When I go shopping, I usually like to go early to beat the crowds. Well, I've been very sick with the flu and I have not been up to going anywhere. My husband started feeling sick with the flu as well and we still had not gone shopping for the week. Well, I decided to go, it was mid morning. I left the house around 10am Saturday morning.
As predicted it was busier than I like, but I needed to get the shopping done. The produce department was a zoo, it was busy with regular shoppers, there were lots of pallets around from Walmart associates stocking shelves and there were many personal shoppers racing around with their carts. I was taking my time trying to navigate through this trying to get to the lettuce and other vegetables. It is really frustrating, because the isles with most of the fruits and other vegetables, are catty corner, rather than straight. It is really not conducive to large crowds of people and carts. Not to mention there is no room for more than one cart at a time in any isle.
I finally got to the vegetables I wanted and had my cart in front of me as I was trying to find what I wanted.
Suddenly, a produce cart rammed into my cart, which then hit me nearly knocking me down. I was actually teetering on one foot and my knees were buckling. The cart had hit my right arm and elbow, and I was knocked backwards. I don't know what saved me from going down onto the floor. I was surprised and in a panic afraid that I would fall.
I looked up to see this huge produce cart with an older Walmart Associate pushing it, he peered out from the side of the cart, he couldn't even see over it, from what I seen. I told him, you almost knocked me down. and he just looked at me trying to get passed me. He did say, "I'm sorry," but it wasn't very sincere.
Tears sprung to my eyes and I became angry. I stood there for a moment trying to gather my thoughts. I don't like to cry in public, by here I was, in the produce department trying to avoid peoples stares, which also made me mad, because there were a lot of witnesses who must have seen what happened and not one person stopped to see if I was okay. I know if I had seen something like that and I was near, I would have supported the person who had been hit like I have. I had a few choice words for the associate who rammed into me. He looked at me without remorse and continued on.
I looked around and and there were three must have been four personal shoppers among the heavily populated isles from shoppers who were trying to get their shopping done too. Not one manager was around. I asked a few personal shoppers if they had seen a manager around and no one could answer me. I finally made my way to the produce refrigerated area where they come out with the huge pallets of food. Someone was coming out and I stopped her. The pallet she had was huge. I didn't care. I asked her for a manager, I was still in tears. She said she'd have to find someone with a phone to call the manager. I said okay. She looked at me with compassion, she did seem to care. She disappeared for a few minutes then came back and said that someone was coming, but it would be a few minutes.
I waited and watched, keeping an eye on the produce associate who had rammed into me. He'd look at me from time to time.
Someone came flying by me into the back room, then immediately came out and looked at me. I asked him if he was the manager, he said he was Coach Michael. The equivalent of a manager, I guess.
I explained to him what happened and pointed out the associate who had rammed into me. He profusely said he was sorry and that he'd pull the associate aside and talk to him about what happened. It didn't seem enough. Looking at the the produce department it was still a zoo, with carts and them zooming around getting in the way of shoppers and I was very frustrated. I told him that I'm at the age, that if I'm knocked down, or fall, I don't bounce, I break and I'm afraid. Fresh tears came unwittingly. He looked at me and laughed at my comment. He said he'd use that comment in his next meeting, where he'd bring this up to all of his associates and would tell the personal coaches they needed to talk to their people. He promised that he'd have the produce department cleaned up and that he'd talk to his associate. Though he didn't say this, it was obvious that Coach Michael of course could not promise that getting rammed with a cart would not happen again.
I told Coach Michael, that this was not acceptable at all, he said he knew this and agreed. He said something about customer service and the personal shoppers where trying to shop for others.
I told him, I have worked in customer service my whole life and the customers, shoppers like myself need to be first, we are the customers in the store first and foremost. What happened to taking care of the regular customers in the store first? The carts that zoom around the store getting in the way of regular shoppers is unacceptable. He told me that yes, I was right, that regular customers should be coming first.
A lady who was nearby heard out conversation and contributed her own story. She agreed, that she had a recent experience of shopping for a book and was reading a forward and a personal shopper with a cart had to stop, because there was not enough room to get around her. The personal shopper was snotty to her and told her to get the book and get out of his way, because he was shopping for someone and was on a time limit. The lady pointed out, that his time limit didn't have anything to do with her. The lady told Coach Micheal that she had many stories like the one she told him that something needed to be done.
I expressed my opinion that the carts like that had no place in stores like this, because there just wasn't enough room.
Coach Michael had nothing more to say, he made his excuse to go and that was it. It would have been nice if he had offered a discount of some-kind for being rammed by his employee. I hope he checks the cameras to actually see what happened. I know that Walmart has many cameras for shop lifters, why not for checking for ramming into innocent customers who just want to get the weekly shopping done.
In my opinion, shopping at Walmart has become dangerous. I see people having to dodge the personal shoppers carts and other store carts with associates who are trying to stock product on a 24 hour basis. They zoom around getting angry at those who dare get in their way. They zoom around not caring about anyone else, because they happen to be on some time limit.
Walmart in my opinion has lost their way with customer service for the regular shopper who just wants to go in and do their own shopping. In today's world it really adds insult to injury that we are paying for over priced groceries and we have worry about our personal safety at the same time.
