I made a quick stop at Walmart yesterday (no comments, Mel!) to pick up some pictures of friends and neighbors that I took at Rolex. It was the first time I had experimented with the process of having prints made from my Nikon 5700 and I was curious to see what kind of quality I could get. I also wanted to pick up a couple of 250 MB Zip disks to replace the aging 100MB ones I use to transport large files between work and home, in the absence of broadband availability in Tatertown.
I was pleased with the print quality. I got some real sharp pictures, even with ones that were cropped from a partial frame because I’d been shooting from a distance too far to get a full frame, even with the 280mm equivalent optical zoom. And the process is slick. Upload the pictures via their website (from work, after bringing them from home on a Zip disk), and pick up the prints at the store (or have them mailed for a small extra charge). The quality is better, and the cost is lower, than I could get from a “photo quality” inkjet printer at home that burns up an expensive ink cartridge for 5-6 pictures.
And eventually I’ll get to the point of this story. As I was leaving, I heard the loud chime of the anti-theft system. In these days of heightened security and guilty until proven innocent, these machines are just the least of the indignities and inconveniences we have come to accept in the name of security. The anti-theft systems seem to have a high false-positive rate (and maybe it just seems high because I don’t think about all the times it doesn’t sound), but I’d never been stopped by one before. (In this case, I’m not sure whether it was system or human error. I was distracted at the checkout, and didn’t notice whether the cashier deactivated the tags on the disks)
Actually, the encounter was not unpleasant. I was not assaulted by rent-a-cops shouting “Stop Thief!”. I was politely approached by a gentleman in the familiar WalMart blue vest, who asked if I had purchased “anything electronic”. I fished one of the disks out of the bag and handed it to him, and he didn’t even ask to see what else I had. He just stepped back through the scanner with it, and when it bonged again, he nodded and took the disk back to the cash register to deactivate the tag. He then checked my receipt to verify that I had indeed paid for it, apologized again, and pointed to a rack of 2-liter Coca-Cola products by the door and told me to take my choice to make up for the inconvenience. Not being a big soft-drink consumer, a choice of beer would have been nicer, but it was still a nice touch.
At no point did I ever feel like I was being treated like a suspect. The attitude of the Walmart associate, throughout the incident, always seemed to be “This thing screws up occasionally, and we gotta do this”. Whatever faults Walmart might have, they didn’t get that big by abusing their customers. They’re smart enough to realize that customers will seek alternative vendors if not treated decently. Security, even when it’s overdone and erroneous, doesn’t have to be painful.
And that’s what our government could learn from Wally World. Instead of treating citizens politely and decently, they’re bursting into homes and businesses, with guns drawn, frequently by mistake, terrorizing innocent citizens in the name of anti-terror. When a doctor recently disappeared from a New York airport, his family and police searched for him for a week before the FBI even admitted that they had him, and it was another 2 weeks before he was released with no charges, no explanation, and no apology. Unlike Walmart, the government can get away with this, because their “customers” don’t have a choice.
It’s fairly common for retired law-enforcement personnel to go to work in corporate security after retirement. Maybe this trend needs to be reversed. Maybe we need more former Walmart greeters in law-enforcement.
I have to hang my head in shame. While I still avoid Walmart, I have not 100% boycotted them for a few months.
But, I still go to Target, CVS, and the other grocery stores instead for most things. And, for contact lenses, we now use one of the online places, for the guys.
Luckily, my husband despises WallyWorld for groceries and the overcrowding, so we don’t go there often at all.
With Wallyworld being the only store open late enough to get things needed the next day-after mowing all day long in the summer, they do get me in there when I’d rather go somewhere else.
Mel
It would be interesting to know how you would have been treated though if you were of a different demographic.
Its been hard to boycott Wally World, though I do try to go elsewhere as a first choice too Mel.
E.
I agree. Wally is really nice to customers, and I wouldn’t expect any less, and their prices enable many families to afford more, especially when the economy is a little shaky. BUT when it comes to the long run, I have to say…DOWN WITH WAL-MART. They move into a community (approximately once every 26 hours a new Wally is born)and they put smaller business out of business, and let’s not forget the suppliers that are being forced overseas because labor is cheaper there…this eliminates sooo many jobs. But Wal-mart creates jobs right? SURE…the people that were making 14-16 dollars an hour at the factory they have been working in for 15 years is now going overseas because Wal-mart made them, so they will get a job for an average of 32 hours a week at 8-9 dollars an hour (or 6.70 if you are a cashier in some places)
But it’s a win/win situation for Wal-mart, because lowering the peoples spending power dooms them to shop at Wal-mart…Even Wal-marts Vice President of Federal and International Public affairs,Ray Bracy, stated that Wal-mart targets the paycheck to paycheck dependent people.
I haven’t shopped at wal-mart for a long time, but I sometimes feel the pressure of the convenience it offers. Because the local craft store can only afford to be open a few days a week at the very most, and I couldn’t find the specific item that I needed anywhere else, I had to go to wal-mart…*sniffle* and I felt horrible…like a vegan eating a big mac…anyways…(whew, i feel better now)There is always an alternative to wal-mart, people just have to be willing to inconvenience themselves a little and maybe pay a little bit more…but I think of it as an investment for the future…what if my daughter wanted to own a small town grocery store when she grows up…hopefully by then wal-mart will not have taken over all the commercial space in all the towns.