December

Wal-Mart.....Wichita Kansas.....Christmas 2008

We were in the checkout line, Beth and I, with my cart first. I scanned my receipt and noticed that the cashier had double-charged me for an expensive item. I brought it to her attention, but since the sale was complete and she was already working on Beth's purchases, she told me I would have to go to customer service for a refund. I lifted up onto my tip-toes and looked at the customer service counter. The line stretched out into the aisle. sigh. So I went to stand in line, practicing yoga breathing and mountain pose. I was calm.....it was no big deal.....the line was moving. A sight-impaired young woman was in line with her beautiful golden service dog. She asked the customer service rep for a cart and the rep promised to call up front and get her one. Meanwhile, everyone was petting the service dog. The line moved on. The sight-impaired gal sat down and waited patiently, as did her dog.

I received my refund, and walked to the front of the store. The sight-impaired lady was still waiting. A male staff member (standing guard? or just standing?) said "have a good day" as we exited, and right then, I stopped and said "did you know that there is a sight-impaired woman waiting for an electric cart? And she has been waiting for awhile now?". He said, "No, customer service will take care of it."

A few feet away, we saw three overweight women fighting (verbally) over the electric carts. Voices were raised and the the "Welcome to Wal-Mart" lady was trying to keep the peace. We asked her: "did you know that there is a sight-impaired woman waiting for one of these carts? And she has been waiting for awhile?" The 'Welcome to Wal-Mart" cart lady said that no one from customer service had told her anything about reserving a cart.

Meanwhile, the fight over the three available carts raged on.

sigh.