Leave Me Alone, I Just Want to Do My Shopping!

Last week I had a couple of days off of work. On Thursday, I planned to attend Track and Field day at my daughter's school. The event was canceled, so I had some time on my hands. I decided to go ahead and go to Wal-Mart to buy groceries.

As I walked up to the store, I noticed a man standing to the side of the door. When I got closer, he stopped me and asked if he could ask me a question. I thought that maybe he needed directions or help with something, so I stopped to see what he wanted.

He proceeded to explain that he was asking people to take a short survey, and it would only take a few minutes. I wasn't in a hurry, so I thought, what the heck. The guy looked to be in his late forties. He looked a little scruffy, but he was dressed in decent, clean clothes. He made some small talk, then he motioned for me to follow him over to a bench.

I was starting to get suspicious. If this was just a short survey, then why couldn't he just ask me the questions then I could be on my way? I reluctantly sat down, wanting to hurry and get this over with. He explained that he was trying to earn points so he could win $5,000. He said he wanted to use the money to pay for grad school (yeah, right).

After he made his little spiel, he pulled out a paper with magazine titles. He asked me to show him a magazine that I was interested in. I told him I was not interested in a magazine. He insisted that I pick one. He said he would show me a price and I could decide if I wanted to buy it or not. By now, I was really getting ticked. I told him that he had said he wanted to give me a survey, and he didn't say anything about buying magazines. He laughed and said, "Yeah, that's because I didn't tell you that in the beginning." I told him again that I was NOT looking to buy a magazine. He quickly put the paper away and abruptly said, "Okay, thank you for your time."

I left to go in the store, and I was beyond mad. I actually felt violated. Here was this creepy man hanging outside my local Wal-Mart trying to scam people into buying magazines. There are always groups at the entrance to the store trying to raise money for charity, but never anything like this! I went straight to the customer service desk to complain. The girl at the desk told me she would check into it.

I did my shopping, and when I left I looked to see if the man was still there. Thankfully, he was gone. I still can't believe in our quiet little town someone has the nerve to hang out and try to solicit Wal-Mart shoppers. I was really mad at myself for stopping to talk to him. Usually, I'm pretty good about avoiding this kind of thing, but I just wasn't expecting it here in my hometown.

Is My Local Wal-Mart Messing With Me?

Like thousands of other small towns across America, we have a local Wal-Mart where most people do most of their shopping. Love it or hate it, it's the only store around that has a complete array of groceries and household items.

Last week when I went, I noticed they were moving some things around. Nothing major, I just thought that maybe they were doing some cleaning or putting down some new flooring. Tonight I went and about half of the store was moved around, and I could tell they were working on even more changes. All of the paper goods were at the back of the store where the baby section and shoes used to be. The baby section was shoved in with the kids clothes and the shoes were stuck out in the middle aisles. There were other changes like some of the snack items moved out so that the beer and liquor could be there instead of with the drinks. Even the deli and bakery section had shelves moved out to make room for something else.

Fortunately, I didn't have too much to buy and I wasn't in a time crunch. I could figure out where to go, but I was definitely off of my normal path. I looked at some of the other shoppers. Most of them looked frustrated and confused. Everyone just seemed to be wandering around with a lost look on their face.

I'm sure in time that everyone will adjust. We'll be able to get to the toilet paper aisle without thinking, and our shopping routes will become reestablished so we can shop on autopilot. I do wonder why they decided to make such drastic changes. Knowing Wal-Mart, they probably studied how store arrangement affects buying habits so we'll spend even more on our shopping trips. Or maybe, it was just a random change and someone is watching me on the security cameras and laughing.