Stealth Wal-mart Shoppers

It is possible that Evelyn has helped our family measurably contribute to the bottom line of the companies that make the cartoon-character band-aids. She is quick to apply them and exhaustive in her application. I'm not sure exactly how she got the surface scrapes on her knee in the picture, and to the best of my knowledge, she had no physical injury on her nose.


I pretty much avoid going to Wal-mart. It's not because of any grander concern with unfair practices that may or may not be true. It is because something always happens. Usually the "something" is of the lengthy checkout line nature. Despite the guaranteed but unknown issue, I made a trip to Wal-mart tonight after the kids went to bed to see if I could find a particular CD for a gift that's been tricky to track down. While there, I figured I could get a few grocery items as well. Why not, right? I got my cart, placed my 3 post-it notes of need-to-get-items onto the front seat flap, filled it with a few things, then made my way to the music section to look for the CD. I parked the cart in an unobtrusive place, not blocking any aisles. About 10 minutes later, after unsuccessfully searching for the CD, I returned to the cart and found it in the middle of an aisle, in a really awkward place, and my post-it note arrangement was grouped together and moved to the main part of the basket. I thought a Wal-mart employee had moved it with the thought that someone had abandoned it. When I tried to push it, it felt like something had gotten caught under the wheel; after a few more attempts at pushing it dawned on me. Some FREAK stealth shopper had switched carts with me because they picked a bad cart that was hard to move when they entered the store. I was probably being mocked from a distance by the cart hijackers.