Reasons to Hate Wal-Mart

I am one of those people who will gladly pay more and purchase an item anywhere other than Wal-Mart. For me, shopping isn't just about finding a good bargain; it's also about customer service, helpful employees, and a pleasant atmosphere. When it comes to these things, Wal-Mart falls a mile short.

It seems that every time I shop at Wal-Mart, I always leave dissatisfied, angry, and downright miserable. Perhaps it's because I have to wait for twenty minutes in a checkout line while the single unwed teenage mother in front of me bickers with the high school-dropout cashier over food stamps. Or perhaps it's because every time I stop to look at an item, some 400-pound woman sporting a bad perm and bright pink stretch pants plows into my backside with her shopping cart as she races to the cookie section.

I'd like to believe that these small annoyances are a normal part of life, but the horror of shopping at Wal-Mart stretches well beyond the limits of my threshold for dealing with uneducated hillbillies and white trash rednecks who frequent Wal-Mart looking for a good deal on a Nascar t-shirt and a box of Twinkies.

The biggest hassle I've had recently was taking my car to Wal-Mart for an oil change. I had taken my car there once before, but after they managed to strip my lugnuts and put a dent in my door I began going someplace else. I decided to give Wal-Mart's Tire and Lube Express a chance to redeem itself, however. The first day, I was told there would be a four-hour wait. The next day they told me there was a five-hour wait. On the third day, I was able to get in for an oil change. However, five hours later, they called to inform me that they couldn't change my oil because there was a dent near the plug of my oil pan.

Now, the dictionary defines the word "express" as: direct or fast. Considering the fact that the waiting time for getting an oil change was fourteen hours over three days, Wal-Mart ought to be sued for using the word "express" in their Tire and Lube Express, since their service was neither direct or fast. The next day I took my car to a different place, and was told that the damage to my oil pan was done by whomever changed my oil last. Of course, that place also happened to be Wal-Mart. Twenty minutes later, my oil was changed and I was back on te road. Sure, I paid about five dollars more, but the experience was well worth the cost.

While Wal-Mart may employ ham-fisted and unskilled pseudo-mechanics, the depth of Wal-Mart's inferior level of quality extends beyond the Tire and Lube Express into every square inch of the store. The fruits and vegetables in the produce section are about as fresh as George Washington's corpse. The cashiers are as pleasant as a pack of badgers with a urinary tract infection. Even the "people greeters" greet me with disdain in their eyes; perhaps they are just bitter people who are angry because they squandered their life savings at an early age and had to come out of retirement in order to work a low-paying job patting little kids on the head. You know they'd much rather be at home watching Matlock.

Of course, my opinion of Wal-Mart is based on my own personal experiences. Like the time I dropped $250.00 at the Vision Center for an eye exam and contact lenses, which of course turned out to be the wrong prescription. Since they wouldn't offer me a refund, it became the most expensive pair of contact lenses in history that were never worn. Or the time I attempted to buy a digital camera after finding one I liked on display. I was told that they no longer carried that particular camera. I told them it was about time they changed their display and then purchased my camera at Best Buy. Then there was the DVD player I purchased at Wal-Mart, which turned out to be broken when I opened the box. Naturally, I forgot to keep the receipt, so I was out of luck.

You see, while you may save a few dollars at Wal-Mart, you will, sooner or later, lose more money than you save. From my own experiences I have been duped out of nearly $400.00 on a broken DVD player and the wrong pair of contact lenses. I also spent around $600.00 having the dent removed from my car and my oil pan and lugnuts replaced, even though all of the damage was done by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is definitely not worth the aggravation, no matter how low their prices.