Tuesday, June 15, 2010

wal-mart

is always such an interesting experience. this past week has been particularly entertaining.

example one:
i went in for cold medicine, kleenex, and a ddp. the ddp took me a good five minutes to find. i looked in every check-out point/aisle to no avail. the coolers were all coke or pepsi! as i peeked into each aisle, a cashier surprised me and asked if i was ready. the reason for my surprise is obvious: since when do walmart employees practice customer service? it was just so unexpected, i felt stupid and stammered, "umm.. no? not yet" because i hadn't yet found my ddp. so, needless to say, the dr pepper cooler was on the last. aisle.
annoyance.
so as i grab my much needed drink, and i hear someone call my name in a distinct accent. it was my friend nadia's mom, who is either columbian or moroccan, i'm not sure which. we then proceeded to have a lengthy conversation while i was checking out (well as lengthy as one can get while buying three items).
questions included: have you met nadia's dog? did you know that she moved? don't you think nadia and chechi (chelsey) were good roommates? do you have a boyfriend?
it made me laugh quite a bit.

example two:
meredith was getting our supper at charming cafe, while i ran to walmart to get a ddp (it's getting bad. i'm aware.) and some ping pong balls for mer's house warming party. i was in line and this little old lady was almost cutting me out of the long check-out line. well, first a girl i had a class with in high school recognized me and said hi (i recognized her, but cannot for the life of me remember her name), then started talking with the old lady. after their conversation, the old lady started talking to me, which i didn't mind at all, as older people 9 times out of 10 brighten my day.
first she pointed to the starbuck's double shot display and said because of her diabetes, she could never have something like that.
then, she told me about her 3 yr old granddaughter had great manners, at which i told her i was glad to hear that.
then, she patted the depends in her buggy and whispered to me that she wears them to church, as you never know. i told her that was a smart plan. she agreed and said that it is better to be safe than sorry.
lastly, she asked me if i played golf, nodding toward the ping pong balls in my hand. i chuckled and said no, and that i was getting ping pong balls for ping pong. the guy in line in front of me laughed, as it was fairly obvious these balls were not intended for table tennis.
i checked out, and told her to have a good day. she had just made mine, so i can only wish that hers was well.

if you know me, you know i don't just walk around smiling. but i'll have you know, i smiled the whole way back to my car, then burst out laughing.

so i find it rather interesting that a place a loathe more than most, has provided me with two experiences that brightened my day.


something else i find interesting is that some items are called by brand names rather than the product name.
example - chapstick for lip balm, kleenex for tissues, coke for any soda.
weird.


-blur.

4 comments:

  1. You forgot the minor gross out of seeing two chicks who were barefoot in Walmart. Ew.

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  2. blur. honestly, this is hilarious.
    about nadias mom, these are our conversations every time we talk. shes very sad were no longer roomates...and intrigued by my life with jose. and bailey (nadias dog).
    as for the old lady, i burst out laughing in class while reading this. but she's a smart cookie, because church can increase bladder activity....and its always smart to be prepared.
    you would have loved my job tuesday. i had to hang with old people for 4 hours. i made several new boyfriends and KILLED the geezers at bingo.

    see you saturday.

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  3. mer - dang it. i did forget about that!

    chelsey - i've always wanted to go play bingo with old people! i've always imagined it would be so much fun!

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  4. Blur! This made my night, seriously! I am laughing so hard, I'm crying!!

    ReplyDelete