BrawlMart

The car goes into Oren early in AM, and at midnight, I suddenly realize I have no food! Doh! So I figure I'll swing by the grocery and then drop my car off after and rollerblade home. Pretty boring daily (or in this case, nightly) chores.

I go to the Walmart on the street where I live, even though it's probably a mile further than the one on the other street where I live. When I lived with Brad, we'd go to the later one (the one on Rainbow) so I thought I'd try out the one on Charleston.

It's not like the Camby Walmart... everything was arranged differently. It was like... the Muncie and Anderson Meijers. The produce was right by the front door (typical) but the frozen food was right after. The pop was all the way in the back, in a little tiny corner. Actually, now that I think about it, it's like a mirror image of the Muncie Walmart too.

Anyway, I only shop out of four or five aisles at Walmart: the canned veggies, the condiment aisle, the "international" aisle which is either with the condiments or the rice, or both, and the frozen fruit aisle and the frozen veg aisle. That and the produce is pretty much it. Imagine my disappointment when after finding that all five of those aisles are right next to each other, but all were closed so they could wax the floors. I asked one of the guys in charge how long it would take before they would open the aisles. He tells me 5 hours. That seemed a bit excessive and thinking of how hungry I would be w/o getting groceries, I ask him if he would get an item for me. He tells me to wait 20 minutes and then go in and get what I need.

So, I plop down on the new merchandise and wait 20 minutes. The moment I go in, some short, stocky black woman gets right into my face and tells me I can't be there. I tell her that I was told I could, but she doesn't believe me and basically harasses me into leaving.

Now I'm not the only one who was inconvenienced, and the aisles were abuzz with comments about how they should only close one aisle at a time, and not 10 like they were doing at once. I don't know why, but on my way out, I decided to speak with a manager about the whole thing. Maybe he'll get me some spinach.

The first worker I ask says she can't do anything, "ask someone with a headset." The first person I see with a headset is the same guy who told me I could get what I needed the first time. I ask him to speak with a manager and he tells me there isn't one. I said, okay, I would like to speak with whomever is in charge. He puffs his chest and says, "I'm in charge." I ask him if I can get some spinach and he tells me that he already said I could but now I couldn't and wants to know why I didn't get it earlier. Meanwhile, the lady who was the reason conveniently walks up at that time, so I point to her and say, "she made me leave." I then turn to her and say, "this is the guy who said I could be in the aisles." and at that she wigs out. "That bitch better lay off me or I'm gonna kick her ass."

Did I just hear that right? I said, "excuse me?" and she says, "climb over this fence bitch and see what happens!" And at this point, the guy is holding her back as she puts on a show, threatening to fight me and calling me names.

I don't back down, but I also figure I might as well go to the other Walmart, so I leave without further confrontation and head for the checkout. As I'm checking out, there gets to be a gaggle of managers around the register next to me. Apparently, a couple overhead the exchange and they were aghast at the employee's behaviour and were sticking up for me. I guess I never showed any aggression, so they probably thought I was scared to death and decided to make a report.

I just wanted the whole thing to be dropped, but now I get the managers coming over to me asking for a statement. I say I don't want to make a big deal out of anything, but they insist, "every employee is a representative of Walmart." I felt like I had cheerleaders as I was recounting the whole story; it was bizarre... I kept thinking that poor stupid woman probably had kids and now was going to get fired.

I know it's weird to feel bad for her, but I had no hard feelings toward her. Truth be told, I wasn't really bothered at all, save a little shaking from the flight or fight adrenaline response that my body was now dissipating.

In fact, that was the first time in my life someone wanted to fight me where I wasn't afraid... it felt good! Before I always had the instinct to run, but this time was different. I felt like I could defend myself. It's hard to be mad at someone you never felt threatened by. Heck, she even made me feel good about myself!

As I'm talking to the cashier at the second Walmart, she tells me it's a crazy night. I told her my night too, was crazy, and at that she says, "it's just in the air then. Crazy for everyone." I then said, "My advice to you honey, don't back down!" Not knowing anything about what happened, she was still laughing as I was leaving. It was just one of those nights.