Today I had the pleasure of doing my grocery shopping with my grandson Colton and his nearly 4 year old girl, Shea. We were having fun, going up and down the aisles with our two carts at the local Walmart Marketplace. We spent lots of money there! When it came time to check out, there were no cashiers, only self check out. We had spent 30 minutes filling our carts! No, Nada, No Way, Sorry Charlie, were we going to use self check-out! First of all, it is not designed for large grocery orders! So as we watched four "old" broads, ok, I am old too but never allowed a patient to see me shooting the breeze at work, while they were waiting to be helped! As they stood there, having a morning coffee or hen party, the mean one, who wears the biggest 1963 prom queen bouffant hairdo and stands like a statues at the front of those self-check-outs with the meanest sour face I have ever seen in my lifetime! Perhaps, you think I am being very mean! No not at all. If your job is to "watch: the customers as if you work for a government agency, smile once and awhile or find a different job. She makes no attempt to help others but relies on the other three hens in her party to go help customers while she stands like a stone sculpture! She is now reading my lips as I say to my grandson, "if no one is going to help us at a regular check stand then we can leave these carts and shop elsewhere" .Another employee is coming down the main aisle with her job, which entails carrying all these pre ordered groceries to customers, sitting outside in their cars waiting. I interrupt her to ask if she knows if any regular check checkers are available to help us with our $100 plus carts filled with groceries. She yells, hey are one of you going to open a check stand to help large order customers? The prom queen tells two of them to skaddle and get a check stand opened.
The one gal, who had a stroke, I know, because she once told me as she thanked me for leaving my heavy items (i.e. 40 count bottled water) in my cart. She helps us, but you can tell, she ain't happy about it! My grandson is filling his groceries in the reusable bags we each brought to the store. Shea is cheerfully asking for more stuff at the checkout stand, you know, candy bars, gum and mints all presented there for small eyes to spy out!
It is now my turn and Colton continues to bag my groceries with my bags. She thanks us and we head to the car. An elderly gent is stopping in the middle of the road. My grandson sees another older gent on the ground. He and the other guy race to the man's aid. I am watching two carts full of groceries and our most precious cargo, Miss Shea! The man tells them he has had 9 knee surgeries and his knee gives out on him. He is a tall man, about 6'4"! As Colton and the other guy pick him up he thanks them and they help him into his car.
Life is hard, often you deal with Prom Queens and other assorted people who hate helping others. Yet seeing that older gent and my grandson scramble to aid a man on the asphalt, I was very grateful how there are still some of us, who were, "raised right"!
At home, I get all groceries put away and my sweetheart calls me. It is now the noon hour and he is at lunch. I tell him this story and he says he just read that Walmart is doing away with self check out in California and Colorado! Sad as it is that we live in a state turning into California with the notion that everything is free, no laws pertains to certain people and the rest of us can like it or lump it! My husband says, Walmart is tired of losing money because of theft! Go figure!
I can drive over to the neighborhood where our son Jeremy and his wife Brittany live. It is a brand new area and the King Soopers store is new and filled with anything your heart desires from pharmacy, clothing, groceries and bath towels and wine, oh yes, lots of wine! But the different there is that dozens of people checking you out cashiers are open and most of them manned by teenagers! These are children raised right. They know making $20 an hour to check out real live people is a blessings, so they treat us with respect. I love that store, but sometime I can not get the bargains like Walmart has. Other times Kings is the very best because they are very well stocked. Plus their producee and fresh meat and cheese departments are top of the line.
Life is hard, I hear my mothers sweet voice inside my head. She would always tell me that and say, you need to pray harder. So I try.
"But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and it worse than a nonbeliever. " 1 Timothy 5:8
“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” Anne Frank
Sunrise on a Wednesday morning.
** If you need something good to read search for books by Fiona Volpy
