A familiar rant, for those of you keeping score…

Tonight Tasha and I decided to purchase a paper shredder so we can eliminate the giant piles of old mail that have accumulated in boxes, corners, and other locations inside our house. We go to Wal-Mart, pick out our oh-so-elegant cross cut paper shredder for the astonishing sum of $20 and check out.

The thing was a little bulky, so Tasha was holding it while I rearranged my change in my wallet. I take the receipt, fold it in half, and slide it inside the box so I didn’t have to juggle one more scrap of paper in this wonderful balancing act that is capitalism.

I take the shredder from Tasha, and we head for the door. The little grey haired old lady by the door says that she thought she saw me slide my receipt into the box, and she has to check if she sees anyone concealing their receipt. I told her that I might be mistaken, but I was pretty certain that I paid my money and now own this item. She told me that it wasn’t until I left the door of the store. I am pretty sure this is complete and utter bullshit, but not wanting to make a scene (more due to the fact that I was in a hurry) I opened the box, grabbed the receipt and let the lady mark it with a highlighter.

This type of thing really pisses me off for several reasons. 1.) I paid for the item, it was mine at that point. 2.) If she saw me putting the receipt in the box she also saw me folding my money and putting it in my wallet at almost the same time. 3.) If I was going to steal a paper shredder and walk bald-faced out of the store through the security scanner, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to steal one of the $150 shredders they had? Or at least a 10-page shredder that does CDs?

Now, I didn’t make a scene. This old retiree was clearly just doing what she was told to do to collect the minimum wage that Wal-Mart pays these people. It’s really not her fault. The whole process still irks me though, despite the fact that the only person to complain to would be more faceless drones of Wal-Mart that wouldn’t give a damn either.

Oh well. I got my paper shredder and a good blog topic, so I suppose I can be happy at that. (For the record, this whole topic makes me HOT, as in angry, so I am complying with this months NaBloPoMo topic. woot for me.)