My daughter and I were slogging through the Hulen Walmart last night, trying to get everything we needed for the week despite the fact that we forgot the list, and by the time we found our way to a checkout line, I was tired.  I felt, as I always do at this store, like a bona fide martyr of shopping discomfort, but Walmart is about ten percent cheaper than any other grocery, and I feel compeled to be careful with the grocery budget no matter how much I hate this store. Notwithstanding my overall discomfiture, as I always do I greeted the checkout lady, an older woman who moved purposefully, if not particularly quickly by checkerly standards, thorugh our order, adding as a friendly aside, “I’m sure tired.”

“Yeah me, too, I can’t wait for Monday and all this to be over.”

“Has it been busy?” I asked.

“Yeah, it has. I’m just glad I didn’t have to work yesterday. I’ve been working here so long, I don’t have to work the Fridays anymore. Thank God. I’m never working it again.”

“What exactly are they doing, that makes people show up so early to the store?” I ask.

“Oh, special sales, stuff that’s really cheap. People just go crazy. It gets worse every year, they just get crazier and crazier.”

“What do you think is making it worse?”

“I don’t know, they learn it, they did it last year, they’re ready for this year, they get keyed up. They stand out there waiting for hours before it opens. You know, they stomped that guy to death at that one store.” I acknolweged that I had heard this. “Yeah, the store said they were going to try to find out who’s responsible, using the video cameras, so they can press charges. I think they should. People should be punished for that, pushing so hard just to save a couple of dollars.”

“It’s very sad,” I agreed. I paid for the order, thanked her and left. We past a Fort Worth police officer stationed by the door. Too little too late, I thought to myself.

My daughter asked me if they could really blame the people who had pushed so hard. I had to admit that I don’t know. After all, in a mob, it’s the ones way in back who are pushing, and they can’t see what’s happening. But then again, an hour later, I think it does seem awful that no one would have to account for this. Because whether the store, for riling people up, or the people, for being riled, it does seem that the thing has been going too far.