Day 9 - I Hate Wal*Mart

Wal*Mart has advantages.

Of course, the prices are low... you can't beat that. I did my weekly shopping - including some more expensive "grocery" items (laundry detergent, deodorant, face cream, eye makeup remover), and a large plastic storage bin. All this, and I only went over my weekly grocery budget by $8.00 - which I think is pretty impressive.

Another Wal*Mart advantage? They sell everything. Where else can you buy a rotisserie chicken, wiper blades, a bra, tampons and a shotgun all in one place? No where but Wal*Mart.

This being said. I hate that place.

There's never any parking. People always leave their carts hanging out in parking spaces so it's often necessary to get out of your car and move it before you can park. The carts. They suck. They pull, and are hard to push (I know I sound like an old lady - but notice it the next time you go - the carts are really hard to push. You can shove it and it doesn't roll. It just stops.). There are always poorly behaved children in the store. I have to listen to whining, crying, and scolding. In the frozen food aisle some kid kept trying to hand me her dirty tissue. "Here. You take this." My response was "No thank you." and her parents' response was to ignore her - and me. The produce is really bad. I was supposed to get zucchini - but every one in the bin looked like Bunnicula had visited it the night before. They didn't have shredded low-fat cheese so I had to get a block of low-fat cheese with the intention of shredding it myself. No hummus. At the checkout there was a TV at each register playing a stream of commercials. There was no plastic divider - so I had to wait until the woman in front of me was all rung through before I could begin loading my groceries. The lady at the checkout barely said hello, and I had to identify a lot of my veggies. "That's parsley."

All this being said - I did get my storage bin and made terrific use of it once I got home! Christmas is put away around here. The snowmen stuff are still out - I don't usually put them away until mid-March. As much as I love Christmas, it's nice to have my living room back to normal!

The day is ending with some pizza at my brother and sister-in-law's place. I'm bring homemade apple crisp, and we're watching "Knocked Up".

How is your un-decorating going? Do you have any tips on staying organized for the next year?