Ratchet File #7 - The Local Walmart

Ah yes, Walmart.  The place to go if you want to "save money, live better," according to their slogan.

As a customer, let me just say that's a crock of hot, steaming bullshit.

The above picture is the local Walmart in Baldwin Hills, one of the many neighborhoods that make up South Central Los Angeles.  At first I thought it was cool, seeing as though the only way to ever get to a Walmart was to go to the one in the city of Lakewood (which I was most familiar with at the time), but as the years progressed, this particular location (L.A., that is) began looking more unkempt as I continued shopping there.  Some examples:

People squirting paint all over the shelves

Lack of crochet hooks and knitting needles (most likely stolen)

More paint squirted all over shelves and yarn, too

Somebody explain why the hell people are squirting paint on the shelves, stealing knitting needles and crochet hooks, and tearing through yarn like this is a playhouse for ratchets.  You don't do that!!!  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  You go outside the store and it's nothing but hustlers and solicitors selling bootleg movies, music, posters and other counterfeit goods, or somebody's trying to get you to sign some petition to put whatever they're promoting on the ballot and you don't even know what they're planning to do with your personal information.  Or, you'll even see something like this taped to a bus shelter in front of this here Walmart:

Don't ever call this number!  It's a scam!!!

I even came across this at the parking lot in front:


That's my whole gripe with Walmart (Los Angeles), basically.  It's already gotten past the point to where I have to travel to another location to get what I need.  And even I have to go to an alternate location because the first alternate location is just as ratchet as the main location.  By the first alternate, I mean the one in the LBC, or as I jokingly like to call it, "South Central Long Beach" (only because parts of that city are just as ghetto as Los Angeles, if not overly ghetto).

And it also pisses me off that they don't even keep certain products in stock.  I can go to my local Walmart to get some yarn to crochet with, and they don't even have certain colors I want.  Most of the time, they hardly have any yarn in stock.  The shelves are basically 80% empty to begin with.  What's also bad about this location is that it's connected to the mall (better known as the Crenshaw Mall to us Angelenos), so you have ratchets trafficking in and out the place.  The one in Long Beach (by the Metro Blue Line) is no different.  Ratchets everywhere!!!  Because of said ratchetry, it's to the point where I have to take my black ass up to my favorite city (just so you know, my favorite city is Norwalk, CA) just to get some decent customer service at Walmart.  Not that there's anything wrong with the people who work at the one in Los Angeles (I know most of the staff there, anyway), but a person can only take so much ratchetness.

Now tell me if your local Walmart is as ratchet as this one.  Drop off your story in the comments box.