Passage to Wal-Mart

As you may recall from last week, I journaled about the Italian woman who was nervous about touching the bananas. I had another culturally interesting morning at the local Wal-Mart and it spawned two distinctly conflicting viewpoints.

I went to Wal-Mart for Broetchen. The broetchen there is suprisingly good and authentic tasting for being a Wal Mart product. But on the otherhand, considering Super Wal Mart's presence in Germany, perhaps a decent Broetchen recipe is a corporate asset and is being used here in the US. At any rate, they haven't had it for several weeks so I found it today and bought four bags of it to freeze and save. A broetchen, by the way, is a small german bread roll. It looks like zis:






So I also picked up some items I had coupons for. My total discount from coupons at the check out should have been about $2.00 total. However, one of the coupons happened to be a complicated one. It was to get a free Airwick warmer with purchase of an scented oil refill. The clerk at the check out barely spoke english and with picture cards and flat screen LCD displays showing everything they need to know in pictorial detail, speaking english is probably not neccessary unless you're trying to do something crazy like customer service.

For some reason this coupon defaulted to the last item rung up, which was $2.98. She tried to read what the computer was telling her but it was written in english. Then she tried to read the coupon but alas, that was also written in english. She put it aside and did the others and I didn't quibble because it was .94 for the warmer and I wasn't about to argue across a language barrier since my Spanish tutor never taught me how to translate point of sale errors and coupons regarding air fresheners.

I took my groceries to the car and then drove over to the garden center to exchange my empty propane tank for a new one so I can make later today, of all things, chipotle steak. I walked in and this older good ol' boy was trying to inquire where something was. The woman helping him spoke even less english than the cashier I had earlier. That said, she was a custodial employee and I thought it was nice she was even trying to help. Anyway, the man got fed up and said, "You know what? Forget it. I thought I was in America." He was so rude to her that I was embarassed. I wanted to follow him out of the store and say, "You're right. You are in America and she has every right to speak only Spanish. There is no law forcing her to learn it."

I'm tired of American's not recognizing that one of the great things about our country is that we don't have national religion and language. I also am tired of this idea that we can just complain about the growing language barrier within our own world but yet we want to pay lower prices, we don't want to mow our own yards, dig our own ditches, or sweep up the garden center at Wal Mart. By "we", I mean the American that people see in there minds - white, Christian people. And don't even GET me started on the Americans abroad who think it's insane that the gas station attendant in Poggibonsi (Italy) doesn't speak English. Actually, in Poggibonsi, it's the other way around. I was mortified I couldn't speak better Italian and the gas attendant was mortified he didn't speak English. It all worked out, though, thanks to pen and paper.

Americans are funny. They want everyone to speak english in America yet send emails that say, "R U goin too the mall tomorow nite?" They also don't want to bother learning how to say "Please, Thank you, hello and good bye" in the local language when they get overseas. For me, I know how to say that in several languages, and I know how to say "No fish" in all of them as well. But that's another story.

But then, I questioned "Is Wal-Mart really saving money by hiring immigrants who don't speak english?" I questioned this after I got home and read my receipt. I actually saved $7 in coupons because she didn't override that $2.98 deduction plus the others didn't ring up right. That was $5 extra I got than I should have. Assuming she's at minimum wage, that means Wal Mart gave me an hour's wage in error. This isn't the first time this has happened either. I've noticed that when the spanish speaking clerks get confused, they are more likely to comp me the item than to try to figure out what's going on. Then Wal Mart lost the sale in the garden center because of the lack of english - and probably lost it to Lowe's down the street. They almost lost my sale too, because an english speaking clerk didn't turn up for about 4 minutes to help me with my propane exchange. But Wal Mart is still profitable and still the cheapest place on earth.

Anyway, I'm now at home enjoying my broetchen and German meggle butter. In other news, I also resolved my apricot yogurt problem. If you know me, you'll know I manually export copious amounts of Emmi brand Apricot and Buchermuesli yogurt from Fox & Obel in Chicago. I love this yogurt more than anything and was overjoyed to find Emmi carried at Fresh Market in Dr Phillips. However, they do not carry either flavor I like but I can live on the flavors they do have. It's the quality of yogurt that is important. But I finally got the bright idea to buy the Emmi plain yogurt and add swiss apricot preserves and for the buchermuesli, I just add muesli and apricot preserves. It's close enough! I fell in love with Apricots in Rome. I had them all the time - found them in various foods and now associate the taste with the Aventino hill and morning operettas.

OK, onto the chores of the day.