In the past, I held the belief that a 24-hr Walmart would be a great idea. People don't stop needing things just because it's late at night, right? Well, Monday night cured me of that notion.
Let me set the stage... Monday was our staff meeting in Calgary, then Tuesday was the staff meeting in Vancouver, Wednesday was visits to Squamish and Whistler locations with field staff, then fly back on Thursday. Well, in my haste to get on the road Sunday evening, I neglected to pack my electric razor. I don't exactly get the 5:00 shadow by noon, but after a few days it's pretty obvious I haven't shaved yet.
After I get all the post-meeting paperwork completed at about 8:30, and a great dinner (thanks to B&K), it was about 10:40 by the time I got to the Walmart by the office. Electric razor and some socks, hardly an extensive shopping list, I should be in and out and in the hotel sleeping by 11:30 at the latest. My flight leaves at 7:00, so I need to be at the airport by 6:00, so the alarm is set for 5:30.
What I didn't know is that apparently electric razors are considered dangerous because they are locked in the glass display case. The regular blades are freely available, and they don't have to be plugged in first, so this confuses me somewhat. I have an aversion to regular blades as I'm convinced I will bleed to death from all the nicks and cuts. I can cut myself with an electric razor, so I don't feel it would be right to divert the blood bank away from people who really need it.
There are two blue-vested employees standing by the display case, so for a fleeting moment I feel that karma might be on my side this time. What I didn't notice is they were flirting with two customers at the time. Do not ever underestimate the teenaged girl's ability to completely block out all stimuli which could interfere with flirting. Fine, I'll go get socks first then come back. Hopefully by then the hormones will have dissipated.
This was a great idea because by the time I got back with my socks, there was no one to be found in the whole department. I look around and see a congregation of blue vests in the seasonal department. What luck, surely my odds of success must be increased due to the high concentration of staff in one area.
"We're having a meeting right now."
What?!? So sorry for having interrupted your meeting with my burdensome request. By all means, please continue. Here's an idea, if you don't want pesky customers interrupting your meeting, oh.. I don't know... hold it in the back room where customers can't come in!!
I wandered over to electronics because it was the first place I spotted staff.
"I don't work in that department."
Really?? Apparently no one else does either! Could you perhaps use that weird phone thingy and call someone? Seriously, this should not be difficult. Back to the Health & Beauty aisle...
A blue vest walked by and made the mistake of making eye contact and had to deal with me.
"I'll go find the manager with the keys."
Again, these strange phone gizmos might help in that search. Maybe the manager could come to you? Just throwing it out there... Maybe this staff wasn't cleared on using the phone. Her security clearance probably wasn't high enough. I never saw her again to have the chance to ask her the question.
Then the meeting in Seasonal got out and all kinds of blue vests came past. One of them also offered to find the manager. I could suggest a few topics for their next staff meeting. Having worked at Walmart several years ago, I'm sure I could remember how to use the intercomm system. Anyhow, the second staff to look for this elusive manager soon became MIA. I was afraid to ask anyone else in fear that eventually I'd run out of staff as they all seem to disappear.
The most help I got all evening was from one of the stocking crew who had been watching. She called over to another staff member from half-way across the store (bless her heart, I could tell she was one to get results) and flagged them down. While this guy turned out to be A manager, he wasn't THE manager with the key to this top-security display case. He went to go get the other manager and I wanted to warn him that no one apparently returns from that quest.
Long story short, no one in the entire building had a key to the cabinet. They checked the customer service department where the keys are kept. They checked with managers. They checked with the red vests (who apparently have a higher rank than the blue vests). American nuclear launch codes are more readily accessible than the keys to this cursed display cabinet. It's only about 11:50 by this time, no real rush...
Finally, this saint of a woman stocking shelves went to the back room, found an unopened case and opened it to get my razor. I thanked her profusely and headed to the checkout lines.
One of my favorite features of Walmart is the self-checkout system. It's so much easier to be able to scan in my own items. Did you know that they section off the self-checkout lanes at night? True story. Did you also know that at 11:55, they close ALL the lanes until 12:01 so they can close the day and open a new one?
The line keeps getting bigger as we wait for the TWO tellers to get the green light to open their lanes again. The line at this time is going up the aisle towards the electronics section, but they can only handle two checkout lanes. The guy in front of me apparently heard there is an upcoming shortage on milk so he filled his cart with 4L jugs. Good, that won't take any time to scan in. Just count the jugs, scan one in and Quantity Over-ride the rest. No. She has to scan them all individually.
I have seen glaciers move faster than the staff at the tills. It was 12:20 before I walked out to my car, having been thoroughly beaten and battered by karma's cruel sense of humor. Sleep is so over-rated...
Let me set the stage... Monday was our staff meeting in Calgary, then Tuesday was the staff meeting in Vancouver, Wednesday was visits to Squamish and Whistler locations with field staff, then fly back on Thursday. Well, in my haste to get on the road Sunday evening, I neglected to pack my electric razor. I don't exactly get the 5:00 shadow by noon, but after a few days it's pretty obvious I haven't shaved yet.
After I get all the post-meeting paperwork completed at about 8:30, and a great dinner (thanks to B&K), it was about 10:40 by the time I got to the Walmart by the office. Electric razor and some socks, hardly an extensive shopping list, I should be in and out and in the hotel sleeping by 11:30 at the latest. My flight leaves at 7:00, so I need to be at the airport by 6:00, so the alarm is set for 5:30.
What I didn't know is that apparently electric razors are considered dangerous because they are locked in the glass display case. The regular blades are freely available, and they don't have to be plugged in first, so this confuses me somewhat. I have an aversion to regular blades as I'm convinced I will bleed to death from all the nicks and cuts. I can cut myself with an electric razor, so I don't feel it would be right to divert the blood bank away from people who really need it.
There are two blue-vested employees standing by the display case, so for a fleeting moment I feel that karma might be on my side this time. What I didn't notice is they were flirting with two customers at the time. Do not ever underestimate the teenaged girl's ability to completely block out all stimuli which could interfere with flirting. Fine, I'll go get socks first then come back. Hopefully by then the hormones will have dissipated.
This was a great idea because by the time I got back with my socks, there was no one to be found in the whole department. I look around and see a congregation of blue vests in the seasonal department. What luck, surely my odds of success must be increased due to the high concentration of staff in one area.
"We're having a meeting right now."
What?!? So sorry for having interrupted your meeting with my burdensome request. By all means, please continue. Here's an idea, if you don't want pesky customers interrupting your meeting, oh.. I don't know... hold it in the back room where customers can't come in!!
I wandered over to electronics because it was the first place I spotted staff.
"I don't work in that department."
Really?? Apparently no one else does either! Could you perhaps use that weird phone thingy and call someone? Seriously, this should not be difficult. Back to the Health & Beauty aisle...
A blue vest walked by and made the mistake of making eye contact and had to deal with me.
"I'll go find the manager with the keys."
Again, these strange phone gizmos might help in that search. Maybe the manager could come to you? Just throwing it out there... Maybe this staff wasn't cleared on using the phone. Her security clearance probably wasn't high enough. I never saw her again to have the chance to ask her the question.
Then the meeting in Seasonal got out and all kinds of blue vests came past. One of them also offered to find the manager. I could suggest a few topics for their next staff meeting. Having worked at Walmart several years ago, I'm sure I could remember how to use the intercomm system. Anyhow, the second staff to look for this elusive manager soon became MIA. I was afraid to ask anyone else in fear that eventually I'd run out of staff as they all seem to disappear.
The most help I got all evening was from one of the stocking crew who had been watching. She called over to another staff member from half-way across the store (bless her heart, I could tell she was one to get results) and flagged them down. While this guy turned out to be A manager, he wasn't THE manager with the key to this top-security display case. He went to go get the other manager and I wanted to warn him that no one apparently returns from that quest.
Long story short, no one in the entire building had a key to the cabinet. They checked the customer service department where the keys are kept. They checked with managers. They checked with the red vests (who apparently have a higher rank than the blue vests). American nuclear launch codes are more readily accessible than the keys to this cursed display cabinet. It's only about 11:50 by this time, no real rush...
Finally, this saint of a woman stocking shelves went to the back room, found an unopened case and opened it to get my razor. I thanked her profusely and headed to the checkout lines.
One of my favorite features of Walmart is the self-checkout system. It's so much easier to be able to scan in my own items. Did you know that they section off the self-checkout lanes at night? True story. Did you also know that at 11:55, they close ALL the lanes until 12:01 so they can close the day and open a new one?
The line keeps getting bigger as we wait for the TWO tellers to get the green light to open their lanes again. The line at this time is going up the aisle towards the electronics section, but they can only handle two checkout lanes. The guy in front of me apparently heard there is an upcoming shortage on milk so he filled his cart with 4L jugs. Good, that won't take any time to scan in. Just count the jugs, scan one in and Quantity Over-ride the rest. No. She has to scan them all individually.
I have seen glaciers move faster than the staff at the tills. It was 12:20 before I walked out to my car, having been thoroughly beaten and battered by karma's cruel sense of humor. Sleep is so over-rated...
