A Wal-Mart Story

Once upon a time in a Wal-Mart far, far away worked a young lady named Tevis. Tevis worked the late shift and checked people out. Tevis seemed friendly and nice. She smiled. One night, Tevis had a customer who bought a car radio, and Tevis turned that radio on every side to desensitize the alarm. The customer asked Tevis, “Is the alarm gonna go off?” and Tevis said with a smile, “I hope not.” Tevis was friendly. The next customer in line had stopped at the Wal-Mart on his long, long (not really so long) journey from Memphis. He wanted a Sprite and a few other things. He had picked up a watch that was in a slat that said “$7.97.” But when it rang up, it was closer to $11.97. This traveler said to Tevis, “It rang up a different price than I thought it was” and Tevis said, “I know where it came from” and she took the receipt and the watch away for a minute. When Tevis came back, she said, “It is $11.97 but if you don’t want it, you can go get a full refund right now.” She said it in a very friendly way. So she walked the traveler over the service desk.

The service desk was ruled by a wicked witch of Wal-Mart. Well, maybe not wicked. But rude. The Rude Witch of Wal-Mart. OK, Witch may be too harsh a word. How about just Rude Charlotte. Rude Charlotte was on what must have been a very important phone call, because she just looked at Tevis and nodded her head or something. But she never stopped her phone call. Rude Charlotte never put down the really important looking black Wal-Mart desk phone. Rude Charlotte for a brief moment covered her mouth and the phone handset, but then continued her conversation. Rude Charlotte took the receipt and the phone and clicked a few keys on the cash register, took out cash, and put it in the hands of the traveler. The whole time, Rude Charlotte never got off the phone, never looked at the traveler, and never spoke to the traveler. Not one word. Rude Charlotte did not even count the money out to the traveler, she just put the money in his hand. Of course, Rude Charlotte couldn’t really count money, because she was too busy talking on the telephone.

Rude Charlotte was telling someone on the phone something that sounded very very important. It was all about a $700 refund she is going to get from somebody that had something to do with her cell phone service. Rude Charlotte sounded very happy about her refund. It was the only thing happy about Rude Charlotte, because she certainly did not share any of her happiness with the traveler. The only thing she shared with the traveler was the money she put in his hand.

And that is a story about a Wal-Mart in Bolivar, Tennesssee, on Friday night, January 22nd, around 10p.m.