Wal-Mart Story I Forgot

Now, I don't regularly go to the only Wal-Mart that's closer than 40 minutes driving time from our house because first, we have plenty of Targets that are much closer, and second, that freaking place is like the third world. I fully expect to see a nomad ululating to the goat he's dragging beside him for company/food every time I walk in there. Anyway, the only reason I have to go is that I found this gift card with $20 on it that I've had in my wallet for over two years. Yes, that's how much I hate going to this Wal-Mart. The card's been in my wallet for so long that a small chunk of the magnetic strip is missing, but the account number is clearly readable so I figure that whoever rings up my purchase will simply enter the number manually without an issue.

So, I'm at the store and I've found a Rush DVD that I'd like to buy. Since I don't have anything else to buy, I decide to go the electronics checkout instead of the eternally long lines at the front of store registers. I hand the cashier the gift card and the DVD. He swipes the gift card. It doesn't go through. He swipes again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. AGAIN. Nothing. He looks at the card and then... TRIES AGAIN to swipe the card. Of course, nothing. At this point, I'm thoroughly entertained so I decide to keep quiet about the whole "Why don't you try entering the number manually?" thing and watch as the fun unfurls. He grabs a paper towel and wipes off the strip and then, guess what, tries AGAIN to swipe the card. *sigh*

This is where it gets really funny. He turns to his coworker who has been staring off into space for the last 5 minutes and says, "This card won't swipe." She replies, "Did you swipe it?" Huh?!!? After another couple of minutes of Napoleon Dynamite and the female version of his brother Kip trying to figure out what's going on, Kip decides it's time to call a manager. So, they ring up the manager and in less than 30 seconds these two guys come up to the register to help. So now there's four people at the register trying to figure out what to do. Guy number one decides to try to swipe the card one more time, because you know, 12th time's a charm. When it doesn't work (surprise!) he mentions keying in a number manually. The only problem is that not one out of the four people at the register know exactly which number is the right one, and of course, I'm not going to tell them! Why spoil it?

So now, they all take turns guessing which of the numbers on the back of the card is the correct one. As they're trying, the manager who was called stops over. Apparently, the two guys just happened to be nearby and decided to, well, let's just call it help for brevity's sake. Of course right as they figure out which number is the right one, the manager quickly explains the solution to the problem in about 15 seconds. So five employees and almost 15 minutes later I had the DVD purchased with legal tender and hopefully it will be another couple of years before I go in there again.