Wal-Mart

Someone recently explained to me that Wal-Mart is the closest thing America has to socialism, particularly in their newly available discounts on prescription generic drugs. I have to agree. And we shop at Wal-Mart all the time because you can't beat their prices and they are open late at night when we have the time to go grocery shopping. The St. Augustine Wal-Mart, however, is a particularly disgusting Wal-Mart, and this is coming from someone who embraces the corporation as a whole. Closing the snack bar in the back was probably a good idea, since the only people who ever ate there were employees, licking cheese, etc, off their fingers before returning to their checkouts (which I saw one awful night). I found feathers in their fried chicken. I twice waited a half an hour to buy a desk and ended up leaving because my milk was going to turn into cottage cheese. I ended up purchasing the same desk from a wal-mart in orange park and was assisted right away, all the way out to the car. The cashiers are usually very indifferent, as Duff V. mentioned, except for this one guy, I wish I could remember his name, because he treats each customer as a way to challenge his personal best at ringing and bagging (appropriately) all of the items with a wonderful attitude. They're open all the time, and you can't beat their prices, but every time we're there we vow never to return... more

Recently I was forced to take a late night trip to Wal-Mart for a 3 oz. tube of toothpaste to enable me to pass through airport security in less time than the flight would take. What I made up in time going through airport security I lost in the Wal-Mart check out line. It was 2 am and I still had to wait for an eternity behind a mother with two children, aged about 7 and 10 (what were they doing up at this hour on a school night?), with a cart full of clothes and groceries; a very overweight Goth couple; and last but not least, a senior who paid for his half dozen items with change. Would someone explain to me why they have roughly 40 check-out aisles but never more than 6 open at any one time? I have never, in the entire time Wal-Mart has been open in St. Augustine, seen 3/4 of them open, let alone all of them. The store is shabby, the aisles too crowded, the personnel surly, uninformed, rude and/or indifferent (with a few exceptions). The only two redeeming features are that they are open 24/7 and if you go there after 1 in the morning, the people shopping are really weird and sort of interesting to watch. Thankfully we have a Target. more