The only problem with weekends like these is that we end up grocery shopping on Sunday evening. So tonight after 7:00 we stopped at a Walmart on our way home. Remy was sleeping so I put Felix in the cart too and grabbed our groceries as fast as possible.
I needed one last item from the garden center - 6' garden stakes that are out of stock everywhere else - so I made my way to the far corner of the store. No employees in sight, so I walked up and down each aisle as fast as I could because Remy had started squirming and I feared he'd be hungry. I went out the side door and allll the way to the far corner of the mostly-abandoned garden center where I finally found the stakes. Success, even though they weren't priced. But Remy was fully awake and definitely hungry at this point.
I made a beeline to the registers. Of 36 (or whatever), only 3 were open. One line was 3 carts deep and at a standstill and the woman just shook her head "no" when she saw me coming. The others had at least 4 carts each with what looked like months' worth of groceries in every one.
I headed to the self-checkout where 6 of the 8 kiosks were in use and the other 2 were out of order, even though I know I can't buy clearance items in the self serve and the stakes may have been on clearance. Remy was fully crying at this point, and Felix was trying to help me hold on to 6, six-foot stakes that couldn't really be put anywhere while rocking Remy's car seat. (Such a good helper!)
It was finally my turn so I started scanning my items. The machine instantly got stuck in a cycle of "PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN BAGGING AREA. UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA." Remy was wailing at this point. Eventually an employee came over and got the machine going without weighing the stakes. But then "green pepper" wasn't coming up under the letter G, and Gala apples were only under the letter G, and the sweet potatoes wouldn't ring up. There was only one set of bags, so I couldn't easily keep the dish soap away from the bread. Remy was screaming, the machine wasn't working and the line behind me was getting longer and longer.
The employee came back to help. I complained about the lack of open registers and told him if I wanted to scan this many groceries, I'd still work there. He mumbled something about telling the manager and keyed in the sweet potato code.
So I scanned some more items, the machine malfunctioned again, and the manager showed up. "Are you okay?" he asks. "No, I'm not okay! I shouldn't be ringing up a week's worth of groceries myself just because you don't have enough registers open! This kiosk is tiny and it keeps malfunctioning!" (More exasperation than yelling.) At that point it was time to pay and the manager walked away. I didn't have it in me to critique his customer service skills so I just encouraged Felix to keep rocking Remy and we got the heck out of there, our 6' stakes jutting out like pokey swords at anyone who got too close.
As I walked by the manager on my way out, he stopped me. He sincerely apologized for my shopping experience, said they will try to do better, and handed me a gift card. I definitely was not expecting that!
Then Remy stopped crying just long enough for Felix to go on a Lowly Worm ride, his reward for being such a patient helper while shopping.
To the lovely woman who said I looked too put together to be a mom of two: Really, you are too generous.
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