During my prison sentence (at Walmart), I worked with people who ranged from hard-working and compassionate coworkers to demented psychopaths! However, no one had more of an impact on my life at Walmart than Walker, the primary liquor store cashier, AKA the all-knowing wiseman.The only coworker to ever have a bigger impact on my life was my future wife.
In order to accurately explain Walker’s story, I have to explain the Walmart liquor store. It was a very small portion of the building that was completely disconnected from the rest of the store. The only way to get there was to walk out of the main entrance and trod towards the far left of the store building. As a result, very few customers entered this section. My co-workers and I considered this area paradise. The liquor store was quite small, probably about the size of a 2/2 apartment.
The one constant about our paradise was that Walker was always there, 7 days a week. He was a 6 ft tall, bald, lightly bearded, Jamaican man. He had a very thick accent and always reminded me of the Red Stripe spokesperson who said “Hooray Beer!” When we first met, he asked me “What’s your goal here?” I was a little surprised at first and I responded with “I just want to help my mom with the bills and save a little for college.” In response, Walker said “There’s no future here.” Those words stuck with me long after I left Walmart. Since he had worked in every department of the store, he knew who to trust and who was a wolf. He never actively complained about people, but if I was talking to someone who couldn’t be trusted, he would actively warn me. The best example of this was Jane, a coworker friend who I (and half of the store) was smitten with at the time. I never actively made a move on her during my first year at Walmart, since she was married and I had a conscience. However, when she got divorced from her husband, Walker warned me “Rick that girl will break you! You’re too nice for her!” I wish I’d listened to his warning, because she’s now known to me as Pain Bringer Jane, who gave me a date so bad it would have made it into an Adam Sandler film. But that is a story for another time!
Walker’s dream was to create a successful Jamaican radio show that would talk about all the issues that Jamaican immigrants face when they come to the United States. He said he signed up for five credit cards to pay for the show, but his show just couldn’t get any listeners. This resulted in over $20,000 worth of credit card debt. He said that even though he carried a heavy heart for failing to reach his dream, he was always proud of himself for trying. He used this story to try and get me to stop working for Walmart. Every time he mentioned his dream, I’d try to encourage him to pursue it again. He always responded that he’d think about it. From the bottom of my heart, I hope he tries again and accomplishes his dream!
Whenever I walked into the liquor store and saw his huge smile it was a big relief for me, because I knew the day was going to get a lot easier. This isn’t to say we didn’t deal with bad customers, it was just far less often. The members of the Hoards of Darkness (Customers) we’d greet were members of an elite unit. I remember one day in the middle of my shift working at the liquor store, we had a group of three female customers walk in. Two of them were holding the third friend by the shoulders. To be more accurate, they were dragging her. All three of them were saying stuff like “I love you man” and “No, you’re more beautiful than Cinderella.” I asked Walker to take a look at them and see if they were drunk. He said he was certain they were intoxicated! Walmart has a policy that prohibits us from selling alcohol to anyone who appears intoxicated. I had many memorable experiences enforcing this policy, which involved customers saying “Go back where you came from,” “Go to hell,” and “You’re a slut!”
The three women came up to the register with a bag of red solo cups and two full-sized Captain Morgan rum bottles. I asked them politely if any of them were drinking, even though I already knew the answer. The one in the middle said “I haven’t drank in two years,” and the woman to the left said “I only drank two days ago,” as they rocked back and forth in front of the counter. In response, I politely told the women that I wasn’t allowed to sell the booze to them since they had signs of being intoxicated. They told me I was just being an asshole and screamed that I should go back to answering telephones and stop taking other people’s jobs. I just kept repeating the same story as they got angrier and angrier. Finally, after an hour, they caved and left the store. Walmart-mode was very handy in that situation!
Situations like this got me so frustrated that one day I just asked Walker “Why do customers keep coming here if they hate the store so much?” He looked at me as if I just asked him what the meaning of life is. Walker responded “Because most of these people are so poor they can’t shop anywhere else.” I was starstruck when I heard this comment. Walker continued by saying “That’s why the company doesn’t change anything, because they know in the back of their minds people will keep coming. More importantly they know the employees will keep taking it, because they know we can’t get work anywhere else.” I had no idea why none of this had occurred to me before that moment, but it helped me realize that I couldn’t stay there. No matter how long it took, I had to find work somewhere else.
Spoiler Alert: I never found another job in Port St. Lucie.

Image by David Mark from Pixabay