Into The Eye Of The Storm

We tend to avoid Walmart like you would avoid the plague or a high school reunion.  However, this past Saturday it was unavoidable.  We were headed to our niece's 4th birthday party.  If you've ever been to a little kids party, you know it's like throwing a bunch of piranha in a tank that's too small, after they've been dosed with cake, ice cream and an inflatable bouncy house.  In a side note: Nothing will tell you that you're getting older, than an inflatable bouncy house.  I was done after ten minutes.  My knees we're screaming at me, but I couldn't hear them over my lungs gasping for air.

Where was I?  Right...Walmart.  We have to stop on the way, because my wife had been on 24 hour call with her company since Thursday night.  She had gone pretty much non-stop since she started the long weekend.  It won't end for her until Tuesday morning.  As we were walking into the abomination of savings, she was getting calls.  Just brutal.

We've entered the eye of the storm.  Sensory overload has begun.  Rollback the prices, tempting smells (it's a Super Walmart, one with a supermarket in it, not referring to the other shoppers) to go along with the beeps and buzzing of the registers.  We're only here to get a birthday card and a couple of things for the house, must go quickly, before temptation can take over.  We quickly grab a cute little card that a child would like, but children don't care about cards.  She's four, she can't read quite yet, although she does surprise you at times.  What do we have?  Card...check!  Trash bags...check!  Tub of Dubble Bubble gum...check!  What was that last item?  165 pieces of bubble gum...moving on, nothing to see here. 

Yes, I was weak...I saw the vat of gum for $3.50 and just couldn't rationalize why I shouldn't get it.  This is what Walmart does to you.  There is no way you can go into the store without coming out of it with something you don't really need.  This is why we avoid the place.  Well that and a couple of other things.

The first being, the People of Walmart.  As funny as the website can be, I don't ever want to be featured on it.  Just frightening.

The second, comes after seeing this Walmart documentary.  I know all docs are subjective and are the point of view of the filmmaker, who has an agenda...etc..etc.  Look at any Michael Moore documentary for example.  Note to Mr. Moore, it's a documentary, the director is not supposed to be the star of EVERY single film you make.  The subject is...Please understand this...