Dear Walmart Greeter
Dear Walmart Greeter:
I don’t know why folks—myself included—grumble and complain about stopping for you to check their bags as they leave Walmart. It’s store policy and you have a job to do.
When I remind a student to take their hat off for class, put their cell phone away for the fifth time, and turn their camera on for our remote meeting, I understood what you face every day. We’re halfway through the school year and these students still don’t follow the rules. I guess we must seem like rebellious teenagers to you too.
I mean, how do you even do it when seven people come at you with their avalanche of carts at the same time and you have to perform calisthenics to stop them to ask to see receipts?
I had always understood that someone walking out with an unbagged high-power microwave should probably have to cough up a receipt to prove they didn’t steal it, but I judged you harshly when you nagged me for my receipt when all I had was a 24-roll pack of toilet paper. “Hmph,” I grumbled, “Who’s gonna steal toilet paper?”
Then, the 2020 pandemic hit and…well…I get it now. You saw the future and were ready for it. Bravo!
But, I do have to ask. It’s been a slight burr in my side for a while now: Why don’t we get the yellow smiley face stickers anymore? Was it budget cuts? The employees got tired of scraping them off the bathroom stall walls? Millennials requested digital smileys on their Walmart app instead?
Well, I just wanted you to know that I appreciate you far more now than I did a few years ago. You were always there to meet me at the sliding doors with a smile and a friendly greeting. But now, I see the panicked look in your eyes (because I can no longer see your smile behind the mask you have to wear) when the five-gallon container of hand sanitizer at the front door is running low and the paper towels to wipe our carts down with are being abused by overzealous customers. I notice you quietly plucking the used antiseptic wipes out of the carts and donning blue medical gloves to handle returned merchandise, and I applaud you.
All this while putting your life on the line by throwing your body in front of a cart loaded down with a big screen TV–needing validation of purchase by the proof of a receipt.
If I had a smiley face sticker (and didn’t have to stay six feet away), I’d stick one on you and give you a hug.
Yours truly,
A Frequent Walmart Customer
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