Last night, I'm almost ready to go to bed, but I recall that we're out of milk. I don't like this fact, because I really like to have cereal in the morning, and it just ain't the same without milk. So I decide at 11:55 to go to wal-mart quick for some milk.
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So I walk to the back of the store and grab a gallon (why milk is always at the back of the store I don't know). Make my way back to the checkout, and opt for the express lane after checking to see if any other lanes are emptier. So in front of me is a wal-mart employee with a single kit-kat bar in his hand, then me with a single jug of milk. So what do they decide to do? Oh, it's time to change out the cash register. However, they didn't make the last person wait while they started this process, so they first have to ever so slowly remove the $19.03 that she paid from the drawer. Then they take all the money out, very slowly, and put it in another bag. Then they get a new bag with new change to fill the drawer with. Every slot. And coin rolls. We stood there for at least 5 minutes during this process. Normally they have a new drawer already filled with the money, so they slide one out, slide one in, and that's it. Why they make 2 people wait, when it would have taken about a minute each to check us out, is beyond me and very annoying.
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I was told that milk is always in the back of the store so people just making a "milk run" have to walk through a large chunk of the store and hopefully make other spontaneous purchases. Guess it didn't work for your milk run ;) (Though maybe the slow register change was supposed to prompt you to make spontaneous buys too...)
Just had a thought about that; given the usual construction of the cases where they store the milk, they need access from the rear in a chilled area. I suppose they could do this on the side of the store (come to think of it, I've seen one or two grocery stores do that, plus the MU market for whatever that's worth), but the back seems more logical for whatever reason.
Yeah, I thought about that too, just wasn't sure how to word it so it made sense at the time. (yay brain lapses) That explanation makes my engineering mind "happier" at least.. rather than the economic explanation.
I've been to plenty of grocery stores that have freezer sections in the middle of the store. Granted, liquid is heavier than the things in the freezers, but it could be done. Now beer and diapers, do you put them close together or make the father walk from one end to the other. Sadly, this is a classic debate in business classes.
But they would have to front-load the milk if they did that. I think the rear-loading of the milk has to do with the relatively short period of time before it spoils. This is all theory, but it seems to make sense.
you got milk. or, you could have taken this opportunity to jump the employees, snatch the bag of money so rudely displayed and counted before your face of customer un-satisfaction, and made a break for it. you also steal the kit kat for the energy and sugar high needed for the sprint to your car, split-second removal of the liscense plates, and paranoid drive to the border. once in mexico, you are safe and can change the money into pesos. only then you realize that there isn't enough money to fill your car with gas to get back to the states... stranded in mexico with a car and no gas, the saga of bandito davey begins...
And the milk spoiled on the way to mexico, so I have nothing to drink either!
Hy-Vee grocery stores here in Kansas keep a small refrigirator up front stocked with milk just like you see soft drink machines in most stores. Also, I submit to you that you'd have to pay more for your milk if Wal-Mart hired people with IQ's above 85. You should have just set your milk down right there and left after about four minutes of waiting. Why should they give you good customer service if you'll keep buying from them regardless of how they treat you?
You're probably right on the price, although milk at wal-mart isn't a great bargain to begin with. I already hate their deli too, always have to wait forever for service there too. Safeway is only a little further away, and I think they're 24/7 too so they may become my regular place.