Wal-Mart

So, once again, Tamiflu has made me just well enough that I can justify going into work, especially since I have Monday and Tuesday off for Mardi Gras and need to get some stuff done.  I stop by the local Oblivion Gate**, AKA Wal-Mart, to pick up some medicine, cough drops and frozen lunches.  There is 1 cashier open and 8 people are lined up.  At this point I look over at the 8 empty Self-Checkout lines.  I'm usually not a fan of businesses offloading stuff they used to take care of onto customers.  I still remember when a guy would bag and cart all the groceries to our car for a tip when I was a kid.  In Wal-Mart's case, though, less interaction with the people there is a "Good Thing" for me (/Martha voice).  Seriously, they only have to have 1 person monitoring 4 self checkout lines, so the efficiency would go up by a good bit.  It amazes me that the people PAID to make these stores run well (the managers) can't figure out these solutions for themselves.

**For those of you who don't play Oblivion, an Oblivion Gate is a portal to an otherworldly dimension full of fairly stupid demons and tormented people.  It's nearly impossible to find what you want in Oblivion as every thing is re-arranged whenever you go in there and you spend way to much time looking for the one thing you want just so you can get the hell out of there. Oh, and much like Wal-Mart, the peanut butter is poisoned.

Stock tip of the day: If you didn't sell ConAgra on Wednesday or yesterday, hold onto it.  You're too late now.