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Saturday, November 3, 2007

Illegal Anti-Voucher Flyer Drop at American Fork Wal-Mart

I was an eyewitness. I guess the law doesn't matter, if it's "for the children."

Union Tactics

I don't recommend shopping at the American Fork Super Wal-Mart on a Saturday evening, unless you're planning to make an evening of it. It's much too crowded. However, some Rodebacks tried it tonight. We were in the store from 6:45 to 7:45 p.m., approximately. (Much of that was in a relatively short line at the checkstand, which leads me to a theory, of which more below.) While we were in the store, our minivan was parked in the parking lot. This is a lot that is clearly posted: unauthorized soliticitation or flyer distribution is prohibited.

On my way from the store to the van, I noticed that quite a number of vehicles had flyers on their windshields. Then I found that mine was one of them. It was an anti-voucher flyer, a small, full-color trifold piece bearing the phrase, "Paid for by Utahns for Public Schools." Your NEA dues at work.

I wanted to keep my flyer, so I found another one and took it into the store. I didn't get all the way to the manager, but the person I talked to say he was very certain Wal-Mart had not authorized this distribution.

So is it littering or trespassing? Both?

Never mind. I guess if what you're doing is "for the children" -- which these days is a pretty transparent euphemism for "support your national teachers' unions" -- the rules don't apply to you.

Non Sequitur: The Shortest, Slowest Line

Now, about that theory, inspired by a very slow line. You'll understand the problem when I explain that we were buying 48 identical cans of something, and the hapless cashier insisted on ringing them up separately. My theory is that I've been going about picking a register wrong. I look at the number of carts in line and the number of items in those carts. But now I'm thinking that I would be wiser to look into the cashier's eyes for a spark of human intelligence, and to watch his or her work for a moment, to see if the pace seems unusually slow.

Fast cashier? Never mind the number of items in the carts.

Slow cashier? An apparently short line is no blessing.

Food for thought.

Copyright 2007 by David Rodeback.
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