Walmart Shinanigans

So I’m going to do my best to write a scathing post agains Walmart and at the same time try to stay as civil as possible. This all took place last night. The names and places havn’t been changed. Mainly cause I’m to lazy to think up some other names and places.  And to think this all came about due to Valentines day. Walmart I don’t love you. Consider our relationship over. And I’m keeping your microwave.

So I get a Valentines day card in the mail from my Parents. I must say that I’m slightly relieved that they still love me. I havn’t been doing the greatest at staying in contact with them recently. Needless to say it is a wonderful card and I need to call them and say thanks. To my suprise there was a check in the card for $50. For those who don’t know I just moved in to a new apartment and I’m kind of shy on some of those nice things like microwaves and vaccum cleaners so this presents me with an opertunity to aquire one of these modern marvels. Of course it’s a little after 9 which means if I’m going to take my time and not feel rushed I have to go to one of those 24 hour places. Namely Walmart.

I get to Walmart and go to their appliance section. They have, as expected, a fairly good selection of microwaves ranging from those tiny turn dial throw away kind all the way up to the nicer stainless steel, large enough to cook a sofa and three of your friends, style devices.  I spot two in my price range with larger stats than the only slightly cheaper counter parts. The cheaper of the two coming in at $65 and the other at $70. A little logic and some simple math makes this choice clear. The $65 model has 100W more power and is $5 cheaper. One little problem. There are none left on the shelf. So what next?

Well I had my girl friend on the phone with me while I was looking. Some may know that she just started a job with the big W and I don’t mean George. She was telling me that she thought you could price match with out providing proof of the price. That’s per one of the test to be a cashier she had to take. So I decide it’s worth it to roll over to Super Target and find out what the competition looks like.  Come to find SuperT has the $70 model on sale for $60. They happened to be out of stock for that item but Walmart had 4 or 5 of those still in stock. Perfect. I’ll get the $70 microwave for $60 and save $5 in the process. So I ask the nearest red shirted wonder if I could get a copy of the ad or something on paper as proof of the price. They said they couldn’t provide me with anything like that. Ok, well if my girl friend is correct I can just roll over to wally world and tell them and I should be good to go.

So I roll back over to Walmart and decide I better double check on this price matching system. I step up to customer service and inquire about their price matching. I explain that they had it cheaper over there by like $10 and the girl says “thats fine just tell them at the register”. SWEET! I’m about to be able to pop my horde of popcorn that I discovered while unpacking my apartment. Looking forward to my buttery goodness waiting for me at home I head back and pick up one of the microwaves mentioned before being listed at $70 and head up to the register. I tell the girl at the register that I want to price match with Super Target and that they wouldn’t give me proof. She instantly gets snippy with me and tells me it’s her job to safe guard Walmart from rip offs etc. and that she won’t do it and that she has to go talk to her manager. She apparently chose to wear the minimum amount of flair. May be I should have been talking to Brian.

She returns a few minutes later and tells me its only for advertised prices. I say it was advertised in their store at that price. What if I took a picture of the price tag? She then revised her statement to say only if its in a mailed ad like the sunday stuffer in the news paper. I then point out that the lady at customer service not 10 minutes ago told me I would be fine. She then proceeds to tell me that that person miss understood me and that she won’t do it. What!? I was just told you would by customer service! I even offered to show her the picture I snapped of the price over there and they still wouldn’t price match! What does it matter if the price is on a sheet of paper printed half a week ago or if its torn from the store via my camera phone 20 mintues earlier!?

Long story shorter I noticed the $65 model being re-stocked and sitting on a palette which I promptly snatched up and replaced for the suddenly more expensive non-price matched $70 model. I got my microwave after all but I’m still less than happy with the crap Walmart was putting down and I was unfortunately picking up. I had two Walmart employees tell me I could price match with out proof and one that said I couldn’t. How the heck does that one employee over turn two others? I’m done with Walmart. Ok they have a big selection and competitive prices but thats about it. Their treatment of customers and double talk puts the nail in the coffin for me. I’m now going to actively go out of my way to not shop at Walmart. I’m sure I’m not the only person to have this sort of experience and I hope that others will follow suit to avoid Walmart and their opressive market crushing tactics and arrogant deminor. Screw you Walmart! We’re through! And I’m keeping your microwave!

Shameless lifenotebook.org plug

Every one knows the guy who does nothing but repeats the latest popular comedy sketch. Or the guy who always smells funky despite being a pretty cool guy. Or how about the guy who can’t get a date to save his life for one of any number of reasons. Point em’ over to the lifenotebook.org and for that matter take your self over there. You might learn a thing or two you can use to help that guy out.

Robbed a George Foreman store and told’em make me a grill.

Ok so this is how things tend to go down. I get bored at work. I fire up ITunes and pick through the mostly revision 3 podcasts till I find something that seems worth while to listen to or watch. Now one of the things I enjoy is cooking. Most of you who know me know I love to entertain and cook. Especially learning to cook new things. My girl friend will also admit to that. I’ve cooked for her two or three times in the 4 weeks we’ve been going out. Which is pretty often since I only get to see her once or twice a week. So I find my self watching some ctrl-alt-chicken(cooking for geeks) and they were making some stuffed manacotti. Mmm…cheese stuffed pasta cigars.

So food was all ready on my mind. Lunch time rolled around and I was starving. I guess that happens when you don’t eat much for dinner and you eat dinner early. Then on top of that I skipped the morning time meal. Nick looks me up and asks if I want to go out. He comments that chicken or pizza would be good. Inevitably the conversation turns to how you could make pizza stuffed chicken. Oddly enough this doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. Pizza stuffed chicken just didn’t seem to grab the attention like I thought a dish like that should so of course you have to say it in a different language. So we return to the tormenta del pollo. This long lost beast of ancient past that terrorized cube farms from the east to the west coast. Bellow is a rare picture of the beast.

If you’ve got a recipe for either chicken or pizza or both together then please send it my way. I love both and would enjoy cooking it up some time.

Me = Energy Drink Addict

Ok so after many years of drinking every caffinated beverage under the sun I’ve finally come to terms with what I am. I am an energy drink addict. I’m not content with the plain old engineered caffine that regular pop provides. I’ve gotta have that and every other kind of caffine/energy suppliment you can cram in to a liquid beverage. So that being said here are my top 5.

1. The king of all energy drinks…BAWLS!!!!
2. Mt. Dew Amp
3. Monster KHAOS
4. Diet Rockstar(virtually identical to regular but minus the calories and sugar)
5. Sobe Superman(Mmmm..hello again Mr. Green you Dr. Pepper wanna be)

Lately I’ve been trying to stick to the Monster KHAOS and Diet Rockstar just because to much sugar = super fattyness. The Monster KHAOS is like 70% fruit juice so its not all bad. Those two aside its all about flavor and the buzz! Weeeeee!!!!!!

Peace out.