Fight the System

We watched Food, Inc. and now Netflix has dubbed our taste as "Fight the System Documentaries"....Hmmm.  I don't really feel like I am fighting any system, but rather just getting more and more mystified by it, and therefore, more and more frustrated by it.

For instance, the other night we took the kids to Walmart to get a carseat that I heard was on sale through a friend.  It was $40 cheaper on Walmart.com and so I thought, instead of a delivery truck making its long way to our house, I would just pop over to the store and get it.  I picked up the carseat and, of course, it was not listed as being on sale.  So I brought it up to the customer service counter, where I was told that they could not compete with Walmart.com prices.  Aren't they the same store?

So, after being unconvincing with the customer service person, I put the carseat back.   Thing #1 asked why, and I told him we had to go home and order it online so they could deliver it to our house.  He asked why again, at which point I was all out of answers and told him that the world in which we live in is crazy. As I was saying it, I knew it was not an answer I should be giving him but surprisingly, it worked and he seemed to understand.  Either that, or he just thinks that I am crazy.

Then, to make our trip to Walmart even better, we went to the checkout with some ice cream and new sunglasses for Thing #1.  When I told the cashier that I did not need a bag, she shouted at me that I had to have a bag because it was store policy and that is what she got paid to do.  After a few more fairly rude exchanges from her, I actually told her to calm down and explained that I was going to use one of my reusable bags.  She very bizarrely became nice to me and asked that I just give the bags up front in the future so that they would know.

As we were leaving the store, The Husband said to me, "So, I guess we are not coming back here anytime soon?"  I replied, "Why do you think that?  Because I am going to fume about this for a few hours and then post it on my blog?"

Now, if I had real principles, I would boycott Walmart for good, and I would not have ordered the carseat online.  But, it was $40 dollars cheaper.  So, I guess we all have our price.  Mine is just a lot less than I would have expected.