Tell Good Stories…..

The New Bern, NC Walmart.

This past weekend was my 6th year of heading to Camp Seagull/Seafarer for Y Guides with my sons - this time my middle one.

As has become the custom, we made our stop at the Walmart SuperDuperCenter in New Bern - just off of Highway 70, and apparently where everything is happenin’ in the great city by the river. There’s always something that gets left behind - batteries, sunscreen, or, as was the case this time, a folding chair for the quality porch time with the other dads.

The assortment of customers is usually the highlight of the trip, with the people watching opportunities, but this time we were rushing to get in and out, as we were running late.

All 32 check-out lines were full as we approached, chair in hand. The “Self Service Checkout” area in any store can be a risky proposition - can be much faster, but can be a disaster.

I should have known.

There was a lady in front of us with a cart full of plants and fish. Gardening and pets. The gardening part went well, but the big plastic bags filled with water, fish and air wouldn’t scan. Repeated attempts at scanning, assisted by her panicked children, continued to fail.

At this point the Walmart employee charged with supervising the self service checkouts wandered over to solve the problem. It was as if one of the retiree door greeters had achieved enough seniority to graduate to some real responsibility. She must have been 100.

After much fuss, it was determined that to scan properly, the bag of fish, water, and air was to be weighed. WEIGHED!

And then no sooner had she pressed no in response to “Do you have any items under your cart?” she realized that she did, in fact, have items under her cart.

She did allow me to check out my chair before she started over.