How do I hate thee Walmart? Let me count the ways...

I am feeling the need to wax poetic about all the reasons I loathe Walmart.  Now this morning I actually went to my local supercenter, and considering it was Saturday morning the trip was fairly painless.  Still by the time I left the parking lot I was tired and annoyed.  Why? you ask.  Well, there are many reasons...

1. The parking lot-- I have nothing against the handicapped, but seriously our local store has over 30 handicapped spots.  Really??? And on any given day less than half of them have cars in them.  So the majority of shoppers have to walk quite a ways to even get into the store.

2. The carts-- I don't know if all the carts are awful, or if I have an uncanny knack for picking the awful carts.  It seems that every time I pick a cart it squeaks, pulls to one side, or is sticky.  Of course I don't discover this until I have made it into the store.  By then it is difficult if not impossible to make it back out of the store to exchange it for another one.

3. The 100 year old greeter-- Ok, I am going to forget being pc here.  The old guy smiling at me with his ill fitting dentures gives me the willies.

4. The layout-- The store is HUGE, and for some reason they have the pharmacy and cosmetics center directly opposite the food section.  So of course I always forget to get the stuff I need there, or if I do make it over there I have to wander through other departments.  This is a problem for an ADHD person such as myself because I find myself considering buying snuggies because they are such a good deal.

5.  The prices--  I am the first to admit that often times their prices are the cheapest, but this is not always the case.  Plus, although in every other store in the known universe, it is cheaper to buy in bulk.  At Walmart I spend the whole trip trying to figure out which size bottle of ketchup is most economical.

6.  The Selection--  For a store as big as it is they have a woefully inadequate selection of certain products.  For example although there is virtually a whole aisle of paper products they have no recycled paper products.  There are literally 8 kinds of Doritos, but only one kind of brown rice.  I am guessing that I am not the only one who would appreciate a bit of variety in the non-junk food selction.

7.  The stupid electric carts--   I understand that some people have difficulty making it around a store as vast as Walmart, but those aren't the people in the electric carts.  I have news for you, if you are too fat to walk around Walmart, you probably shouldn't be shopping at a store with a cookie aisle bigger than the fresh food section.

8.  The check-outs--  First they never have very many open.  I don't understand why they have 40 checkouts when they never open more that 10 at a time.  Second, the people who work at them, in general, looked as thrilled to be there as I am.  Often times they seem to be working as slowly as possible.

9.  The cart return--  They never put cart returns in smart spots.  So if you want to be responsible, you have to either walk away from the store to return your cart or walk it all the way into the store.

10.  Business practices-- There are obviously many reasons to hate Walmart for their role in the American economy. The fact they they played a bait and switch by going back on their early promises of selling American made products. The fact they they treat their employees worse than indentured servants. The fact that they go into communities with the express purpose of getting rid of all the competing businesses in the area. I could go on, but I won't.

So there you have it. All the reasons not to shop at Walmart... That begs the question, why do I sho at Walmart??? I'll get back with you about that.