"Central Office"

Had to get salt for the water softener today...and regardless of ones personal or political stand, Wal Mart is the cheapest place to buy it. I am all about cheap, so if you have some big philosophical opinion about the ruination of the country by the Wal-mart folks, keep it to yourself....I am trying to fund my retirement, so need to keep all the pennies I can.

The salt comes in heavy 40 lb. bags. They used to be stacked up by the exit door, and the nice little man would heft them into my cart, leaving only a short distance to move the incredibly heavy cart to my car.

Some genius (according to the check out girl who did not look terribly taken advantage of by the evil empire) came into the store from corporate, and deemed that the water softener salt should be as far away as possible from the exit. This proves to me that 1) this person is a guy, probably young and 2) this person has city water.

In the good old days, when the salt was by the door, I would gleefully wander the Wal-mart filling my cart with abandon. I had lots of room for essentials and impulse purchases! After I checked out, the little man would stack them on the top of the cart, making it somewhat easier to shift them into my car.

Today, I had to put the things in to the cart--trying not to do serious harm to my back or create a hernia. Once the four bags were in the cart, there was no room for anything else, severely limiting the amount that I could spend on this trip to the wonderful world of Wal-mart. I had to push the very heavy cart all the way through the store--not a pleasant experience for a "mature" female. Then I still had several football fields to go to get to the car...where I had to actually lift the blinkin bags, instead of slide then into my SUV hatch.

So, corporate genius boy...I will hence forth be buying the softener salt at the next door home improvement store. It may cost a few cents more, but it is near the door! So, you young, male, city water drinking idiot, you have reduced the revenue, not increased it by your goofy marketing degree logic. Ask your mother... She will tell you that in your Wal-mart you do not want to clutter my cart up with large and heavy essentials if you wish to entice me to shop till I drop. If I was looking for a work out, I would go to the Y!