Lucky Dorito

Today, Beebo and I went to WalMart to get a few things (“Twilight” on dvd being one of them! woohooo!) and ran into a slight issue at the checkout.

You know how there are never many registers open despite the fact that there are a gazillion of them, so you always end up standing in a line? I picked a short line – only one lady ahead of me. As I started placing my items on the belt, I overheard the woman complaining. Apparently she had two government checks that she wanted to use to pay for her purchases, she had signed both and handed them over to the young man behind the register. Now, even I have noticed the sign at each register that clearly states WalMart will gladly cash checks for a $3. service fee – even though I’ve never actually cashed one there. Evidently the value of one of the checks would have covered the cost of her items but since she had signed both and handed them over to him, he clearly thought that she wanted both of them cashed – which meant $3 per check – a $6 fee in total.

The woman was very upset about the $6 fee. She stood there and complained to the guy running the register. He apologized, saying that since she’d signed and handed him both checks, he understood her to want both of them cashed. She talked louder and louder, until finally she started yelling for the manager. The young man kept his cool, remaining professional and courteous. She walked toward the service desk with the manager, trying to settle the disagreement.

A few minutes later, just as the young man was completing my checkout process and getting ready to hand me my receipt – the manager came over and said his register wasn’t printing receipts correctly. She showed it to me, it had item names and numbers but it was blank where there should have been the prices. The manager had seen this on the other womans’ receipt while trying to figure out the cost of her purchases and had run over to check mine. She said that if I’d wait a few minutes, she’d get me another one printed up. I had picked up some cute little summer outfits for the girls so I knew the possibility that they might not fit and need to be returned was high, so I opted to wait.

So here is the loud complaining lady, still waiting for either her check to be returned to her and the $3 credited back to her for her to take elsewhere to cash – or just her $3 back or something – I don’t know what the final resolution was for her complaint. And here was me, trying to NOT overhear anymore of her complaints. Finally, she was handed something and she left in a huff.

After about 10 minutes of standing, we made our way over to a bench in the service desk area. Another 10 minutes later I was beginning to think it wasn’t worth it to wait that darn long for a receipt! About the time I was ready to give it up and leave, the manager reappeared with my receipt.

Sheesh.

What’s funny is as I sat there, I was thinking about the all the complaining and waiting that the woman had done for her $3. I actually ended up waiting longer – just for my receipt! Which one of us is the bigger dorkola?

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