I believe that Walmart is as about as important to our society as a hair loss infomercial. I try to avoid “Wally World” if at all possible. Whenever I go there, there seems to be more shopping carts occupying parking stalls than actual cars. There also seems to be an unsightly number of Walmart employees who tend to browse the aisles more frequently than the actual customers. Those employees who aren’t shopping are normally off conversing with their peers in the women’s lingerie section, or near the help desk. Despite the fact that there are an overabundance of employees sporting their classy “How May I Help You” vests, there are normally only 4 cash registers open at any given time, each with a line that winds back to the lingerie section, providing each shopper a glimpse of Laverne and Betsy’s ongoing conversation centered around cup sizes.
On one recent occasion I decided to venture into Walmart to make a purchase. As usual, I was greeted by the same old lady that stalks the entryway of the local Walmart with large hoop earrings, black orthopedic shoes and a heavy aroma of menthol. She half smiled and half waved at me as I walked by a row of day-old donut holes.
I proceeded to shop, if you can call it shopping. Shopping at Walmart is the closest thing to real life “Where’s Waldo?“that I can think of. After acres of mazes and searching, I had my baskt full of goods and picked my line.
Line picking at Walmart is a tricky process. The shortest line most often is not the fastest moving line. One must evaluate not only the line length, but the apparent competency of the cashier as well as the intelligence level of each patron (ie: will they try to pay with a check or food stamps?) along with the amount of goods stored within the confines of their shopping cart.
After a quick look, I judged the majority of the cashiers to be slightly retarded, and headed straight to the self check-out line. One line in particular looked promising due to the fairly intelligent looking line-standers. None seemed to have fruit, cash or food stamps in tow… so I jumped in line. The line cruised along until the lady before myself arrived at the register. If this lady was a super hero, I could only assume that she had been bitten by a radioactive sloth. She moved slower than cold tar moving uphill on a freezing January morning in Alberta. I felt like I was watching grass grow as I observed her check-out procedure. I started swapping glances with the people behind me. They rolled their eyes in exacerbation and whispered under their breath. The audacity of this slow woman! How dare her sloth-like movements rob us of an entire 10 minutes of our precious Walmart time!? I could see that the woman was beginning to feel the heat of everyone behind her. Not one to be rude, I began to help her a little and struck up a casual conversation.
“Oh, the barcode is on the bottom of that box.” I said with a smile.
“I’m so sorry I’m so slow.”
“No, no, it’s totally fine. Don’t even worry about it. I needed some time to think anyway, it’s been a busy day.” I replied.
She smiled at me and began to tell me her story. “A couple of months ago, I had some serious heart problems. They had to give me open heart surgery. Ever since, I’ve had very slow reflexes. I always loved going through the self check-out line. My daughter always comes with me to help me out, especially since the surgery, but she couldn’t make it this time.”
Talk about a kick in the metaphorical balls. I just smiled at her and told her to take all the time she needed. I didn’t bother exchanging looks with anyone else as I checked out. I just kept to my thoughts as my new friend pushed her cart out of the store. It’s so easy to think about how people inconvenience us. We sit there and get frustrated or upset… yet all too often, a smiling face and a friendly gesture will reveal that maybe it’s us who is not functioning correctly. I think we have learned so well to think with our brains that we have little or no room in our lives left to think with our hearts. This Christmas season, lets try to do a little more heart thinking, smile giving and friend making. It might mean giving up some of our time, patience or even physical possessions… but isn’t that what it’s all about in the long run anyway?
