Now that it's been a month...

Well it's been a month of no new blog posts and I believe that's quite too long. Just haven't thought of writing a post when I've had the free time, only when I'm busy. But here I am...

Quick recap...the Dallas Mavericks, Nashville Predators, and Dallas Stars (my three fave teams in the NBA and NHL playoffs) all lost in the first round in 6, 5, and 7 games. It's not cool but hey, they made the playoffs, and my favorite baseball team won it all last year :D Go Cards!...I got a 32 on my ACT. That was really cool...My favorite TV shows have wrapped up. Heroes kind of went out with a thud, kind of dull for a season finale. LOST was amazing in the last few weeks but no huge cliffhanger in the kind of depressing season finale...IMPACT on Wednesday nights has wrapped up until August when school starts back. With all the trips there are only three Wednesday nights in the summer when we'll be doing something called Crash. A Travelers baseball game, hanging out at a house, and something else I forgot...Almost done with school...Been playing a lot of tennis lately. Getting better...I'm going to have to send in my laptop. It's having some problem playing videos and that's an issue with my HDTV tuner...Working 24-28 hours a week at Wal-Mart which brings up the next paragraph...

Tips to make your shopping experience at Wal-Mart better

My aim with these tips is to help you, the customer, out by making your cashiers happy, making yourself happy, speeding up your checkout time, and increasing accuracy or any combination of the aforementioned benefits. This is my own opinion and in no way reflects the views of Wal-Mart, my local Wal-Mart, or any other employee of Wal-Mart...

1) Express lane tip: The register number is clearly marked "20 items or less" so please don't come up with more than about 25. First, I only have three bags to work with instead of six so you're going to end up with overstuffed bags or wasted time while you empty out your cart onto the small little counter which doesn't have much more room than for 20 items. You end up frustrating me and the customers behind you if you're coming up to the express lane with 30, 40, or even 60 items in one case. You'll be better served at a regular checkout, maybe even more quickly.

2) Express lane tip: Cards and cash are quicker than checks. You'll speed up your time if you pay with cash or debit/credit/gift cards. If you only have checks that's fine but if you have the option, pay with those, they're quicker and this is an express lane.

3) Coupons: I suggest you wait until the end to present coupons or present them with each item. Maybe put them on your little counter by the card machine where you and I will easily see them so neither of us forget until it's too late. I can't scan them before I scan the discounted item and I'm more likely to lose or forget them if you present them before your 100 item transaction. Just trying to help you out here.

4) Organization of items: Something that will help speed up your checkout time and make for more accurate and well-rounded bagging is putting like items together such as meats, breads, cold items, non-food items, etc. I have to follow protocol when I bag (bread only, meats only, eggs only, produce only in each sack)(except for express lane where the rules can be broken if you're ok with your cold items and your non-cold items going together). It just helps me out and makes it quicker.

5) Bagging: It's fine if you have some general bagging requests like "keep the bags light" or "put as much as you can in each bag" or you can physically re-bag your items and combine how you want and I won't be offended. But please don't tell me in which bag each individual item especially if you have a lot of them. A few simple requests like "keep that by itself" or "bag these together" are well and good but don't over-do it.

6) Carts: Carts are a privilege. Let's put that out there at the beginning. They are not a right but a privilege that we're all glad to have. That being said, please put your carts in the corrals. If you're able enough to push a cart around the store can you not put your cart in a corral 25 to 50 feet away? You're risking other cars' paint jobs and making it tough on cart pushers if you don't put it away. Cart pushers have enough on their plate on busy days besides dealing with 50 or more stray carts scattered around the lot. Only excuse would be for handicapped folks, that's ok. But most of the carts I've watched people leave out were set out by healthy folks who have no excuse.

7) Problems: When problems arise, when the computer doesn't accept your check, when technical errors occur, don't blame the cashier. They're usually doing the best they can. You're welcome to take all your items to the self checkout if you don't think we're doing a good enough job.

8) Register light off: When the register's light is off, that usually means the lane is closed and thus is not accepting any new customers. There may be people in line but it's time for the cashiers to take a break or go home so please find another lane. If the cashier is standing at the register with the light off and has no customers, go ahead and ask them if they're open. Maybe they forgot to turn on the light. But don't be angry if they're closed.

So those are my tips thus far from my experiences at Wal-Mart. I encourage you to follow them whenever possible to help yourself and your cashier out.


I'll try to keep the amount of time between posts less once school is out...have a great Memorial Day weekend!

-Kevin C. Burns