bmabray's Journal: Wal-Mart really will take back anything

Yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart to return a shirt. While standing in line, I watched a guy ahead of me returning some items you don't normally think of as returnable: hamburger buns, 3 bottles of BBQ sauce, and 2 large containers of cole slaw. OK, so he bought too much for his cook-out. Strange that he's taking them back, but understandable.

As he gets to the counter, a young boy (I'm assuming his son) wheels over another basket with more things to return -- 3 bags of ice. That's right, he was returning 3 bags of half melted ice. And, of course since he had a receipt, Wal-Mart took them back.

I'm not sure which is weirder -- that someone would return ice, or that a place would accept returned ice. I stared in absolute amazement at the entire transaction. When it was my turn, I couldn't resist asking the question, "How long does a person have to return ice?" The cashier, who had been working the customer service desk alone this whole time, clearly was too tired to get the joke. She responded, "We have a 90 day return policy on most items..."

So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave a bag of ice in my car for 90 days, then return it to Wal-Mart. I'm going to carry my bag of water to the customer service desk, with receipt in hand, and complain about how no where on the bag does it mention that the ice could melt... :-)