On the Down Low…

Today was one of those rare, rare times when I left Wal-mart feeling better about life than I had when I got there. And all because the bad guys got caught.

I had a few things to pick up at Sally’s and decided to stop into Wal-mart for more things I couldn’t live without. A new shower curtain liner for example. Since our shower curtain liner was in desperate need of being replaced, and my being the quintessential Proverbs 31 woman that I am, I thought there is no time like the present to replace it. Okay, I am lying. It was only because I couldn’t put it off any longer. The curtain was hanging by its last hole. Literally. And I can only blame my husband for my procrastination (or frugality as I like to say). You see, Steve is such a do-it-yourselfer, that when the original holes tore, he poked his own holes in the liner beneath the original holes. And so on, and so on, until the liner no longer reached the floor of the shower. Trust me when I tell you - it was time.

I also wanted to pick up fabric for the car organizers I am going to sew (more on that in a few days), and needed to buy it before our Wal-mart closed its fabric department. I was told by the lady in the fabric department that it would close in 8 months to a year, but I’m not taking any chances. That, and I love to buy fabric. The lady told me that Wal-mart decided to close the fabric department because it didn’t make enough money for the amount of floor space it was taking up. I didn’t tell her it was probably due to the fact that Wal-mart’s fabric prices were way lower than they are everywhere else. I didn’t tell her that the woman at the flea market charges $7.99 a yard for the camo fabric Wal-mart sells for $3.50 a yard. Oh no, I’m not telling her that. After all, I want another 8 months to build up my stash at rock bottom prices.

So anyway, we are checking out and another cashier runs up to my cashier and whispers something in her ear. My cashier’s expression turned to shocked, then transformed into something I can only describe as pure satisfaction. It was an “uh-huh you know it” kind of a look. Of course I had to get the scoop, so I told her it isn’t nice to tell secrets. No I didn’t. But I did ask her what happened. She told me some people were just arrested for shop lifting 2 large cartons of meat. Evidently this was the shoplifter’s 3rd time stealing meat. Of course after I got in the car I was kicking myself for not asking more questions. Questions like - did they get caught all 3 times? Did the store recognize them? Did they get handcuffed? Who caught them? Was it a man or a woman or a family? I think I was so taken aback by the simplicity of their plan that I didn’t think of the questions. It seems the shoplifters took their own Wal-mart bags into the store, and bagged their own meat. I’m sure Wal-mart doesn’t have a problem with alleged shoppers bagging their own groceries, but rather the fact that they bypassed the cashiers altogether. Yeah - Wal-mart has a problem with that.

So I left the store feeling pretty good about my local Wal-mart and its ability to catch a thief. I bet that’s how they keep their prices so low. Too bad the bad guys didn’t go on a fabric stealing spree.