In the course of buying my daughter an iPod Touch for her birthday, we went to the electronics section and located the item.  We approached the male sales clerk standing by the till, watching TV, and asked him to grab us an iPod from the case.

WITHOUT SAYING ONE WORD, he opened the case, picked out an iPod (without asking which one we wants – ie 8 GB or 16 GB) and locked up the cabinet.  He carried it back to the till, rang it in, and processed my credit card.  ALL WITHOUT UTTERING A SINGLE WORD!

Now I understand that customer service is not your forte Wal-Mart, but this was extreme even for you.  Someone needs to give this kid a refresher course in how to handle customers and fast.  Still cannot believe we endured the entire transaction without a word, and even my kids commented on it.  At the ages of 8, 9 and now 15, even they knew this  guy was a tool and poor example of Wal-Mart employee.

So here are my tips Wal-Mart – train you “associates” to engage with a customer with at least some basic conversation.  Teach them that customers are NOT an inconvenience, but are the reason that your “associates” have a job in the first place.  Teach them how to handle a transaction from beginning to end, including asking the customer such basic things as “Which model would you like?” or “Your purchase comes to $X. ” to “Thank you”.