...why I HATE Wal-Mart!

I promised this post earlier this week, after a very successful trip to Walmart, but still not feeling it was worth my time to ever shop there again. Even though the company likes to portray they have the lowest prices out there or they will match an advertised price, I have found most items to be cheaper or of better quality with a much better experience at other stores. I'm not asking anyone to agree or disagree with me, this is more of a personal vent of my feelings on my own blog. Comments are welcome though!

1. It is RARE to find a nice employee

2. Way too crowded at any time of day or night (and why do parents bring their tired, cranky, sleep-deprived children with them to do their grocery shopping after MIDNIGHT?)

3. Dim lighting

4. The shopping carts always shock me! Literally, my hands always get shocked while pushing the cart & if I touch my kids, then they get shocked

5. Rude people in general, employees & customers alike. No one ever seems happy to be at Walmart

6. Coupons are such a hassle for the cashiers. They seem annoyed & check your bags for every item you have a coupon for, just to make sure that you really bought that item

7. Out of stock on lots needed items

8. Bad customer service

9. PARKING!!! Way to many empty handicap spots & way too many carts not put away or picked up by an employee, so when you do find a spot you have to get out of the car to move the cart, then get back in to park

10. Once you get into Walmart, you're lucky to get a cart sometimes, because they're all out in the ginormous parking lot!

11. Crappy gimpy carts

12. I feel dirty in the store. Its like it never gets cleaned. Which makes me wonder: I've been to Walmart at all hours of the day or in the middle of the night. Have I ever seen anyone cleaning?

13. If you go at night when they are restocking, they fill up all the empty spots down the middle of the aisle, so if you're halfway into the store & you need to cross over to the aisle on the other side, you have to walk all the way down to an opening (finally) and then backtrack

14. They should give us maps so we could effectively & efficiently navigate the store, because even if you think you know where something might be, good luck finding it or finding an employee who knows where it is. The stores are unorganized & poorly laid out, especially during holidays.

15. Why are there like 50 registers but less than 10 are open at a time, and usually the majority of those registers are "speedy checkout" for 20 items or less?

16. Checkout lines are ridiculously long & slow-moving. So you can wait in line for a good 30-60 minutes in the "speedy checkout" lines or get behind the family of 8 with 2 carts full of groceries

17. I think Walmart is falling behind the times on Save Our Planet, because it seems that the cashiers are trained to put a MAXIMUM of 3 items per bag, even if you only have 4-5. Yep, that means it gets put into 2 or more bags. There was a plastic bag caught on a tree branch behind my work yesterday. Guess what store it was from?

18. I once went there to exchange 2 items. Waited in line at customer service. Got money back. Went to aisle at back of store to get items. Waited in line at register. Took me over 2 hours.

19. Fruit & veggies: all produce is expired in less than a week, never fails, no matter how good it looks or how good it smells the day you buy in the store

20. Different prices for the same items. For example:
Yoplait Yo-Plus Yogurt Cherry, Vanilla or Peach flavors: $2.08
Blueberry Acai flavor: $2.53
This is NOT the case in any other store that I've seen
Different flavor = different price? Come on

21. I don't understand the "rollback" pricing. Is it on sale? Is this a new, fixed, cheaper price for the product? I have actually seen "rollback" prices more than what they previously were. doesn't that contradict the term "rollback"?

Also, I did a google search of "I hate Walmart" and a lot of web sites are actually dedicated to this topic. There is even one that seems to be specifically made for Walmart employees. This may be the case with a lot of other stores, but I truly didn't expect to find so many people out there doing the same thing that I just did, lol!