The Shopping Cart Kids

I seem to have a lot of Wal-Mart stories lately. I'm compelled to shop there because of the prices, but what else can one do when the economy is controlled not by the free market but by the capitalist-statist-big banking-big government fascist system. But on with the show...

Sometimes, my hours being what they are, I will stop by Wal-Mart before work, but I don't think I did this time; already the details begin to fade, but I'll give you the main facts. First, I knew I would need a basket, not one of those little plastic jobs that you have to carry around the store, leaving you with only one hand to shop, no, I needed a cart, something with wheels, and I aimed to get me one. I entered the store behind two very fat women and their kids, two girls of age 10 or so. It was one of those days when all of the carts were gone from inside the store. This is not isolated to any single Wal-Mart store, I've seen it numerous times at various locations and I always wonder where in hell the cart crew is at on those busy days. Shouldn't they be out in the lot collecting carts so the store doesn't run out for customers as they enter to shop? But for some reason everytime I've seen it happen there is not a single person outside gathering shopping carts! Wal-Mart managers, do your job, please! Once I went in to a Wal-Mart at a shopping mall (on one of those no-carts days) where it was not convienient to go back outside to search for a cart in the parking lot. I mentioned my irritation to a Wal-Fart employee and she just stood there with a stupid expression on her face, before telling me to please not speak to her that way (poor little Wal-Farter, how dare a customer complain to her about the shitty service at Wal-Mart) but it was only after I spoke up that someone got on a radio and got the cart guys on the ball that more shopping carts finally showed up inside the store, where customers could actually use them. Oh well.

Back to the women and children. I could see even as I crossed the threshold that there were only four carts left, but still only the fat women party of four was in front of me and kids don't need...so I was sure to get a cart. Well, woman number 1 took a cart and so did her friend. Then the first girl got her own cart and said to the other girl (when she tried to grab it) "Get your own cart!" Now, I was standing right there, obviously waiting to get a cart, and the two mothers could see me, as could their brats kids. But neither of the two "adults" said a word to the little darlings, they just let them take the last two shopping carts so they could play store, leaving me standing there as they waddled away. So much for teaching kids to respect their elders or to have empathy for others. When my sister and I were that age we would have been slapped by Mom and Dad for even thinking about doing such a thing. Plus, we had a toy grocery store with fake food at home to play with.