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I stumbled across some total ridiculousness today. I honestly believe that these two Wal Mart “testimonials” sum up everything that is wrong with our society today. Granted, they come from a website called Pissed Consumer, but these two people are just crazy. And sadly, I don’t think they’re all that rare.
First, a woman who claims child abuse from a Wal Mart employee… because a Bratz board game was out of stock:
For three days my daughter wanted a Bratz board game. We went to the toy department to buy the game for three days this past month. All three times you were out of the game. My daughter is nine years old and she really likes Bratz. The third time she was told that they would no longer be carrying the product until Christmas. I demanded to see a manager. I told him about how my daughter was disappointed in not getting a game which she earned herself by doing chores around the house. I did not raise my voice I was just disappointed. I told him that I am a registered nurse and that I spend over $1000 a week at the store. All he could do was apologize. Had he really wanted to make me a happy customer he would have offered me a gift card of some kind, but all he could do was apologize. He did not even apologize to me he apologized to my daughter.
I told the man inside the toy department that he made my daughter cry. Another customer came up and said my daughter was not crying because she was upset she was crying because I was yelling and it was scaring her. She did not cry until I started yelling. This was true but the real reason she was crying was because that idiot in the toy department was not doing his job well and ordering toys. I also told the customer that I am a registered nurse and make 90k a year. I work ten hours a day and do not need smart aleck comments form her just because she is jealous of the amount of money I make. Why I probably make twice as much money as her. The customer and the toy deparement person’s behavior of not doing his job properly leads to disappointment and abuse of a nine year old girl. To top it all the customer was abusing my daughter by acting like she was simply crying because I was yelling. Again I did not yell. I just raised my voice a bit.
I had to go to your store three times and at 4 dollars a gallon for gas I feel that I should have gotton a bit more than an apology. I feel that I should have gotton six $50 dollar gift cards for the trouble I went to taking my daughter to and from the store. I come up with six because I want 3 for my daughter as she was abused when the toy department employee made her cry by not having her game in stock and me having to put up with this incompetient emplyee and manager.
How much awesomeness is in that complaint?? This “registered nurse” who apparently got through nursing school without learning how to write and spell properly is pretty cheap for someone who supposedly makes $90k a year. I gotta say, I’m glad I wasn’t that manager. I don’t think I’d have been able to keep my cool.
First, you have the spoiled brat factor: definitely not a rarity. How many children have you seen act exactly like this woman’s brat did? How fitting, the snot was dying to get a Bratz board game. And I guess that the genius who made it all the way through nursing school couldn’t figure out the concept of going to, perhaps, a different Wal Mart, or maybe a Target. Or hey, maybe she could’ve gone to a place devoted entirely to toys, like Toys ‘R Us!
And then, shocker of shockers, the manager didn’t offer her a gift card. Then there was the jealous customer, who just was envious over her $90k salary, obviously. And of course, because Richy McRich makes so much money, she obviously needs the six $50 gift cards.
Finally, Brainiac claims that the employee abused her daughter. You know, telling a nine-year-old that a Bratz board game is out of stock is exactly the same as real child abuse.
And people wonder why I think the Bratz empire is the worst thing to ever happen to parenting and children. This right here is a perfect example.
But hey, obviously Wal Mart employees are child abusers. Didja know they’re also racist?
now n am not encouraging what my daughter did. Let me get this straight. i punished my daughter for what she did.
here is the story.
i was shopping in your south sioex nebraska store, my elevin year old daughter wanted to go and look at the toys, she asked me to buy her a greece barbie doll frenchie. i told her i did not have the money. she was disappointed, but she asked if she could look at the toys. i said yes, and to meet me in half an hour. i now i said i would not shop in your store again and i wont but i needed some food items and your store was the only one nearby and i needed to make food fast so my daughter could go to her girl scouts meeting.
a few weeks ago there was a racist greeter at your store that demanded to see s reciept from my daughter as she was leaving the store. she grabbed the bag from my daughter’s hand and i demanded to speak with a manager. he said he would handle it and ofcourse he handled it by putting her in another store which happens to be the one i go to frequiently. anyways this racist greeter asked to see our reciept. i refused to show it to her as i had not done nothing wrong.
upon leavin the store i was apporached by someone who claimed to be security. he told me that he wanted to arrest my daughter for shoplifting, at first i told him that he made a mistake my daughter would never do such a thing and i would be filing a complaint against him because he is just accusing my daughter because of our skin color. then he said that my daughter stole a barbie doll and chocolate bar. i said no way, she was just looking at them, she wanted one and i said i did not have the money. i asked my daughter to open up her backpack and to my shok she had stolen the barbie doll and chocolate bar. not wanting to get my daughter in future trouble i coorperated with him.
now i know my daughter did something wrong, however had she been white she would have gotton away with the shoplifting. because she is black they suspected her even before she stole the doll. i bet i was being followed around the store before my daughter even asked for the barbie doll. infact i would not be surprised if he was hearing our conversation (a private conversation at that) and thought this little black girl would steal the doll just because she is black. if we had been a white family he would have just left, better yet he would not have followed her to the toy department.
to make matters worse the security guard had the nerve to tell me that she had stolen small toys and candy before, i asked my daughter if this was true and she said yes. now i know my daughter did something wrong and i punished her by telling her she could not go to her girl scout meeting and sent her straight to bed, however if she had been white she would have gotton away with it. i feel it is unfair that they suspected a black 11 year old (a child) of being a criminal before giving her a chance. the fact that they were watching her before and saw her stealing before proves that they suspected her just because she was black. if she had been white and taking little things before they would never have suspected her and she would have had gotton away with all the shoplifting. which makes me wonder if her white friends parents bought the toys for their children or if her friends stole them and were not caught just because they are white.
So, let’s get this straight. This is all a case of racial profiling… except the RACISTS!!!!! at Wal Mart were right. Not only this the precious little Girl Scout shoplift, but apparently she’s made a regular habit of it. And I guess this woman, who is not racist at all, just can’t quite grasp the concept of checking receipts when you leave Wal Mart (they ask me 90% of the time when I leave for my receipt), and more importantly, surveillance cameras. And of course, once Mommy Dearest finds out that her little angel really has, in fact, shoplifted multiple times from Wal Mart, she punished her severely… by making her miss one Girl Scout meeting and go straight to bed.
How harsh. She taught her! And of course, white people never get arrested for shoplifting. Ever. As a manager of a tweener store, I never suspected white tweener girls of shoplifting. Because, you know, as a white person, I know that only black people shoplift, never ever white people.
There’s a common theme between these two stories. Both involve kids who are spoiled little snots. Both have parents overflowing with not only ignorance, but self-importance. All together, it’s not a pretty picture.
But when you go to Wal Mart, how many times have you seen these exact people walking around in there? I know I have. Now don’t get me wrong. I shop at Wal Mart too, and not everyone that shops at Wal Mart act like these two douchenozzles.
But they’re there. I know you’ve seen them there, just like I have, even if it’s not on such an extreme level. And like I said, this sums up everything wrong in America today. Most people aren’t this extreme. But too many parents excuse everything their precious little angels do, and find excuse after excuse after excuse. Too many parents spoil their kids — and some spoil them so rotten that the idea of making their sugarmuffins go without something as insignificant as a toy is bona fide child abuse.
Aren’t some folks just so charming?
Karen says: Good God, I’m so mad from reading this, I can barely think straight. I feel like giving Walmart more business now because I feel sorry for them having to put up with these assholes. Of course, since I’m white, I’ll be able to get away with stealing tons of stuff while I’m at it.
This “registered nurse” who apparently got through nursing school without learning how to write and spell properly is pretty cheap for someone who supposedly make $90k a year.
MAKES, Cassy. Makes. I know it’s nit-picking, but when you’re giving someone a smackdown for crappy-ass spelling, you have to dot all the eyes and cross all the tees. Better you hear it from me than one of your other charming commenters…why, then, they’d have something else to talk about other than your weight. Their brains probably wouldn’t be able to handle the challenge.
As a parent, I notice there’s this mindset out there that the precious sugarmuffins…that’s awesome, by the way, I’m gonna steal it…shouldn’t ever, ever, EVER be disappointed. Of course, if you make a promise to ’em, they count on it, and then you can’t deliver, that’s a couple steps beyond simply disappointing them. But too many parents go ahead and burp out this promise under the “shalt not disappoint” rule, and hope things work out for the best.
News flash to parents: When the worst happens and you can’t make good, the little moppet doesn’t break down bawling like in the movies. What happens is, he or she learns that “promises” are simply charming little bits of behavior, that are acted-upon for the purpose of bringing pleasure to people…and have no relationship to intended future conduct whatsoever.
Final joke is on you, lazy parents, because these are the same people who will one day “promise” not to stick your old broke ass in a nursing home, probably the same one where you used to work, after your precious $90k salary is just a figment of history. Har!
Christ on a pogo stick, who allowed these people to breed?!?!
The kid steals something and it’s all because of racism that she is caught stealing? WTF? I bet when the little darling gets caught snorting up in the school bathroom it will be because all the teachers are racist too.
I’ll give the mother this though, she has learned to play the victim card to the hilt.
Flash says: Oh the stories I could tell from my time working at a Wal Mart.
Smart assed teenagers hanging out because they have no where else to go and video taping their carnage in the toy dept. Over weight grown men riding on (and breaking) battery powered cars that were made for children under 60 pounds. Snotty soccer moms who looked down their noses at me because I work there. Morons who think that new patio set they just bought will fit in their Kia. Little kids wanting a specific minnow in a tank of HUNDREDS! (“No, not that one. THAT one. NOOO. Not that one, THAT one!”) A woman who scolded me for my lack of product knowledge for a cake mix (I worked in the garden center,ask me about grass seed). Mothers getting snippy with me because I had the nerve to stop their little angels from riding bikes and scooters though the store. And let us not forget the mom who thought there was nothing wrong with her two little girls dropping their private school panties and peeing on the patio by the lawn and garden doors.
Looking back, I wonder why I stayed there so long.
Frank White says: I went to Wal-Mart to return some cheese that I started to eat and then realized I didn’t like it so I go to the customer service desk and I says I needs to return me cheese and the lady looks at me and says “you can’t return a food product you have started to eat” or something like that.
She looked at me in a racist way when she said that and I could tell by her expression she was prejudiced against me. I started yelling and a manager showed up and I told her what happened and then I said “next thing you will be telling me I can’t return this paint that I scrapped off the wall” and she says “As a matter of fact you can’t” and both of your employees are racist.
Did I read that correctly? She spends over $1,000 a week of her $90,000 per year salary at Wal-Mart? Wow. I’m amazed she could even speak of spending money on gas, considering most of her after tax income goes to Wal-Mart.
Shannon in AZ says: Shop at Walmart for cheap, nothing else. That includes cheap customer service, cheap appearance, cheap attitudes, cheap prices, etc.
Secondly, the Walmart employee isn’t being paid enough to tolerate the high amount of bitching and moaning.
Thirdly, the only reason the Walmart employee knew of and could have possibly prejudiced self against the high income maker is because the high income maker rubbed it into the person’s nose.
Fourthly, what is a $90k a year earning person doing shopping at Walmart in the first place?
So, if Wal-Mart is out of stock on any given item on any given day, there are no other stores she could shop? She could not look online to see if it was in stock or available anyplace else?
And because she was mildly inconvenienced over an item that might have netted Wal-Mart two bucks, she should receive $300 worth of gift cards? Man! I’ve been to Wal-Mart and lots of other stores that did not have the merchandise I wanted in stock! Where are my gift cards, dammit!
“She did not cry until I started yelling. This was true…” but in my head it was all Wal-Mart’s fault! They made me yell! Sheesh!
The frightening thing is, she’s a registered nurse! What if this ditzy broad is the only thing between you and the Grim Reaper on your next trip to the ER?
William says: People like these are why I so rarely shop at Wal-Mart. For some reason, I always seem to wind up near people acting precisely like these two as if they were drawn to my general location. Wal-Mart is a great American Capitalism success story and I have nothing against the company, but customers like these keep my visits to an absolute minimum.
mojoe says: I too shop at Walmart because it’s cheap.
I expect the long lines, the convoys of families five wide blocking the aisles and not paying attention to anyone but themselves, the trashed stores (I go on Saturdays), and sometimes being the only English speaker in earshot.
A couple weeks ago I’m standing in the “Express” lane (10 or 12 items or less). There’s a Hispanic woman in front of me with probably 15-20 items in her carriage. Every couple of minutes another of her children show up with an armful of stuff. She looks the stuff over and discards half of it onto the “impulse buy” rack at the front of the register. By the time she gets to the cashier she has at least 35-40 items. The cashier tells her she has too many items, and the woman (believe it or not) doesn’t speak English. Or at least conveniently at that moment doesn’t speak English. The cashier points to the sign that says Express lane. The woman looks at her with a blank expression. So the cashier starts ringing up the order. The rest of us wait by her pile of discarded items that is literally collapsing off the sides of the rack in front of the belt. She wins. We lose. And her kids have learned a valuable lesson. Shrug your shoulders and say “Que?”.
JoeMama says: The sad thing is that the parents probably don’t really care about the conduct of their children. They are just upset that their child’s actions have exposed what crappy parents they are.
In this increasingly selfish society, I see parents making decisions not for the welfare of their kids, but what they think will make them look the best.
Jill says: mojoe Says: …The cashier tells her she has too many items, and the woman (believe it or not) doesn’t speak English. Or at least conveniently at that moment doesn’t speak English….
I used to have that problem when working with customers, so I’d repeat myself in VERY clear Spanish; half the time they would STILL pretend not to understand me. Once I said something to a guy 3 times in Spanish, more slowly each time, and he kept giving me the blank look. Finally I said (in Spanish), “I know you speak Spanish and I know you understand me. ” Then he sheepishly nodded and complied. >:(
There are A-holes in all ethnicites – a language barrier will definitely be exploited by them.
I went to Walmart.com, clicked to the TOYS dept on the menu then typed in Bratz game. Came right up, in stock online, able to ship site to store to save the poor nurse the shipping charges. Since the manager won’t stock it for her, why doesn’t she stock one for herself? It took all of about 30 seconds. And whaddaya know, no gas charges, crying brat, yelling, or horrible managers who won’t bend over and take whatever she’s shoving.
I shop at Walmart because I don’t make 90k a year. I have a family to feed and clothe and Walmart gets the job done without breaking my budget. I have always had the best of customer service, but that may just be that weird personality habit I picked up somewhere of treating people like people.
Jill says: I lived in Clearwater Florida for 3 years and worked at one of those banks inside upscale grocery stores. Let me tell you, that’s a great way to learn that when A-holes grow old, they age like fine wine into super-A-holes!
Once an old lady threw her checkbook at me and yelled “You balance it!!” After the checkbook bounced off my chest and fell to the floor, I told her that if she ever threw anything at me or any other employee again, I’d call security and have her escorted out. Then she stomped over to my manager and complained that she couldn’t BELIEVE I said that and that I “didn’t know how to work with seniors” [she had great aim, though – she threw it like a frisbee from about 12 feet away, despite signs of arthritis]
The grocery stores had huge problems with elderly shoplifting, and this was an upscale retirement area – poverty had nothing to do with it. One 70+ yr old lady kept shoplifting pregnancy tests and returning them for store credit. LOL!!
When caught, they’d threaten the security staff with bad publicity for age discrimination or “elder abuse” lawsuits. They’d keep coming back even if banned from the store, and some had been caught stealing 30+ times in my store alone. Management didn’t dare risk bad publicity for having old people arrested for small thefts – they were untouchable and they knew it.
jack says: Can’t see how the first little girl is a ‘spoiled snot’. Looks like her mom is, but it also looks like all she did was start crying when her mom went crazy on the employee. Sounds like something she does a lot.
But I can’t see what makes her a ‘spoiled snot’.
Jeremy says: Sadly, I can totally see the second one happening very often. I live with a black guy that I really look up to. He’s an ex military guy, a brilliant IT guy who works very hard. But this man sees racism around every corner, under every rock and behind everyone’s motivation.
This attitude even transcends race, everything is “us vs. Them” with ‘us’ always taking on the role of the victim. What shocks me most is how much my roommate grabs on to the role of the victim when he is just talking to me about random things – Tony Dungy’s firing from the Tampa Bay Bucs for instance – but completely rejects it with his actions in everyday life.
Mike says: RE: Everyone who is saying, “Why would someone who makes that much shop at Wal-Mart?
Um, why would someone making $90K / year *not* shop at Wal-Mart? My wife and I, combined, pull in about double that, and we shop there. The prices are excellent. The selection is good. They’re literally EVERYWHERE, and they’re all laid out the same, so we can find what we need when we need it. Their return policy is generous, so when we do get defective stuff, or the wrong size, or the wrong item, and so forth, we can exchange it with little to no difficulty.
Honestly, even though I make more than, apparently, most of the people who shop there, I still go because I’d rather save the money for something of value. I could go to Albertson’s, and pay double what Wal-Mart charges, but that would be stupid.
That said, I understand that large swaths of the population are not raised to treat others courteously. People openly abuse these poor Wal-Mart employees (who, while well paid, aren’t paid *nearly* enough to put up with the type of abuse they receive from the customers). The treatment they receive comes back out, unfortunatley, from the employees to the customers – even when said customer is being nothing but nice. It’s human nature – a bad attitude is more contagious than the flu. And, so, the customer service at Wal-Mart is lacking. I don’t go there to get my ass kissed, though, I go there to knock out my grocery shopping, feed my family, buy some various sundries I need, and GTFO. My only real complaint about Wal-Mart (at least the ones in Las Vegas) is that, for reasons unknown, the Self-Check lanes are almost always closed. WTF? It’s not like you need employees for those. Such is life.
rjschwarz says: My friend once worked at Sears in the 80s and he said they would watch someone on the survalence cameras pick up something from the store and take it directly to the exchange area (without a receipt of course) and get a refund. It was the policy not to cause a disturbance or deny them because other customers wouldn’t understand and might side with the thief.
Yeah that policy didn’t last long as you might suspect.
Wal*mart for the longest time had the reverse policy. Prosecute everyone no matter how minor the crime and they had minimal shoplifting as a result. Thieves hang out with other thieves and the word gets around.
I got one for you.
A few years ago, I pulled over a car for having illegal window tint. (Yep, police officer here.) I asked the teenage driver (just like I ask everyone else) if he had any drugs or weapons in the vehicle. He started shaking and said “Yes, there’s a gun in the back seat.”
I arrested him for the gun, and soon, his whole family tromped into the police station and wanted to talk to me. And yes, the kid and his family were black.
I told them that their son had a gun in the car, and instead of being shocked or surprised, dad started yelling about how I “racially profiled” his son. Mind you, the stop was for illegal window tint, and the reason I stopped him was because the glass was too dark for me to see who was in the car or what color they were.
I explained it to dad, and he shouted that I “know” that black people drive cars like his with heavy window tint so I “knew” that there was a black youth driving it. Dad was getting more and more upset and didn’t even want to discuss the fact that his 16 year old son had a loaded gun in the car. To him, the outrage was that I found it because I was some sort of a racist, as proven by the fact that I enforce the motor vehicle code.
And yes, the family did file a formal written complaint against me for profiling, and of course it was dismissed following an investigation which should never have been undertaken in the first place. But these are the times we live in.
Some good news:
“Bratz Dolls Begin to Show Their Age”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122203771658861043.html?mod=article-outset-box
WayneB says: I have a different take on the first story. I just can’t bring myself to believe it.
The references to money, plus the expectations of overly generous compensation, make me believe it is a fabrication intended to exacerbate hatred of people who have money. I can’t imagine someone making that kind of money going back to the same store 3 times if it was that important. Overall, it just doesn’t smell genuine, to me.
On the other hand, there are parents of all races just like the one in the second story, but because this one is black, she gets to play the race card.
mollo says: I worked at a video rental store and we always had fun stuff going on. One of friends had a lady go off the deep end screaming that my friend was a racist and had put late fees on her account. She flew out of the store scaring everybody was in line behind her. This seriously ticked off my friend because both she and the customer were of the SAME RACE. This case had a happy ending because she did come back and apologize!
btenney says: Hopefully the financial crisis will put this Nurse on the unemployment rolls.
Darury says: [quote]Mike Says:
10:50 am
RE: Everyone who is saying, “Why would someone who makes that much shop at Wal-Mart?
Um, why would someone making $90K / year *not* shop at Wal-Mart? My wife and I, combined, pull in about double that, and we shop there.
[/quote]
To quote the great Geddy Lee of Rush during his cameo on The Great White North Album: “10 bucks is 10 bucks, eh.”
Last I checked, regardless of how much you make, your 10 bucks still only buys you 10 bucks worth of merchandise regardless of where you spend it. Unless I haven’t been let in on the super-secret handshake at Macy’sBloomingdalesetc, my 10 bucks goes much further at Wal-Mart and Target then it does at high end retail stores.
Richard Thom says: Fascinating. I believe the tie between these two stories is that Mattel (i.e. Barbie) is suing the Bratz Kid people because the product was developed while the developer was an employee of Mattel.
ed says: this reminds me why I left a career in retail management all those long years ago. Fast food was worse. there the jerks are not only jerks but hungry jerks. Talk about infantile.
“Um, why would someone making $90K / year *not* shop at Wal-Mart?”
I thought a big motivating factor was that “high-end” retail stores don’t have as many unsavory people. “Our prices discriminate because we can’t.” Paying more for retail by avoiding Wal-Mart is Stuff White People Like.
Not condoning the hypocrisy, of course, but isn’t this pretty well known? That whites will avoid Wal-Mart because they don’t like being around all the minorities?
Christy says: I can’t believe some one quoted Geddy Lee..that is AWESOME!
I won’t buy BRATZ – because we don’t need role models like that now do we?
I can tell from the comments that Walmart is not the only place dealing with this. People really need to stop playing ‘the victim’. But unfortunately if it gets you what you want…
Sad, but true. “Take responsibility for your actions” went out the window long ago.
Ethne says: “Not condoning the hypocrisy, of course, but isn’t this pretty well known? That whites will avoid Wal-Mart because they don’t like being around all the minorities?”
wow – just wow… if that isn’t racist itself.
Just so you know, I don’t go to Walmart because I like to avoid assholes – doesn’t matter what color – just assholes in general. I went to the superwalmart near my house once – and it was like “Lord of the Flies” in there. Screaming children running loose turning up all the knobs on the A/V equipment and not an adult in site…
the kids were white.
Personally, I shop where I do because I expect quality from my purchases. It may cost more, but chances are it will last longer.
dfwmtx says: If some black person starts accusing you of racism because they’re black, accuse them of making false racist accusations because you’re (insert prefered skin color here).
WayneB says: “Not condoning the hypocrisy, of course, but isn’t this pretty well known? That whites will avoid Wal-Mart because they don’t like being around all the minorities?”
If that was sarcasm, it wasn’t obvious enough.
If it wasn’t sarcasm, don’t be an idiot. Your first sentence was actually not far off the mark, for someone who does want to avoid “unsavory” people. In this case, however, “unsavory” actually means, “crass, rude and generally obnoxious”. THAT type comes in all shapes, sizes, sexes, and colors, as does the type of person who wants to avoid them. I would rather be the lone white person in an upscale store full of minorities whose median income was over $50k than be anyone having to muddle through WalMart to save a buck (which I do all the time, because my income is BELOW $50k).
Don’t get me wrong, you get wonderful people who don’t have much money, and real assholes who have lots of money, but being an asshole is the cause of more people being poor than being rich. In other words, on average, people who make more money are more likely to be polite.
Josh says: Thank you WayneB; I can’t believe you are all buying these stories, they are both very likely fake. Don’t get me wrong – I have worked customer service and I’m not one to underestimate the stupidity of the average customer, but these cases are too obviously self parody.
Joe Duncan says: I’ve got news for Ms Racism. When you go to Wal-Mart, they assume everyone is going to try to steal from them. I’m a cop in a small town, and have gone to pick up shoplifters from their security. There isn’t a place one can go in one of their stores, except bathrooms and changing rooms where you are not visible on at least three security cameras. Their security people have followed me, and they know I’m a cop. Obviously, cameras and security were needed in this case. Mom should be grateful they pointed out her daughter’s little habit while there is still a chance to change her ways. In a few more years, people like me will be coming to pick up her little angel, and she will have to post bond before she gets her back.
“As a parent, I notice there’s this mindset out there that the precious sugarmuffins…that’s awesome, by the way, I’m gonna steal it…shouldn’t ever, ever, EVER be disappointed.”
Yeah, see, this could be one big positive side effect of the economy tanking (assuming it does and it’s not too bad). Some of these absolutely spoiled kids today, not to mention even people my own age group, come to think of it (mid-30’s) will suddenly have no choice but to not fulfill every single desire immediately.
Of course we’re probably going to “bail out” everyone (except those of us that were responsible.. we’ll be paying for it) and we’ll just slide farther down into outright socialism anyway.
Oh, and for the 2nd one. She’s right in one sense: there definitely was racism involved. Too bad it was all coming from her.
ShyAsrai says: assuming these ‘testimonials’ are not bogus:
how is it that the parent of an 11-yr-old doesn’t know what items the child legitimately owns and so doesn’t notice ‘suprise’ items?
mer says: My wife works in retail (not Walmart) and some of the stories she comes home with make me glad I don’t work retail (I’d be in jail for hitting people with a clue-bat).
Anyway, I like going to Walmart (Super Walmart, 24 hrs). I’ve found the best thing to do is act cheerful, even if you aren’t. It really really pisses off other customers and puts a smile on the face of the cashiers.
Christopher Hartwell says: Two questions that strike me as quite unbelievable:
1. Did the women with the Bratz fixation not notice that the internet is a great place to find things that are not available in stores?
2. Does this same woman (“rich” by OBAMA standards!!!) actually, REALLY spend more than half of her income in Wal-mart?? $1000 a week = $52,000 a year? Much more than half when you figure in taxes that this rich woman is paying! Hell, she had a right to be angry – apparently she OWNS the store by now!
When I worked in the government, I had a saying – ludicrous, but not surprising. It fits here too.
rjschwarz says: The unspoken thing here is that it is very easy for someone to claim they spend a ton of money at a store and thus Wal*Mart is not just losing a customer but one of their best. I have no doubt Wal*Mart customer service never has a problem with anyone except their absolute best customers. /snark
Karen says: It didn’t even occur to me when I first read this post how ridiculous the $1000 a week at Walmart claim was. Never mind the fact that it’s half her income – if I bought literally everything my heart desired, I don’t think I could spend $1000 a week at Walmart. After a couple months, my house would be too full, and I’d have to start giving things away. My conclusion: this is not a nurse who makes $90K writing this letter. No frickin way. She thinks that Walmart will take her more seriously if she has money.
Sean says: I am one of those guys that follow people around the Wal-Mart and arrests shoplifters. I live in Southern California and work in a very very white upscale suburban area and we catch more tween girls stealing cosmetics then you could count. Most are white, and I am white. We also catch a lot of illegal aliens stealing too. The ironic thing is, African Americans figure their being watched so I’ve never actually caught one stealing in my store.
See we don’t profile based on race, we profile based on behavior. Shifty eyes, looking at cameras. Two young girls with purses in the cosmetics section is a giant red flag. Gangbangers of any color are automatically suspect.
Also, if I observe a child ask a parent for a toy, and the parent says no, I will follow that child to make sure they put the toy back cause I was a kid once and guilty of stealing myself when I was denied.
I get accused of being racist everyday. The fact of the matter is, don’t steal and I can’t mess with you. If I do and you have nothing, I’m toast.
“And I guess this woman, who is not racist at all, just can’t quite grasp the concept of checking receipts when you leave Wal Mart (they ask me 90% of the time when I leave for my receipt), and more importantly, surveillance cameras.”
Retail receipt checks are voluntary. Many customers, myself included, don’t appreciate being treated like juvenile delinquents. We politely say “No, thank you” when asked for our receipts, and properly trained employees won’t insist that they have to search us.
Merchants must have enough evidence to meet the established legal standard of “probable cause” or “reasonable suspicion” (depending on your state) before they can detain someone suspected of shoplifting. Refusing a receipt check meets neither standard.
Any effort to coerce someone to show their receipt by preventing them from leaving until they do so is illegal. This is false imprisonment and, in some states, kidnapping.
In this case, the girl had in fact stolen, but she’s the proverbial needle in a haystack. Receipt checking is poor loss prevention and does more to frustrate, insult and demean honest customers than it does to catch thieves.
Martina Michaels says: This story is a bunch of crap. Expecting to get a gift card for a store being out of merchandise. And get off your high horse, just because your skin is black you got busted for shoplifting?? Give me a break, white people get caught as well. How retarded.
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