Excited About Wal-Mart???

Yes, you just read the title of this post correctly, I am excited about going to Wal-Mart. Keep in mind, I used to do anything possible to AVOID going to the dreaded "big corporate American company eating up all the Mom and Pop stores and then leaving their huge stores vacant to build an even bigger SUPER store." I HATED WAL-MART--that is, until I moved to Brussels.

There is a Wal-Mart in Aachen, Germany, and my friends Andrea, Lisa and I just drove two hours each way to get to it today. I wish there had been a camera to capture the smile on my face when I saw the blue sign. We spent over three hours there just wandering up and down the isles. The store doesn't have a huge amount of American products, but the prices are much cheaper in Germany than they are in Belgium and the layout was similar to an American store. On Friday nights, you could even go to the store looking for a date!

We could also find workers in the German store that were actually helpful. Keep in mind that customer service is non-existent in Brussels. Kyle's German co-worker later told me that everyone in Germany knows that the only place you can get somewhat friendly help is at Wal-Mart and that is only because all the big wig American managers come in at the store openings and all the employees that they have to use the "American standard" of customer service. Now if only companies in Belgium would start enforcing that...