~Walmart Anxiety~

Maybe you heard about it on the news. It was the big story around town and the irony alone may have meritted international attention but just in case you haven't heard, I'll make the announcement.

~News Flash~

Twin Falls Opens a New Walmart!

So you're saying big deal, right? Who cares? There's a new Walmart opening somewhere in the world every ten minutes.

( I made that statistic up so don't drive yourself crazy trying to google it).

So what IS the big deal?

The big deal is this. Twin Falls didn't want a Walmart. (~Collective Gasp~) They fought tooth and nail to keep it from coming into their town.

Well, why didn't Twin Falls want this super~savior from high retail to come to town? Because, Twin is an interesting little city. Trying to maintain it's small town feel and at the same time hoping to offer it's residents some options.

Take for instance the fact that we don't have a Red Lobster....that's a problem for me. I LOVE

Red Lobster! I think it was about a year ago that I read in the Times-News that the city had X number of liquor licenses that they were willing to distribute to restaurants and businesses and that number had been used up. Since most restaurants won't open without a liquor license I am sad to report that we won't be getting a Red Lobster anytime soon . A side effect of living in a little big city

Back to Walmart. When the city council of Twin Falls denied Walmart's bid to build a store in their community, I'm sure the retail giant was a little bit stumped. I mean, who wouldn't want low prices and great deals on their doorstep? Twin Falls city council that's who. I for one already have two Walmarts within driving distance. One in Burley, fifteen minutes away and one in Jerome, forty minutes away (that's only a ten minute drive from Twin for those folks) so this decision didn't really affect me. But Twin Falls in it's careful consideration of this proposal decided that to give it's already established retail giants (Target, Kmart, Fred Meyer) a chance to keep their head above water they would reject the bid. And did for four years. Then Walmart came in and promised to pay millions of dollars in taxes the first month alone and wal~la Twin Falls opened it's new Walmart in June! Money talks folks.

For over a month I have avoided the giant of a shopping center. Home Depot, Sportsmans Warehouse, JC Penny, Albertsons and your local Garden Center all rolled into one. I avoided the crowds that exploded at the grand opening, the parking two blocks away just for the opportunity to walk to and then through the newly opened store. I haven't been very concerned with what the insides of the store look like since I have the philosophy that "if you've seen one, you've seen them all". Until today. Today I was on a mission. The mission of any mother who loves her children and wants to give them the things that will fill their hearts and make them smile. I'm talking about birthday presents (you thought I meant love and tenderness didn't you?) This morning I was on the hunt for Bradens much wanted Spider Man bike.

I knew that Walmart had it. I saw it in Burley but didn't buy it at the time because I didn't want to try to hide the darn thing for over a week. Since I had to go to Twin to pick his cake up from Winco I decided that I would check the new Walmart.

My first impression of the store was that the parking lot was very nice. The yellow stripes are freshly painted, the handicap parking is clearly marked, the sign on the store says Walmart "Always Low Prices" so you don't forget. I noticed the nicely painted lines on the pavement perhaps because there weren't very many cars in the parking lot. After having been full to overflowing the previous month, the few cars sitting sparsely around gave the eerie impression of a lack of customers. Then, as I am walking through the automatic doors I half expected to see a Walmart greeter standing somewhere nearby. Only to be fully surprised when one nearly jumped out at me from behind the electronic theft protection thingies that are posted at each entrance and said "welcome to Walmart". For some reason this made me feel all jumpy and nervous.

After grabbing my map (yes you need a map in this place) I looked up at the wide isles, concrete floors, high ceilings and scantily populated walkways and felt distinctly anxious. The store was big, huge, and otherwise enormous. How was I ever going to find anything in there? You could run a marathon inside the store and only have to circle it once. It took me forty five minutes to navigate the store and find the three things on my list. I survived! For that I am grateful. I could still be stuck in there you know. Lost in the toilet paper section, buried under paper towels. I left the store shaking slightly and on the verge of hyperventilating.

Although glad for the experience I don't know if I will ever go back. I seem to be a creature of habit more than I supposed. I like the narrow isles in Burley's Walmart. It feels more secure to pass someone, maybe brush their shoulder and offer an apologetic, "oops sorry". Some days it's the only human contact I get outside of my family. And I like that I know to the letter where everything is in Winco (I was asked by two different people if I knew where the so and so was at Winco. I just have that look about me, like maybe I've shopped there forever, I guess.) And I like that Target has everything that I can't get at Winco and Cute Shoes too!

For now they can keep their Super Walmart, and who knows, maybe one day when I'm hopped up on Zoloft I might decide to go back.