Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving - can I return this turkey?

I survived a third Thanksgiving at Wal-Mart. Of all the things to return, some lady returned a thawed-out turkey today.

Yes. A thawed-out turkey.

Her story goes like this. She was getting ready to start cooking when the family called. They were having car trouble and weren't going to make it into town. So she shouldn't bother cooking the bird.

So what did she do? She took the bird out of the sink, PUT IT BACK IN THE PLASTIC and put it in a Wal-Mart bag, dug the receipt out of the trash (yes, the receipt was wet from where she threw it away) and return the turkey, two boxes of stuffing, some cranberries, the stuff to make pumpkin pies, green beans and a package of rolls.

She rolled in to Customer Service with all the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner and rolled right out with nineteen dollars and change.

I was so busy today that all I could do was tie that turkey up in the Wal-Mart bag, tape a defective slip onto it, slide it over to the side and say to the next person "Can I help you?"

A freaking THAWED-OUT TURKEY? And the next woman in line goes - "did she really return a thawed-up turkey?" Yeah, she did. Next.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving and glad you survived, but I will be waiting to see if you survive this Friday ;). I worked retail long enought to stay home until monday. Anyhooo as for the returned thawed turkey all I can say is "Welcome to America"

Anonymous said...

Life can be so cruel...you're expecting your family, you want to see them and the call at the last minute saying "don't bother, we have car trouble"
Maybe they were telling the truth, but how sad she must have felt anyway, and maybe $19. means a lot to her. Thanksgiving is such a Family Day. I wonder what she ate when she got home? Sad.

Larry Kollar said...

Good point, Giselle.

I hope I'll get to stay close to home this weekend too. Then again, it's going to be totally nutz until New Years. No wonder we eat so much this time of year; we need the energy to survive the shopping trips!

Anonymous said...

Hi BBCAmerican,
I'm a journalist who was interested in speaking with you (confidentiality guaranteed) about your entertaining Thanksgiving post and was wondering if there was an email address where I could reach you? Thanks!

Chris Silk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frederick J Alfredo said...

I saw your blog on Businessweek. That was soo funny. I will be watching your blog religiously from now on.

-Frederick