ugh, wal-mart

 So:

1. For certain things, the only place in town to get them is the wal-mart

2. Wal-mart has recently become MUCH more aggressive with so-called "loss prevention," where the greeters now, instead of greeting you, ask to see your receipt and look at your bags to see if everything was paid for

3. They also clean at hours that are inconvenient for shoppers.

So this morning, I went there. One thing I wanted to get was a multipack of tp, because I belong to the school of thought of "when you open the multipack on the shelf, it's time to buy the next multipack" - that way, you're never caught without. 

And I got other things - groceries for a week, a few treats (actual smoked salmon - well, farm-raised, but still, the slices instead of the kind in a can), some more mouthwash, et cetera. And I paid at a "real" checkout, I prefer those to the self service one because often the greeters harass you less if they see you coming from one of those. The checker didn't put the tp in a bag, totally understandable, it wouldn't fit.

But then. They had blocked off the area between the exit to the checkout and the door to go out nearest my car. I did not want to go out the other door and walk the width of the parking lot. I looked at the woman operating the floor zamboni and said "how do I get out" and she snapped "YOU HAVE TO GO AROUND" and pointed up one of the unused checkouts.

So I did, and said to myself, "I'm gonna catch it from the greeter, she'll think I'm stealing stuff, because I will walk out through a closed checkout" but I had no choice. 

When I got there, she was talking to someone, and I thought "this is silly, I'm not going to stand and wait while they have a ten minute conversation" and started to slowly walk past. I had my receipt IN MY HAND, she could see it, see that I had paid. 

"HON I NEED TO SEE IF THE TISSUE IS ON YOUR RECEIPT"

So I stopped, showed her the line on the receipt corresponding to the tp, and she let me go

But does wal-mart know - and if they know, do they care - how much this rankles a person like me? I do not like being assumed to be a criminal. I do not like the added step. I do not like one of my FEW interpersonal interactions not related to work being fundamentally negative and a power play (yes, she has power, I assume she could call the security guard if I'd kept walking)

Do they realize that if I had some other choice, I'd never shop there again? (I don't. Pruett's is nice but there are certain items they are too small to carry, and certain preferred brands they don't carry. And Green Spray is even smaller. And the Kroger's and such are an hour's round trip away and I don't have the time for that right now)

My assumption is they know it bugs people and they don't care. Many places they're the only game in town. I really do wonder how much it saves them in "shrinkage," given that I've read that employee shoplifting is actually higher than customer shoplifting. 

And I found in myself, a strange desire, but one I'd never act on (because the consequences of getting caught are far more than I'd want to deal with): a temptation to steal some small item, just, you know, slip it in a pocket or something in an empty aisle, and see if their "loss prevention" would catch it. Oh, no, I would never do it. I was raised to believe that Stealing is Wrong (even when it's a giant corporation that's done more than its share of ethically murky stuff) and also that the consequences I would face for it would be truly horrific. And that I'd feel terrible afterward even if I got away with it. But it really does rankle that wal-mart refuses to trust me and basically openly says "we think you'd steal from us if we didn't do this to you" and "we have power over you, just watch." I hate how we are now such a low-trust society.

And I know: "Just mail order the stuff!" Except, given that i have a book that originated near Dallas in the mail system and then went to PONTIAC MICHIGAN first and will be here, apparently, on Wednesday now - mailordering stuff isn't always ideal. 

But it really REALLY really bothers me that for someone as radically alone as I am, most of my out-in-public non-work interactions these days seem to be fundamentally negative. Why are we going back out after the pandemic, again? Why, if everyone hates and suspects everyone else? 

I probably need to do a few things and then go down to the local gourmet shop as an antidote; at least the last few times I've been in there people seemed reasonably friendly.