(no subject)

[lapsedmodernist]

I hope everyone on my f-list already boycotts Walmart, but just in case you need more convicing:

COLUMBUS — A woman has complained to the governor and an abortion-rights group about Wal-Mart workers who wouldn't give her morning-after contraceptive pills that don't require a prescription.

Tashina Byrd, 23, of Springfield, said the pharmacist "shook his head and laughed" when a pharmacy attendant asked this month about giving the woman and her boyfriend Plan B. The hormone pills can help prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

The attendant told Byrd and her boyfriend, Brian O'Neill, 37, of Columbus, that the store stocked Plan B but nobody would give it to them, the couple told The Columbus Dispatch...

Brent Beams, the pharmacist, told The Dispatch that he denied the couple's request for the contraceptive pills because "I do not believe in ending life, and life begins at conception."

After the pharmacist turned them down, O'Neill and Byrd asked for a store manager who "came over and said, 'The pharmacist has the law on his side,' " O'Neill said.

Comments

[already2late.livejournal.com]

I can proudly say that I have never purchased anything at all at a WalMart. (I have been to WalMart twice, but never made a purchase, and that was back in 2000 or so.)

[nearly-there.livejournal.com]

Me too, and I never intend to purchase anything at one. (The only reason I've ever been there at all is an emergency bathroom break in the middle of nowhere on a long road trip.)

[kowboy.livejournal.com]

I've never even set foot in a Wal-Mart parking lot, which is more difficult to manage than one might imagine when all your relatives live in out in Bum-Wipe, USA.

[chelvis.livejournal.com]

You need Plan B, you go to K-Mart. Those folks are legit.

[bulletsandbones.livejournal.com]

Never been in one

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

As mentioned before, I can't go into one under threat of being charged with trespassing. Keeps my purchases way down.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

yeah what's the story with that?

Also I keep meaning to reply that I friended you back.

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

So, I went to college out in Oklahoma. While I respect those who proudly say they've never set foot in a Wal-Mart, even though they have relatives from the sticks, I'm partly from the sticks, and I used to shop at Wal-Mart. In more than one small town, it's your only choice for some goods. (Also, the crazy Christian side of Wal-Mart, which has become more obvious over the years, not only stood out less then but just doesn't stand out much in Oklahoma, where more than half the population calls itself born-again Christian.)

While in college, I worked/lived as a semi-professional shoplifter for a while. The details are unimportant except that they contributed to the irony of what happened next. Eventually I decided that my life was starting to look like it might go somewhere, and that it would be silly to founder on a stupid shoplifting charge. So, one night, about a decade ago, I swore it off. The next day I went to buy a new set of sheets for my bed...at Wal-Mart. This, I will note, is the first thing I was actually going to pay for at that store in more than a year.

Something funny happened on the way to checkout, though: my bank card came up on the woman's register as stolen. She continued to check me out while pressing the silent alarm. As I was about to go through the front door, two beefy goons grabbed me and dragged me, protesting, back to the "loss prevention center" in the rear of the store.

(Note to Wal-Mart: don't sit your suspected shoplifters in front of the televisions that show the feeds from the security cameras. I shouldn't have to explain why this is a bad idea.)

The goons explained that they were charging me with shoplifting. I protested, saying that if anything they should charge me with use of a fraudulent or stolen bank card. They replied that that was a felony charge for which I'd have to go to jail and then be arraigned for bail, while shoplifting was a misdemeanor and I could go right on home, to fight the charge later. Hard to argue with that logic.

I eventually got the charge removed from my record, when I proved that it was my bank card and that Wal-Mart's computer had screwed up. Here's the kicker, though: while seated in the loss prevention center and under suspicion of shoplifting, the goons had me sign a document agreeing that I would never again set foot in a Wal-Mart store under threat of charges of trespassing; and that I cold be charged with same right then if I didn't sign. This is apparently policy. Later, after I beat the charge, I ended up accompanying a friend to the store while she was buying something, and I was recognized by one of the goons. He started to read me the riot act; I explained that the charge had been dropped; and he explained that the agreement was binding separate of the charge that prompted my signing it. Some checking proved this to be the case.

So, that's the story. It would admittedly be better if I had been banned after throwing a shopping cart through their front window or something similar, but I figure hey, whatever works.

...And yes, I noticed your friending. How's World of Warcraft treating you?

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

have you heard of buyblue.org (it's been around since at least the 2000 election theft)? if so, what do you think of that site/group? do you have a strategy that you like/use for buying stuff? (yes, i've never shopped at wal-mart and mention boycotting it to people whenever it comes up.)