Christmas Rant

Seasonal greetings to all and hoping that those of you that read my blog that do celebrate Christmas had a nice one. Those that don’t celebrate Christmas, please forgive me for not knowing your given (if any) holiday, but I hope that it was good for you too.

Normally I post something to do with mechs or MechWarrior but today will be an exception. I have a rant that I must do and this is as good a place to do it as any, so bear with me while I get it out of my system.

Many of you that know me, know that I recently spent some time in the hospital with a bout of pneumonia. After being out of work for a month or so and a little over a week of that time in the hospital, I was finally released (by my regular doctor) to go back to work. On the night before I was scheduled to report back, something went wrong. I started having some serious pain in my leg. As the night went on the pain got worse. The next morning, I was at a point where I could hardly walk.

I made the decision to take some pain medication and try to work anyway after being away for a month. By the end of that work day, I was in tremendous pain. I called my regular Doctor and asked her to stay a little longer than normal to see me because I knew something was wrong. When I got to her office, she didn’t even have to do an exam, she knew something was again wrong with my back. She called my surgeon and set me up with an appointment to see him as soon as possible. In the mean time, she fired an email, real mail and a fax to my employer stating that I would be out for some additional time because of a back related issue.

The appointment to my surgeon was changed because he had to do emergency surgery on some other poor suffering soul. When I did get to meet with him, still in major pain I might add, he did the usual xrays and MRI and within a half day I had the answer of the cause of the pain.

Many of you know I had spinal fusion a couple of years ago and that I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease. This news (at that time) was pretty hard for me to take, because along with that info, came the news that eventually I would lose my ability to walk and be confined to a wheel chair (probably in my late 60s or early 70s). This was tough stuff for me to take as I had always been an athletic sort of guy, setting a high school passing yardage record (for my school) that held for 21 years. I played baseball and basketball in high school as well. I played basketball in Jr. College altho I was never a starter and I played rugby in ‘regular’ college. I coached little league baseball and football and I coached youth league soccer for years. I also coached mens softball in my spare time as well as playing some mens league basketball. So yeah, loosing the ability to walk was quite a stunner to me, but I have accepted that now and I will make the best of each day.

My surgeon informed me that the disk above where I had my fusion had burst and the disk above it was pressing down on a nerve an that generated the pain I was feeling. Surgery would be need to fix it and get me out of my pain. Any way, that I went well and I am now back at work.

While I was off and supposed to be recovering, I was ‘ordered’ by my surgeon to walk as much as possible. One of the days leading up to Christmas, my wife came home from work early. She needed to buy a couple of gifts and some grocery items for the house. I could see a Wal-Mart trip coming and I had no way out of it. She knew it, too. As I sat at my desk (probably posting a mech review) I could feel it coming, those dreaded words that I hate to hear, ‘honey, I have to go to Wal-Mart and it would be nice if you went with me.’

With no way out of it and not being able to take the pressure any long, I trekked the stairs from my office to the kitchen where she was mentally make a list of what she needed and screamed at her, “Yes!!! I will go, now, are you happy?” My face was read and heart was pounding and I looked a lot like Mr. Hyde after just changing from Dr. Jeckyll.

She looked up from the refrigerator and calmly said, “I didn’t ask you if you wanted to go.” Crap, I thought, I blew that one, she hadn’t even asked yet and I agreed to go already! Short of a heart attack, there’s no way to get out of it now… Crap!
“But, since you offered, I would love it if you went. I wasnt going to ask you because I assumed you wouldn’t feel up to it yet.”
Well damn. She wasn’t even going to ask…

We went to Wal-Mart and she found everything she was looking for and she didn’t dawdle, she got what she needed and headed for the check out. Now, I don’t know about your local store (if you even have one), but our closest one is a Super Center, you know, a combined Wal-Mart and Grocery Store all in one. Along the front of the store there is about 50 to 60 cash registers that almost span from one side to the other, leaving only a little bit of room for in and outbound traffic. That’s all good and nice, but they never have more than 2 or 3 lines open, with customers lined up back into the merchandise isles waiting to pay for their goods and leave. I really hate that. Why have all those registers, if you only have a few open when you have customers waiting in LONG lines?

That is one issue. While we were waiting in our check out line, I noticed that our line was not moving. Being only a few people back from the actual register, I managed to make my way up closer to ‘see’ what was taking so long. Having had my back surgery recently (very recent to the time of this event), I could not stand in one place very long with out needing to sit or move around some. When I got closer to the register to peek at the problem, I see the older man (roughly 65 ish) and his dear wife (who is having to use a walker to stand) there and the (young) cashier trying to run his check through the register. After what seemed like a zillion tries, the cashier calls for a customer service manager to assist. This person shows up (and still a young one, I would guess early 30s) tries the same thing the cashier did, only she used her own ‘log-in’.

The man’s wife said something to him and he gave her the keys to their car. He then told to go on ahead, he would be there as soon as he was done. The Wal-Mart CSM tried several swipes of the check but the register would not take it. The CSM then decided the ‘check swiper’ was not functioning properly and asked everyone in line (nearly 20 people in this line alone) to move to the next register. Everyone did but the problem carried over to the next register.

Finally, the Customer Service Lady pulled the check out and looked at it. She looked at the old man and then at the check again. She explained to him that the check was a ‘counter check’ and that it had no ‘account’ info pre-printed on it and that their machine would not take the check. She apologized and said she could not accept the check and asked for some other form of payment. Let me state here that she was very nice. The man told her that she had his driver’s license number, his address and his phone number. He explained to her that his daughter had just had a baby but had lost her husband in Iraq the previous month. He and his wife just moved into town to help their daughter, after transferring their account from Florida to a local account, this is what the bank gave him.

As I said, this guy was mid 60s and he was buying baby diapers, formula, baby wipes and some other items similar. The Service gal, again apologized and said there was nothing she could do. The machine would not accept the check so he had to pay by another method or leave.

Having worked retail at some time in my past, I was well aware of what the girl was saying was basically true, but I was also aware that she could over ride the machine and accept the check on her signature. This was an older man with a crippled wife buying baby stuff. It wasn’t like he was buying CDs, or tires or TVs, but baby stuff.

I had waited in this line long enough that my back was starting to ache and I had had enough. It was Christmas time and this guy was trying to help his daughter who had suffered enough already. I injected myself into the conversation. Let me remind each of you that I had not had a hair cut in some time, nor had I shaved. I was wearing sweat pants, a tee-shirt (with holes) and a hoodie style sweat shirt cover that was not zipped and I was bobbling about on my cane.

The man was in near tears and the CSM, altho apologetic, was unyielding. “Mam”, I said, as nicely as I could, “will you accept my bank card for his payment?” She looked at me in a very confused looking face and said that she guessed so, in fact she said, “I guess, so..” very hesitantly.

I handed her my atm card and turned to the old man. “Sir,” I said very loudly, loud enough to be heard several registers down where a store assistant manager was standing, “I am sure that Sam Walton would turn over in his grave if he saw how you were treated in his store today. Even tho I don’t work here, sit, I want to apologize for the behavior of the people here. Our town is very nice and most folks here are willing to help others. That includes stepping up when people are in need.” “Also, sir, I am sorry that you and all these ill shoppers behind you had to wait so long for such as silly matter, when this store could have easily opened additional registers and this nice lady here could have accepted your check on her signature. Please allow me to pay for your purchase here and I hope that you and your family have a Merry Xmas. Thank you lovely daughter for her husbands scarfice for our country so that you and I CAN stand in long lines to spend our money on the things we want and need.”

The people in line behind and beside us all started clapping and then even cheering. The Assistant Store manager came over and gave the man a 50$ give certificate, had some extra registers opened up and offered me a 50$ gift certificate as well as moving my wife up to a newly opened register.

The old gentleman tried to give me a check for the things he bought. I refused his money and thanked him for his kindness and I explained how I was sorry for the loss of his son-in-law.

The Assistant Store Manager called me aside (that’s when he offered me a gift certificate) and asked me how I knew about the override function. I explained that years before Wal-Mart existed outside of Arkansas, other stores had an over ride and could take checks based on a CSM or Assistant Manager sign off. I also told him it was obvious that the old man wasn’t trying to pull anything based on what he was buying. The 34$ (the amount of the guy’s purchase) wasn’t a big deal to me and it certainly couldn’t be a big deal to Wal-Mart. I also told him that I actually read Walton’s book and that he prided himself and his business on customer service and that if Wal-Mart would get back to some of that, they would have a lot more business, especially by people like Mr. Garnick (the older man).

The Assistant Manager guy then insisted that I take the gift card. I took the gift card and I asked the guy to follow me out of the store. I took his gift card an put in the Salvation Army bucket just out by the entrance where the poor Santa guy was ringing his bell. I thanked the guy and told him it would be a long time before he saw us in the store again, if ever. There are plenty of other retail outlets in our town and some of them actually like my money and my business.

So that is my rant for the season. I hate to wait in line, especially when the ability is there to prevent, or at least shorten the line(s). this store had some 40 registers not in use and some 10 employees hovering around the Assistant Manager at the front of the stores very close to the registers. The way I see it, some of those 10 folks could have been used to open additional registers to relieve some of the lines. The CSM people can be given some leeway in their ability to approve personal checks, too. Usually, CSMs and Assistant Managers are pretty good judge of folks and you can tell by what they are trying to buy if you are being taken fro a ride or if it’s a legit purchase. With that many people in those few lines, accept the check and move along, 34$ ‘ain’t’ gonna kill ya, and for goodness sakes folks, open some more registers!!!