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Confused Rudeness

January 10th, 2010

I have written a before of my distaste of the rude Wal-Mart shoppers at the Wal-Mart stores in Tyler. Now I am talking from a whole different view.

The other day I went to Wal-Mart in Lindale by myself, which is very odd because I usually am balancing two screaming children and trying to get groceries at the same time. I decided to do the most annoying thing that Wal-Mart shoppers do, I stood in the middle of the aisle and looked on my phone. I tried out different places in the store to see if I got different reactions. Since this mission was during the extremely busy holiday season, I stood between the canned yams and the canned French-cut green beans. I pulled out my phone and leaned over the cart. Soon enough a little old lady stood staring at the canned goods. She tried not to look at me and just stood there waiting for almost a minute, not saying anything to me. She tried to act like she could not decide what sweet potatoes to use to put in her candy yams. I began to feel bad, so I moved on.

My next stop was the diaper aisle. My victims were the young moms. Being placed in this category, myself, I embraced for the worse. As I stood there blocking the infant diapers, half looking at the products and half looking at my phone. As I expected it wasn’t long before a young mom walked up to me with a small child sitting in the back of the cart surrounded by groceries. She had no patience a quickly snapped at me with “um, excuse me”. This was about the reaction I would give, and have given.

Wanting to get each variety of each Wal-Mart shopper, I headed to the electronic section. I stood in front of the new release DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I had to wait a while before someone actually came and looked at the movies. My cart was blocking most of the movies on the self. As a middle aged man walked up her just asked if this was my cart, I nodded “yes” and he slowly moved it out of his way to reach for what he wanted. I felt like this reaction was appropriate, I wasn’t moving and I wasn’t moving or touching my cart.

My last stop of this experiment was the toy section. This was the section I looked the most forward, because of the crowded and insane holiday shopping. I stood in the middle of the “pink aisle” in front of the beloved holiday Barbie, and the Disney princesses. This time I did the most famous of shopping moves, I talked way too loud on the phone that everyone could hear my conversation. No one said anything to me, even though I am obviously in their way. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was on the phone and people didn’t want to interrupt my obnoxious conversation, or if it was that they were in to much of a hurry. People reached around me, I was getting hit in the back with a purse, and my car was being pushed around, and people were reaching over my cart or reaching under it. So it was as if people were being rude, pushing my cart out of the way, while trying not to be rude and interrupt my phone call.

My last act of rudeness to blend into the mold of the typical shopper, was talking on my phone and walk extremely slow down the middle of the store. People sighed in frustration loud enough for me to hear and people quickly speed-walked right past me, shooting me a bad look over their shoulder. The world of the rude shopper is very intense. The Wal-Mart shopper must be fearless, and heartless, and most importantly, oblivious to the people around you.

Through my experience of rude shopping, I realize how hard the art of rudeness is. I also realize how often rudeness is repaid with rudeness.

Walgreens on the West Loop

November 29th, 2009

I’ve written on the positive effects that expanding business and entrepreneurism can have on a community. On such example is that of the new Walgreens on the west loop. For years and years the lot on the corner of sixty four and the loop had been wasted on the disreputable “Rose City Motel.” This had been a source of embarrassment for many Tyler residents, (myself included), who found it necessary to pass the establishment on the way to the airport to pick up out of town guests. Well at long last the shame has left, the motel has been bulldozed, and the valuable real estate reoccupied by more legitimate businesses, one of which is Walgreens Pharmacy.

Of all the new businesses on the west loop in Tyler, Walgreens is one of the most welcome and maybe the most helpful as well. The staff is there to offer whatever advice and help that they can when it comes to normal everyday ailments. They offer a full range of over the counter products for those like me, who prefer treating their own symptoms rather than constantly shelling out for a doctor’s prescription. For those situations when the doc’s help is absolutely necessary however, the store offers both walk in or drive through pick up.

But the store is much more than just a pharmacy. They offer a wide variety of health and beauty products as well as groceries and other odds and ends. While Walgreens is a pharmacy first and foremost, it is also a sort of mini department store. Personally, I stop off frequently for items like milk, which runs just under two dollars a gallon. I won’t say that their entire inventory is as inexpensive, some things seem kind of high to me, the diapers and related products for example. It’s best to know what you usually pay for those items, or do a little comparison shopping. By the way, the store is going to be offering Christmas pictures on December fifth, from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon. They assure me that the prices will quite cheap.

Hopefully, Walgreens will not be the only new business in west Tyler. The more run down motels and third rate tattoo supply shops we can drive out and replace with real reputable businesses and jobs, the better. As someone who lives in west Tyler, I’m glad to support stores like Walgreens. Come to think of it I’m out of milk, guess I should swing by the pharmacy.

Wal-Mart Confusion

September 18th, 2009

When I walk into Tyler’s Wal-Mart, on the corner of the Loop and highway 64, I am greeted by a group of strange men just hanging out by the entrance. I get sick of these groups of guys that shout at woman to get their numbers. I can not believe girls would actually give these guys their numbers. As I walk through the dirty store that always seems like the floor is sticky, I get run into a bunch of little kids running through the store with no parents in sight. I get frustrated and walk down to get a tube of toothpaste. As I grab a tube of tooth paste, a shirt is stuffed behind it. I go to get a few groceries and grab something to eat at the Deli. Some woman sell barbeque chicken chunks with flies flying all around. Some chicken falls on the greasy dirty counter and they just grabbed it up and threw it back in the container with all the other food. I was really grossed out and decided not to eat there. There is a McDonalds connected to this Wal-Mart. I don’t think I would ever eat there. It always looks really dirty and really greasy. This Wal-Mart is known to be very dangerous and be very careful if you go there, especially at night, when really strange people can not find a better place to hang out at 11:00 at night.

It seems like some of the most stuck up people drive around the Wal-Mart off of Broadway. I always get cut off while walking into the store. One time a car was waiting for me to load my bags of groceries into the car put my two babies into the car seats and buckle them in and put my cart away, just so they could get my spot. I was trying to hurry to be nice and they kept honking and when I looked up at the driver I noticed that they were signaling for me to hurry up. Excuse me? They should just go find another place. Oh, and by the way, please do not park in the pregnancy parking unless you are pregnant. So I hate going there because of all the rude people that shop there. But there isn’t any other Wal-Mart that is so convenient. I can just go right across the street to Target, or stay in the same parking lot and enjoy a great burger at Whataburger. The store inside is a lot cleaner than the Wal-Mart I formally talked of, but it always is so crowded. Every time I go to check out it seems like they have about twenty lanes and maybe five are open. So there will be at least ten people in front of you with their baskets over flowing with stuff. So Wal-Mart, open a few more check-outs, will you?

My very favorite Wal-Mart in Tyler is the newest one on Troop Highway. It is the furthest for me but I think it is worth the drive. It is the largest Wal-Mart in Tyler and always the most orderly. The food always seems so much cleaner and even the people are nicer. The parking lot is larger so people can find their own parking space and don’t have to be so rude to park. They have great furniture for babies. It is easy to register here because everything so organized compared to the other ones. The people are nicer because they don’t feel cramped into and over crowded store with rude strangers. The greeter is even nicer. Which I think greeters are so funny. What a great job. They are called “greeters” but honestly,  how often do they really greet you. Its like security. Security from all those strange pathetic people that shop lift. But that is off the point I am trying to make. Troop Wal-Mart greeters actually tell people hello. But I don’t think they deal with as much shop lifting as the Wal-Mart off of highway 64. There is always police there. So if you need to go to Wal-Mart go to Troop, even if it is out of the way. They always seem to have more lanes open so it takes a lot less time to come in and get out.

I’m not the biggest fan of Wal-Mart, not like I use to be. But it is the one stop for all your needs and the prices are amazing. I can ever leave the store with out first checking out the five dollar movie rack, or the three dollar sales in the baby clothes section. Wal-Mart has a policy that they will not be under sold, so you are sure to find what you need or want at a  great price. You will find everything for every room in your house and for your car. If you need a new bed spread or a new rug, if you need new furniture or television, you will always find it at Wal-Mart. Keep your eyes open for the seasonal selection at great prices and when it starts to becomes out of season look for amazing sales. Have fun shopping with your kids in their toys section, I always have to take a walk down the pink aisle just to see what is new and what is on sale. So shop Wal-Mart to find off-brand and brand names at a great price, “always”.