WalMart Downers.

People, customers, don't understand how frustrated we associates get when they don't listen to us. They go on and on about a problem that we cannot solve - but we know who can - and we get behind in answering more problematic phone calls and the yelling piles up. Just listen to us when we say we will direct you to another department that will be able to help with your problem. We don't know what the hell you are talking about - but someone else might so just hang on the line while we transfer your call. And have a nice day sir or ma'am.

Don't walk down the middle of the busiest isles of WalMart intently looking at things that have always and will always be on that rack. Move to the side of the isle so other customers and disgruntled associates can get by you. An associate might just be running to the other side of the store to check on something in a completely different department for a call-in customer that has already started using short staccato'd answers and hugely irritated tones. We're sorry you have the disability of WalkDownTheMiddleOfTheIsleSlowly syndrome - I don't think they've found the cure yet, but until they do try your hardest to please be courteous to other people.

If you call in to WalMart to ask a question please ask yourself the question first and make sure you definitely can't answer it yourself. If you call with a price-check or two, fine; but when you call in just to make sure we carry some certain product...well, I have one thing to say: We're WalMart, it's almost a given that we carry whatever it is, unless of course it's a farfetched made-up item that you dreamt up just to cause the associate answering your call unnecessary stress.

If you call in saying that you forgot a sack of paid-for items at the register you checked out at, don't give us the whole story. We, honestly, don't care that you spent so much money on groceries. We don't need to know that you were there between your two favorite shows and that you went to the bathroom and jumped up and down on one foot for two hours trying to find something in our store - we only need to know that you didn't get home with all your paid-for items. And we will then kindly and appreciatively direct you up to the Service Desk where they will check and see if they have the items you didn't get home. It's really a very simple process. And please don't get angry with us if you forgot something in the store. It's not our fault. It's especially not the fault of the person answering the phone when you call with your problem. We cannot watch over you making sure you get all your sacks in your cart and moreso, in your vehicle once you leave the store. We're sorry it happened to you, but it's really your responsibility to grab all, if not most, of the items you paid for. Don't yell at us over the phone.

Please don't snap at the associate answering the phone if your call doesn't get answered. We can only do so much behind the phone. We answer your call. We direct the call to where it needs to go. And we can page the associate and/or department a few times. But we cannot run all over the store making sure each department answers their calls. That's their own business. If they choose not to answer the call or take a long time to get to a phone to take the call, it is not our fault. WalMart is a busy place, I'm sure you've all noticed. We're sorry that sometimes things take longer than necessary. We associates get frustrated, too, when things take longer than they should and we have to deal with it longer than just the length of a phone call. Just be patient with us, we're doing all we can to make you happy so try to make ours a little easier.

WalMart is not a daycare. Do not let your children run around unsupervised unless you want them to get hurt, lost, or worse. We cannot look out for everyone in that store. They are your children, not ours, they are your responsibility. When they cry it disrupts the already hectic atmosphere that is WalMart. I understand that babies will cry. But older children do not need to throw fits in public the way I've seen them do. And they have no reason to run around screaming and tearing things from racks and shelves. Don't let them do that, parents. It's not only your responsibility, but their behavior reflects your parenting. And do not make a scene yelling at your children in the store. That's even worse than your kids yelling. If you can't control your children any other way than screaming back at them, they and yourself shouldn't be in public in the first place.

Don't be rude and put things from one department in another. Don't look at something you put in your cart and decide you don't need it anymore and bury it in the t-shirts or the towels across the store. If you're close enough please put the item away where you found it, at least close to where you found it. Or if you do not want to travel back to the origin of location, give the item to the nearest WalMart associate and they will kindly put it back for you. We won't yell at you for asking to put something back for you. We would be honored. It makes less work for us. We would be happy to do something like that for you.

Don't fill your cart up and leave the store, leaving the cart in softlines (the clothes departments) with groceries and milk and other perishable items. It's irresponsible of you, the customer, and shows everyone that you're rude. It makes more work for the associates. Sure, we get paid to do that kind of stuff. But when customers are rude to us, eventually it just gets hard for we associates to grin and bare it. Be nice and we'll be extremely friendly back. We try to be as nice as we can be to start with, but when you treat us like we're crap we don't appreciate it. We're humans too, just trying to make money at this job.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that customers at WalMart could be nicer. We try our hardest to make your experience at WalMart quick and painless. Unfortunately, as we try to do so, we end up getting beat up (in the metaphoric sense.) Yes, there are the customers that are just amazing. They're nice, they say thank you and please, they aren't irritating, they don't treat the associates like crap, and most of all they understand that working at WalMart is a job, too. So it's not a nice fancy desk job, but it's not all that bad. What makes it bad is the people that come in and ruin our day just like a crabby client would ruin your day at your high-paying, I-sit-in-an-office-all-day job. Congratulations on getting that job by the way. But please please please, let us do our job. Because we're doing our job for you.

And this has been Kaylee's rant'n'rage about WalMart and the customers I've, thus far, encountered in my almost-6-month experience of working there. I apologize at it's lengthiness. It could be worse. I could have gone into detail.