Dear Walmart . . . Shtick this!

 Dear Walmart,

Three years ago I stopped shopping in your stores, never to return as a customer. Part of this relates to the pandemic and your response, but that's only a tiny part of the reason. My main reason is your full implementation of self-checkout machines. If I have to do ALL the work, then why do I even need to enter your store? I could shop online from home and avoid all the hassle -- but when I do shop online, it isn't and won't be from your store, I can promise you that.

I prefer to shop in actual stores because I like to pick out my own items and groceries and the like. Also, I like to physically see that my dollars are helping to employ people. When I go to pay for my items, I want to have a conversation with a real-live person who can also help me if there is a problem with the scanning or the weighing or the sacking, etc. of the items.

I realize that I am one tiny fish in a massive ocean of consumers, many of whom still shop at your stores or order online from you; however, I know that in the past, when I did still visit your stores (when the registers were manned by PEOPLE), I averaged 400 dollars a month spent. That totals 4,800 dollars a year, and if we take that times the 3 years in which you haven't received that, so far, you've lost out on 14,400 dollars.

So Far. I wanted to repeat that phrase because, even though I'm middle-aged, I hope to be around for a while now, so let's continue multiplying that, shall we?! Take the yearly AVERAGE of 4,800 dollars times, oh, let's hope for the best for me, and say 40 years. If I live to a ripe old age, then you will miss out on 192,000 dollars from me.

That's just from me, and that's just an average. As we all know, everyone who enters your store tends to do a lot of impulse buying along the way, and I can be impulsive. 

I know many others who have taken the same route as me and opted to NEVER shop in your stores again, so you can take my modest 192,000 dollars and continue to multiply that by 100s of other people. A mere 100 people at that small average spent over 40 years puts the number above 19 million dollars.

Again, I do indeed realize that you have billions upon billions of dollars and couldn't care less about little old me, but this letter, even though it seems to be written to you, Walmart, is really meant for any other person out there who, like me, is tired of places like you that don't care about people like me.

If I can do without Walmart, then so can you. If I can shop locally, then so can you. If I can get by on what my small town grocery store offers as well as the Dollar General that's here, then so can you. I will say, though, that the Dollar General may lose me, too, if they put in any more self-checkouts. So far, there is only one, and I've never used it because there are still PEOPLE manning the checkouts.

Other giant stores take heed. I will not shop in stores that only have self checkouts. It's enough that I have to go fill my cart and then unload it and even sometimes bag my goods (I'm looking at YOU Menard's), but I will not also scan my items and process my payment. Why not make us stock the damn shelves while you're at it?

Stores complain that online shopping is putting them out of business. When the stores themselves have completely done away with any HUMAN component of the shopping experience, then why the hell not shop online? I don't want to do much shopping that way, so bring back the real people to, at a bare minimum, work at the checkouts.

Am I just an old fogey? Maybe, but I'll take being an old fogey any day if it means that I can get help from PEOPLE while I shop and help those people have jobs.

Sincerely,

A former -- and never to return -- Walmart shopper.

P.S. I hear that there's a huge increase in items being stolen from your stores. Hmmm, let me employ this little thing called "common sense" for a moment. . . . Could it be that not every shopper is super honest? Could it be that they are taking advantage of those self checkouts and not scanning everything they are "buying?" Could it be that your own stupidity in implementing those damn machines has led to you losing A LOT of money to shoplifting? It's a conundrum, don't you think? Good grief. You're getting what you deserve.

P.S.S. It's not "10 items or less;" it's "10 items or fewer." If you ever bring PEOPLE back to run some lines and have an express lane again, get it right this time. Thanks.

Shtick This! Countdown to my Pension

 

"Money, money, money" -- More than one musician has sung about the need for money. Perhaps ABBA's version is the best-known one:

Money, Money, Money

Must be funny

In the rich man's world

Money, money, money

Always sunny

In the rich man's world

Aha

All the things I could do

If I had a little money

It's a rich man's world

It's a rich man's world

In September, I will finally be old enough to receive my pension! Woohoo! All the things I will be able to do with that "little money" . . . 

When I retired from teaching, I was still such a young pup that even though I'd given a full THIRTY YEARS of my life to that profession, in the eyes of the state of Nebraska I wasn't yet old enough to receive the fruits of my hard-earned retirement pension. 

Initially, I saw the time between retirement and being age eligible in years. TWO YEARS to go, I'd tell myself. After the first year passed, I looked at it in months. TWELVE MONTHS to go. Now that 2023, the year in which I will finally be age eligible, is upon me, I am counting down the DAYS. 

I find myself almost salivating at the thought of having a regular income again. Yes, I could have stayed with teaching or I could have got a different job that would have been paying me a regular salary this past year and a half, but the entire point of leaving teaching when I did was to focus on my writing career, so if I'd found a different full-time job, it would have defeated the point.

I've made huge strides with my writing career, as anyone who knows me is aware. Since leaving teaching, I've published three more novels, made progress on others, started two Substack weekly writings that earn me a tiny bit of money, managed to get my column into three more newspapers, and wrote feature articles for a newspaper and a magazine. Additionally, I've made many appearances at literary events and libraries. I wouldn't have been able to do any of those things if I'd stayed with teaching or if I'd found a different job.

However, I'm tired of being dead-ass broke and almost entirely reliant on my boyfriend for financial support. Not that my pension will catapult me into "the rich man's world," but it will pay the bulk of the bills and make me self-reliant once more. I am so looking forward to that, and no matter how wonderful my boyfriend is, I'm pretty sure he's looking forward to it, too.

I'm thankful for the Rule of 85, so I can start drawing my pension at a much earlier age than many people can in other careers with other retirement plans. Rule of 85 says that once your age and your years of teaching equal 85, then you can receive full retirement benefits. However, the state stipulates that you must be at least 55 before you can receive the benefits, so that's why I'm counting down the days until my birthday in September of this year.

Rule of 85 is no more, though. It was replaced by Rule of 90 a few years ago. Yep, your years of experience and your age now have to equal 90 before you can get the retirement pay, and the minimum age is now 60. I sure am glad that I taught under the Rule of 85 era.

When I complain about not having any money, people ask me why I don't substitute teach. Believe me, I have thought about it, but once again, by doing that, I'm negating the entire point of why I left teaching. Also, I'd be taking a day away from myself and my goals and dreams. I already gave away 30 years -- even one more day is too much to give up. Additionally, schools are so desperate for subs that once I let down my guard and subbed once, I know I'd cave over and over to help the teachers who need subs. I remember how difficult it was to find subs when I had to be gone, so I would want to help and would feel bad every time I said "no." Thus, it's best that I not even go down that road. 

I do make money with my writing. I just don't make enough to live off; however, what I make will be a great addition to a regular monthly pension paycheck. With luck and continued perseverance, too, I will surely earn more and more as a writer, but in order to do that, I must stay the course and not give up on my dream just to get some silly job that adds nothing of value to my life beyond a little bit of money.

Value. 

That's what matters to me at this stage in my life. I have no desire to do anything that doesn't add value to my life. Writing adds value far beyond any dollar amount you could put on it. Painting adds value. Spending time with people I love adds value. Travel adds value. Reading adds value. 

Life is far too short to do anything at all that isn't of value to me, to my internal self and my soul. After losing Kim's son, Trever; my best friend, Amy; my amazing friend and coworker, Nate; and my beloved uncle, Paul; all within two years, and then watching my dear friend, Silvia, who is like family to me, suffer through kidney failure and almost lose her, I decided that I couldn't waste one more day not going after my dream. So, that's what I'm doing. 

Every aspect of my life is better since I left teaching to focus on my writing career and dream. Every aspect except the financial one. 

Maybe someday I will get financially rich off a book. Maybe not. My books have made me rich, though, in other ways. I don't need to be financially rich, but I do need to get by, so that's why I am now counting down those days until I turn 55. 

I'm not a singer, but there's another song about money called "For the Love of Money" by The O'Jays that keeps going through my mind. It's really just that initial part where they sing "Money, money, money . . . money" over and over again. I find myself singing that as I think about that day in September that's only a little over 200 DAYS away. 

Here is a link to my author website if you've never visited it and would like to poke around a little to see the things I write: Tammy Marshall - Author