I’ve sworn dozens of times that I will NEVER return and yet once again I found myself pulling into a Wal-Mart store. I rarely shop at Wal-Mart. The reason why I don’t is simple; every experience I’ve had has been awful. The stores are usually dirty, poorly stocked and the service horrendous. Today I thought it would be different. I went to one of those new “neighborhood market” Wal-Mart stores, which means it is ONLY groceries.

It has been rather cold and windy here in Dallas – about 30 degrees. This is so unusual that my kids really don’t have the clothes to be out in this kind of weather. I had them in multiple layers but even then I was anxious to get all of us indoors. I pulled on the row of carts parked outside and the cart was jammed. I pulled again, nothing. I tried the next row – also jammed. I tried the last row and although the cart did come lose the child seat was broken and so neither of my kids could sit in the cart. Classic Wal-Mart. However, I pushed my prejudice aside and entered the store.

The store was beautiful and I toyed with the idea that perhaps I might start shopping here for my smaller grocery runs. I then went to check-out. It is Saturday. It is a very busy shopping day. They have only three check-out lanes open, all of which have at least three people standing in line and one of the lanes is closing. The clerk loudly announces that his lane is closed as more and more people with full shopping carts pile into line. There is no sign of anybody opening another lane. This makes me angry.

Wal-Mart isn’t cheap prices with good service — Oh no, no, no. They are cheap prices because their service sucks. Because unlike Target (which has a “no more than 2 carts in line” policy) Wal-Mart would rather have their shoppers wait in line with their frozen foods melting than, God forbid, open another check out lane. I find this (in conjunction with their sweat-shop policy) a little bit too much for me to swallow. This isn’t a one-time occurence for me, oh no, EVERY time I visit Wal-Mart something like this happens. I have to wait forever to check out, or the clerk can’t help me, or the people are rude or the store is dirty. They are ALWAYS dirty. I fully expect to see trash can fires burning in the parking lot and homeless people huddled in masses. You add this to the mix of crazy people that seem to flock to Wal-Mart and it is an unpleasant experience from start to finish.

Now I know some of you are going to write me and say “oh my, I couldn’t live without my Wal-Mart”. Really? Where are these magical Wal-Mart’s that have good service, short lines and clean stores? Because I have yet to find one. Apparently they exist or maybe my standards and expectations are too high. Regardless, I’m heading off to my local Super Target. At least there I know my frozen foods won’t melt.