Clearly Canadian

Please elborate some more on the advantages of giving a Walmart
employee the ability to carry a weapon?

That's wonderful you get to shop at places like Saks and Nordstrom I
never get to enjoy stores like that.

Next time you find yourself bragging about your high end retailers and
carrying a weapon around, you be sure to enjoy our tax dollars.

Wait a second...am I the only one that thinks something is very odd
here? You go to Canada to attend the funeral of a family member. While
in Canada, you decide to visit a Wal-Mart in order to cash in a large
jar of coins. Did you bring this jar of coins with you from the US?
Did you find the jar in the MIL's house? Were these US coins or
Canadaian coins? Frankly the story doesn't make sense to me. Why would
you bring a jar of coins with you on the trip? If you found them in
the MIL's house, wouldn't it be simplier and less expensive (generally
no charge) to take the jar to the bank?

The thought that you are a Police Officer and believe carrying a gun
makes you somehow better able to deal with difficult people is one
that leaves me greatly uneasy. If you were carrying a weapon in
Canada...just be thankful no one noticed! The cops I know, and I know
many, would never even consider carrying a weapon across the border
unless it was in the operation of their duties. Further more, they
would never, under any circumstances, consider using a weapon simply
because someone was being difficult, insulting or "lazy". Very, very
odd and very, very disturbing.

" As a police officer in the United States, I also hone my customer
service skills, but I also carry a gun. Sadly, retail customer service
employees like Donna have to deal with a lot of rude people and don't
have the advantage of carrying a gun."
Wow -- this just sickens me and really reflects poorly on your skills
and attitude as a LFO.

I think you let your grief influence your post. If I would have been
there, I'd have directed you to a bank that didn't charge 7-9% of your
loot to count coins.

Also, walking someone to a place halfway across the store is somewhat
unreasonable. I have had plenty of w-mart employees do just that and
as a former retail manager taught my employees to do that if it were
within their department. If not, I'd have directed them generally to
the area and paged someone to have met them there.

It's Wally-world...they are based on being cheap and not known to be
world class service providers.

I have never been walked to an item I have asked about in a Wal-Mart.
They just point and direct. Usually that is good enough for me, unless
I have tunnel vision that day.

"As a police officer in the United States, I also hone my customer
service skills, but I also carry a gun. Sadly, retail customer service
employees like Donna have to deal with a lot of rude people and don't
have the advantage of carrying a gun."

Nice try. Even an off-duty officer can't legally carry a handgun on
his person in Canada. Especially an American off-duty officer.

"WalMart employees in the U.S. would have pointed and walked with the
customer looking for it, not just rudely point"

HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS? Geez, you don't even shop at Walmart in the
U.S.!

I think you just wanted to dress up your "but I'm special and I wanted
to be escorted to where I wanted to go" complaint as a compliment to
Donna. Nice job. You know, here in the U.S., we're usually more
direct than that. It's okay to write a complaint letter about the
pharmacy manager on its own.

I guess I just find it curious that you claim to be an expert on how
employees at Walmart in the US would handle a situation, but then
claim that you don't shop at Walmart much. Interesting.

A Pharmacist should not be expected to leave the pharmacy to walk
people around the store. Period. The Pharmacist's job is to fill
prescriptions for the folks who are waiting for their prescription to
be filled or who are coming in expecting it to be picked up on time.

Ironic given that you put the pharmacy manager on blast for not taking
you by the hand and walking you over to the CoinStar machine.

I get it, you were having a rough time and just wanted some help. But
wouldn't it have been SO much nicer to just THANK Donna without
including the part about the "allegedly" rude pharmacy manager?

"deal with a lot of rude people and don't have the advantage of
carrying a gun" ... are you advocating rude people should be shot?
Hope I never run into you at a traffic stop.

I am constantly asked the location of various items located throughout
the store. I will tell the customer which aisle it is located in and
if they need personal assistance then I will page for customer
service. The only time I leave the pharmacy to help a customer is when
the customer is in need of a pharmaceutical/medical recommendation and
I will go into the aisle to help them get what they need.

Quite honestly, if I were to leave the pharmacy to personally walk
folks to show them where the batteries, detergent, shampoo, ice or to
let folks into the restroom, I wouldn't be able to take care of my
pharmacy patients in a timely manner. That's what the front end staff
is for and that's what they get paid to do. Since they cannot come
into the pharmacy to enter/fill scripts, call doctors, deal with
insurance problems or know what the difference is between Lopressor
and Toprol XL, I don't expect them to do my job or they don't expect
me to do theirs.

With that said, I can understand why the pharmacy manager told
you/pointed to the direction of the Coinstar machine. Not only that,
she probably figured that was suffice information enough for you to be
able to locate it on your own after she pointed you in the correct
direction.

"As a police officer in the United States, I also hone my customer
service skills, but I also carry a gun."


Don't get me wrong - I'm completely for gun rights and am a gun-owner
myself. I'm just not sure what it has to do with customer service
skills.

Cos as a gun-owner myself it is my responsibility to understand when I
can and cannot draw down on someone else.

If she was a Pharmacy Manager, she was a Pharmacist. Our Pharmacy does
not allow the Pharmacist to leave the department if they are the only
Pharmacist there. She could very well have not been able to leave and
by pointing you in the direction of the stationary (where is where you
were told to go in the first place, but that was ok?) she did nothing
wrong. Your partner, however, grief or not, was rude in becoming upset
at her and making that comment. Guess what? You WEREN'T in the US so
what sense does that comment even make?

I mean really, especially as an officer, would it be ok saying that to
you if they were from a different country? Does it make it ok?

And you say the store manager "refused" to meet with you because he
was in a meeting? He didn't refuse...he WAS. IN. A. MEETING.

I'm glad another employee made you feel better, thats great.

You honestly expect the same caliber of service at Walmart as you get
at Neiman's SAKs and Nordstrom?

it visible from the pharmacy counter? Good powers of observation.
That's what we need from our law enforcement officers. I really don't
know why you think a pharmacy manager would leave her station to walk
you anywhere - especially some place that you say she was pointing at.
As a police officer, don't you think that might seem suspicious? Like
you are taking her away from the pharmacy when she doesn't really need
to leave? Either way, I don't think it's unreasonable for her to stay
put. I think you should visit a few U.S. Walmarts so you can honestly
compare the service levels.

I dont understand why you would get attitude after telling someone in
Canada that employees in the US are much more polite.