I was down in Florida recently, and as usual, had to stop by a Wal-Mart eventually. It was horrible. I heard Spanish more than I heard English. When ordering at their deli, the lady couldn’t understand me. I had to interrupt to employees jabbering in Spanish to ask for some help finding something, since their Wal-Mart layout was different. I walked past one worker who was leaning on his stocking cart and talking on his cell phone.
We’re headed for a war, if you ask me.
50 comments
Needs to be on RSTDT, in my opinion.
But that said, war over the fact that you didn't get good service at a Wal*Mart? Um...you were at a Wal*Mart! You ever hear the saying that you get what you pay for? Well, they don't exactly pay Wal*Mart employees much...
RSTDT.
That aside, I can't take anyone seriously who expects to get decent customer service at Wal-Mart. Here in NYC, we only have the one... on Long Island... and nobody shops there... ever.
Y'know why? Because Wal-Mart < anything else. Even the street vendors selling rat-onna-stick are better than Wal-Mart.
America has no official language. Even if it did, who cares? People in Chinatowns all over the USA speak Chinese, yet the USA still is able to abuse the Chinese and use them as slave labour in sweatshops overseas. Americans need to become more caring about how they treat others and stop worrying about what language a person speaks. It's what is in their hearts and minds that counts.
I had to interrupt to employees jabbering in Spanish to ask for some help finding something, since their Wal-Mart layout was different. I walked past one worker who was leaning on his stocking cart and talking on his cell phone.
... and of course that would never happen with English -speaking employees ... [/sarcasm]
Maybe it's just me, but I have the strong suspicion that the deli lady would have understood English perfectly well if it had been polite English. No, it's not professional, but the temptation to play the No Hablo Anglais card when someone walks in with a visible Nebraska-sized chip on their shoulder---well, it's got to be hard to resist. Especially at the end of a long shift.
Irene
Heh, heh, growing up in a truly bilingual city we regularly played the "je ne parle pas..." card, usually just after a snowball hit someone's window. By my generation kids could do both languages without an obvious accent.
Indiffernt customer service leads to war?
Aren't you taking things a bit too far?
Don't knock it, it worked in the movie Falling Down.
Holy shit, that last line is just hysterical. The first paragraph could have been a legitimate complaint about poor customer service despite some bigoted phrasing, but "we're headed for a war"? I'm still laughing!
This needs to be moved to Racists STDT, though.
Yes, Dave, we are headed for a war because while you were touring Central Florida you heard people speaking Spanish... in public .
And of course that evil cow at the deli couldn't understand you because she was brown, not because you speak English with an unfamiliar accent. Even if her problem was having a limited English vocabulary, I bet she still speaks English better than you speak Spanish. Actually, I bet that her stint at Wal-Mart has taught her to identify approaching morons, and to feign ignorance in the hopes that they will shut up and go the hell away.
Yeah, because no Gringo ever talks on their cell phone at work.
And Florida had a large hispanic population when I was there in the 70's. Wouldn't we have had that war by now?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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