How May I Help You?

It was nearly 10:00 p.m. and our coach decided to drop us off at the store to buy our breakfast for the morning. Of all the places we could have gone, Walmart is where we ended up. Yet, it wasn’t your normal Walmart. The sign was green instead of blue because the company’s store was called The Neighborhood Market. I had never seen this Walmart store before and I was curious to see what it held inside. It was only a grocery store therefore I thought to myself, “how bad could it be?” 

Before I stepped inside, two people walked rudely in front of me. One wore a tight spaghetti strapped shirt that looked too small for her size. She wore shorts that looked uncomfortably tight and were so short that the first think that popped in my mind is the saying, “crack kills”. Her makeup looked a few days old, and her blonde hair was in a messy bun. The woman next to her had a shaved head. She had small gages in her ears and had on a plus size black t-shirt. She sagged her shorts and was wearing patterned boxers underneath. I always expect to see various types of people at Walmart, however, since this Walmart was in a beat down neighborhood, the customers we saw in there made you feel like you were unsafe. 

As I walked to the drink area towards the water bottles, a man walked awkwardly towards me. He had pants that sagged down, and he had a shirt that was once white but was now marked with stains. He looked like he was in his mid or late twenties but I was unsure due to the result of long term drug use. He was a tweaker. You could tell by the involuntary movements his body would make. He kept his eyes down on the floor and kept walking past me. I quickly grabbed my drink and walked over to the cashier. As I waited to pay for my groceries, I glanced over at the couple who stood behind me. The man stood with a button up striped shirt and had black pants on. He had a thin gold chain and wore white dress shoes. The woman next to him wore a tight red strapless shirt that revealed her belly, she had a tight, short, black skirt and black heals. Her face looked tired but she had on lots of makeup that looked faded. Her hair was down, but was tangled. She walked unbalanced and would constantly be checking her nails. 

As I paid for my things, I grabbed the hand sanitizer out of my bag and drenched my hands in it. I felt unsanitary after being in that Walmart. As I walked away I realized that maybe, just maybe, the original Walmart store I once thought was weird, wasn’t as bad as I had thought.