Why I loathe Wal-mart

An online forum asked recently, "Do you shop at Wal-mart?" I responded, and then decided to copy and paste my response here for all you lovely readers.

I absolutely detest Wal-mart. But every once in a while, I forget why, exactly, I hate Wal-mart, and we have some big event coming up, so Dave and I say, "Wal-mart can't be as bad as we remember it to be. I bet they have some great prices on _____ that will be worth the trip." Then we go there and we remember why we hate it.

• the parking lots are always full, so we have to park near the back unless we get lucky and someone pulls out just as we're coming in
• The parking lot is always super busy, too. Even on week days during normal work hours.
  
• AND there are always shopping carts flowing out of the cart return areas, with tons of carts in the walkways, too. Last time we went, we notified customer service as soon as we got there, thinking it was a one-time oversight, but noticed over an hour later when we finished that nothing had changed. There were at least three employees working the parking lot, so I'm not sure why the parking lot was so out of control.
  
• The aisles are always messy, and it's hard to find things
• Many of the products are of poor quality and cheaply made
• They often don't carry or are out of things that I really need. They didn't have several things that I had specifically come to Wal-mart for. They were out of stock of those items-- fairly common items, too. Like, rubber bands for Rose's hair.
  
• They did not stock or were out of stock of several grocery items I needed for my trip-- seriously, who doesn't carry shell pasta and only has one size container of buttermilk?
• Shoppers in the store seem to lose IQ points upon entering the store and are often rude. This is a phenomenon that even affects my family, and despite knowing this will happen, we can do nothing to prevent it.
  
• Checkers are very slow, and there are too few of them working every time we go (every line has at least 5 or 6 people waiting in it).
  
• While their clothing is cheap and it's easy to clothe your children on Wal-mart prices, their selection is tiny and I don't like the styles that I have to choose from. Maybe I'm too picky, but I've heard others complain about a lack of selection, too, so I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this.
  
• The store is just too darned big and it takes forever to get through it. By the time we're done, every single time, my kids are screaming, naughty, and we're all tired and just want to leave

Take these reasons and add to that their poor reputation of treating their employees well, and you'll have our reasons for staying away from Wal-mart.

Until next year when we forget again.