This morning, at the Wal-Marts

[merrily]

So last night my sink broke. Again. The strainer and threaded bit (usually attached to each other) had cracked apart, and suddenly I had a big bloody hole under the tap, and a large puddle in the cabinet underneath.

It was too late to do anything about it, so I mopped up the worst of the puddle, went to bed, woke up reallllly early this morning and dragged myself off to WalMart, which is in the mall a block from my house.

(There is no hardware store, or Canadian Tire, or whathaveyou anywhere close. If I had any non-WalMart option, I would've taken it.)

So there I am at 7 in the morning, bleary-eyed, dressed half in my pajamas, and faced with the WalMart dayshift - that is, the finest that WalMart has to offer.

Which is when this happened:

Me (corralling nearest employee): Where's the hardware section?

Employee: Down these stairs. What do you need?

Me: I need a basket and strainer assembly for my sink.

Employee: (blank look)

Me: It's the bit that attaches the sink to the pipe? It's broken.

Employee: I'll take you to the hardwares staffer.

(She takes me to the hardwares staffer.)

Employee, to the hardwares dude: This lady needs some liquid plumber.

Me: No, that's not what I need. I need the actual piping.

Hardwares Dude: The piping.

Me: It's called a basket and strainer assembly?

Hardwares Dude: So, maybe a plumbing snake?

Me: NO.

Hardwares Dude: (looking futilely over their pitiful collection of house hardware) Maybe it's also called a flapper?

Me: ... That's a part of a toilet.

OH WALMART. Perhaps you should look for more qualified employees, and then pay them enough that they'll a)take the job and b)stick around.

Comments

[waketosleep]

That's not how you turn a profit! You're so silly.

/used to work graveyards at waldemort

[merrily]

Excellent use of icon. :-) Sorry about the Waldemort former life.

[waketosleep]

It is my default icon for a reason, and that reason is that it is universally applicable. Oh, life.

[mklutz]

There is a Home Hardware between my place and Ossington on Bloor which I've found has most anything you could need, and if the guy isn't feeling misogynistic that day he'll totally help you out? Oh god, Wal Mart, how can they not understand your basic plumbing description. Eugh. At least they sell dipin dots at the inside mall entrance.

[merrily]

There is? Someday, when we go get waffles, I will corral you into showing me where it is. I much prefer Home Hardware. I eventually got the parts I needed at the HH in the Annex.

[mklutz]

Absolutely! That way it's a little closer to your place, too.