Thank you for shopping at Walmart
So I'm in town for one day before I ship out again, but I had to share a road story with you.
Because of my frequent travels, I have two sets of toiletries, one that travels and one that stays home. When I'm on the road and run out of deodorant or toothpaste in the travel kit, I head to the nearest Walmart, Kmart, Dollar Store, etc., and buy more, same as I do when the home kit runs out. I have just about all the layouts of all those convenience stores memorized.
When I'm traveling on company business, I wear a sort of a uniform: black boots, black pants and a shirt with my company logo on the left shoulder. It's easy to pack, easy to get laundered/starched on the road, easy not to think about.
So I was in Reno, Nevada, this last week, city of not-quite-as-many-lights as Vegas, and I went to the local Walmart for -- as it happens -- toothpaste and deodorant. I was sorting through my options in the beauty section when a woman marched up to me and demanded to know where the face wipes were. I sorta ignored her, thinking she was talking to someone else, when she demanded more information from -- not the person behind me, but me. I looked at her, and she looked at me impatiently.
I finally drubbed up enough sense to say semi-sweetly that it was my first time in the store. She looked at me blankly and then realized that I didn't work there.
"Oh," she said, blankly (as described above). "You were standing near these boxes" and she pointed to a pile of boxes that sure enough were close to the toothpaste.
I looked at her. Because she was standing near the boxes, too, and she also did not work at Walmart. She got the unspoken message and pushed her cart away to find someone else to ask about the facial wipes.
Hmm, I thought, that's weird.
But even weirder -- when I got back to the hotel and was getting on the elevator in a giant casino-hotel that I had difficulty navigating, another woman stopped me.
She wanted to know the directions to somewhere else. I looked at her blankly. She said, "Don't you work here?"
The moral of the story: Don't wear clothes in Reno. They'll think you're weird and possibly that you work at Walmart.
Because of my frequent travels, I have two sets of toiletries, one that travels and one that stays home. When I'm on the road and run out of deodorant or toothpaste in the travel kit, I head to the nearest Walmart, Kmart, Dollar Store, etc., and buy more, same as I do when the home kit runs out. I have just about all the layouts of all those convenience stores memorized.
When I'm traveling on company business, I wear a sort of a uniform: black boots, black pants and a shirt with my company logo on the left shoulder. It's easy to pack, easy to get laundered/starched on the road, easy not to think about.
So I was in Reno, Nevada, this last week, city of not-quite-as-many-lights as Vegas, and I went to the local Walmart for -- as it happens -- toothpaste and deodorant. I was sorting through my options in the beauty section when a woman marched up to me and demanded to know where the face wipes were. I sorta ignored her, thinking she was talking to someone else, when she demanded more information from -- not the person behind me, but me. I looked at her, and she looked at me impatiently.
I finally drubbed up enough sense to say semi-sweetly that it was my first time in the store. She looked at me blankly and then realized that I didn't work there.
"Oh," she said, blankly (as described above). "You were standing near these boxes" and she pointed to a pile of boxes that sure enough were close to the toothpaste.
I looked at her. Because she was standing near the boxes, too, and she also did not work at Walmart. She got the unspoken message and pushed her cart away to find someone else to ask about the facial wipes.
Hmm, I thought, that's weird.
But even weirder -- when I got back to the hotel and was getting on the elevator in a giant casino-hotel that I had difficulty navigating, another woman stopped me.
She wanted to know the directions to somewhere else. I looked at her blankly. She said, "Don't you work here?"
The moral of the story: Don't wear clothes in Reno. They'll think you're weird and possibly that you work at Walmart.