have chosen to buy. I should have just let the lady assume that my yellow squash and zucchini were bell peppers...it would have cost less.
5. If the checker slams down your very large bag of charcoal and it splits open, you should not expect the bagger, who is busy talking on his cell phone, to run ALL THE WAY TO THE BACK OF THE STORE to get another one. Great exercise FOR YOU compliments of Walmart.
6. Going back to the bagger, it is also wrong to expect him to actually bag your groceries...that phone call must be REALLY important.
7. There are apparently invisible trip wires all over the store installed especially for people who are carrying 2 litre bottles of soda. This has to be true because I saw THREE people, with my own eyes, who dropped those bottles (and the bottles consequently exploded). That's not normal.
8. People at Walmart are not embarrassed to stare unabashedly at you. I kept trying to find places to look at myself to make sure I didn't have a monkey on my head.
9. While Walmart carries everything you could ever want, they only sell ONE set of measuring cups. And, the fun part is that they are hidden behind the measuring spoons. Scavenger hunt!!
10. You DO NOT save money by shopping at Walmart. True, some things were cheaper, but for the most part, HEB matches them cent for cent (and, SHOCKINGLY most of the things I buy at HEB are cheaper). I guess that means I can return to my HEB comfort zone and turn away, once again, from the dark side.