I figured that in this unstable economy I would give a discount retail store a shot, to save a dollar.

I could end the story here and say that I will never waste hours of my life again at the world's largest retailer, number one Fortune 500 company, Walmart. More so that company lost my children's future business too.

In five days my son turns 7 and for the last 360 days of his life he has been pinching his pennies, counting his fortune in his spare time, saving for something special and dreaming. "Instead of a birthday party this year, how about you just give me the cash you would have used for a party." My future little investment banker declared. The husband and I slipped him some birthday cash over lunch at his favorite chicken wing restaurant and the little man was ready to shop. With help from the tooth fairy, grandparents, months worth of chores, and helping with our remodel he had saved a lot of dough. A lot.

We researched online. Read reviews. And determined that the best deal was found at Walmart. On their easy-to-use website I typed in our zip code and up popped three stores that guaranteed the item "in stock." What a beautiful useful time-saving tool the Internet can be, I thought. My over-the-top-happy little investment banker feverishly gathered up his bills and we were off to Amishville where we parked our minivan next to a horse buggy. You should have seen the look in his eyes as he anticipated making a purchase with his hard earned cash.

Instead.  We did a lot of this there:

Because apparently the item was not in stock. Wasn't on the shelves or in the back. It only took half a dozen employees to determine that.

So we drove to the next Walmart that guaranteed the item "in stock" and parked our minivan next to a Bronco with a confederate flag bumper sticker. And guess what we did at that Walmart? See above photo. It took the manager on duty exactly 16 minutes to meet us at the front of the store after we had asked for him. Not very friendly or excited to help us he waddled back into his office to call the neighboring Walmart store or eat donuts. For 35 minutes. During that time, my husband encouraged the chickadees to chant "Target. Target. Target." in which they all happily obliged.

We didn't stay long enough to see what flavor of donut he had because my husband was all kinds of mad and so I left our cell phone number and a classy note with the greeter at the door, who smiled at us and said "Thank you for shopping at Walmart." Seriously Walmart. A 35 minute phone call to check to see if a product was in stock? A useless website that publishes lies? An unhappy slowly moving manager? Shouldn't you have better communication between your stores? 

My son was devastated.

Needless to say. We took our money elsewhere:

On our happy way, we surfed the Internet on the phone found the item also in stock at Toys R Us and frantically called them. We were immediately transferred to a bubbly manager whom raced, not waddled, to the shelves to check if the product was in stock. It was! Even though they had four in stock an associate dragged the fifty pound box to the front counter and attached a HOLD note to it. Do you know how valuable it was not to drag three children through a toy store trying to locate the seasonal department?  Or wait?  Priceless.

We drove halfway across Cleveland with a tired toddler and one devastated customer to pick up the item.  Parked our minivan next to another minivan in a different color and stepped inside Toys R Us. The skies parted and the angels sang.

Three point two minutes later:

One very satisfied customer making his first big purchase with his savings, a purchase he will always remember. Not taking place in Walmart. Heh. The change in his pockets from today will be going to a very good local cause tomorrow.

The enthusiastic Toys R Us manager even lugged the loot into the trunk of our minivan. Now that's service you should be taking notes on Walmart.  You will not find me in your store.