Outside Looking In
Walmart: Part III
I was talking to a close friend of mine the other day and was relaying to him some of my bizarre/humorous happenings that I've encountered recently at the Walmart store in Willmar.
He asked me "Well, why do you shop there then?"
For one thing, I told him, I don't feel that I'm too good to shop at Walmart as I know some people feel they are. I enjoy purchasing all the items I need from one store rather than getting groceries at one store, hardware items at another store, greeting cards at one store, and clothing items at one store. I don't have the time to drive all over. Besides, I hate shopping so the quicker I can finish, the better.
Lastly, I admit that sometimes people watching can be intriguing and also allows me an idea for a column every now and again. Sometimes I'm in the mood to watch the bizarre behaviors of some of the shoppers that I don't get a chance to see in some of the other businesses.
I'm not trying to pick on Walmart, just some of the customers that shop late at night. Because they stay open later at night than most stores, they get the customers that just don't care what others think of their attire or behavior. The later it gets, the more the bizarre meter accelerates.
I wrote about my shopping experiences at Walmart a couple of times previously in "Outside Looking In"; the first was about a man swiping numerous items at the self-checkout and when I reported him, a manager of the same ethnicity made me feel as though I only reported the thief because I am racist.
The second story I wrote about which was more recently, was a man shucking corn right in the produce department and tossing the husks on the floor for 20 minutes while other customers waited impatiently.
Those two previous encounters have to take a back seat to last Thursday when I went to Walmart to grab some bird seed.
To get to the back of the store where the bird seed is located, you have to pass by the health and beauty aisles. As I passed by a makeup aisle, I had to do a double-take when I saw a woman in her 40s dressed nicely in a flowery sundress and perfectly-styled hair with highlights squatting down as though she was mimicking Joe Mauer. At first glance, I thought I was watching the movie "Bridesmaids" when several of the wedding party women got food poisoning and ... well, to avoid being graphic in this writing you will have to watch the movie.
Not sure exactly what I was witnessing, I quickly reversed my tracks just in case I was missing a chance to view yet another bizarre Walmart moment.
The woman was actually squatting close to the aisle in an attempt to shield herself as she painted her fingernails. She didn't take the jar of fingernail polish out of her own purse, though. She removed the shade of her choice from the shelf in front of her, unscrewed the top, and began applying it to all of her nails.
Of course, I had to continue to watch from across the aisle so I could see how this moment was going to play out. After Picasso finished brushing her final digit, she returned the cap to the bottle and placed it carefully back on the shelf. She then stood up and held her hands a few feet away from her face to admire her freshly-painted nails before blowing on them to remove the tackiness. Not once did this woman look around to see if an employee might be bearing down on her. Nor did she worry about the paint fumes giving away her secret. She was in her own little world.
Some people go to a manicurist for their nails. This woman goes to Walmart and acts like the fingernail polish is in the "self-service" aisle.
After lifting my bottom jaw back in place after it had dropped in disbelief, I grabbed my bag of bird seed and headed for the checkout line. The woman I had been watching passed right by me and calmly walked out the front door as if this was a daily routine for her.
Had I seen her outside in the parking lot, I was all set to tell this woman how much I admired her fingernails, but she was already gone and probably headed to another store to find her favorite shade of lipstick.
School board meeting
The Minneota School Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 20 has been moved up to begin at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 6:30 p.m. start.
According to Superintendent Scott Monson, the reason for the early start has to do with an expected lengthy meeting that night.
SitelogIQ will present their Facility Assessment results to the school board, while Monson said he is planning to present the 2023-2024 budget.