Sal G.
Yelp
I had the opportunity to visit this staple of American life yesterday, while running some errands in Waldorf.
Walmart is the retailer we all love to hate, specifically because of the misguided methods we regularly hear about in the media about how the company manages it's workforce, and because of the consistently poor standard of customer service we tend to experience in many of these stores. When it comes to LONG queues, clueless stockers, disdainful customer service reps, and some of the weirdest and disturbed patrons, Walmart definitively takes the biscuit.
On this occasion however, my visit to Walmart INSIDE was...average. It was normal. The store aisles and shelves were tidy and organized. Employees were milling about scanning product and reading through print outs and checking people in short queues. Not one was randomly hanging around doing eff-all squared.
I wandered through the store purposely looking for coolant and after asking two employees for the automotive section, I found it myself. One of the lads I asked didn't seem to realize his store sold motor oil, coolant, air filters etc. The other young chap simply didn't appear to understand the word "automotive" and literally accompanied his blank expression with a head-scratch.
Anyway, away I went to fetch my coolant, and then some bottled water. On the way to the tills I did note that the store was actually in great condition. No merchandise spilling on the floor or strewn halfway off the shelves as if organized by some drunken associate; displays were clean and tidy; the floors were swept and shiny; and the noise pollution was down to a minimal (no bleating children or obnoxious men/women shouting into their Bluetooth headsets). I did encounter several women of different makes and models bloody blocking aisles with their mindless habit of standing in the middle of the corridor with their cart angled so that you had to specifically ask them to please let you through or just go around altogether. But that is standard at almost any Walmart.
It then struck me that I had ventured into this store on a random Wednesday and at late morning. I assumed that I had been lucky in visiting when I did. Happy days - I got a normal, average experience at a Walmart.
OUTSIDE the store however was the usual pick-and-mix cast off the Jerry Springer show who bring their problems to a Walmart parking lot and insist on sharing with the rest of society. Several people sat in their cars blasting their music at obnoxiously high decibels because they want you to forcibly appreciate their great musical tastes - even a big rotund fellow on a motorcycle was jamming out; angry-looking people raging and swearing at each other over random semi-private issues; rough-looking members of the local community standing around in front of the store mean-mugging everyone approaching the front doors as if they're going to spontaneously combust and start a fight; employees in headphones roughly pushing around carts and casually contorting them around parked cars; dodgy-looking lads shifting around nervously and walking in-between cars and looking around furtively; and people parked in the middle of lanes just sat there possibly waiting for Christmas or for a parked car to suddenly vacate a space.
Although I am usually internally doing the "happy dance" every time I drive away from the parallel universe that is your average Walmart, on this visit, I was overall pleased with the quality of the store INSIDE.
If I do return here it will definitely be on a Wednesday and late morning.
In the meantime, take care of yourselves, and each other.
