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This weekend my wife planned a trip to her family's vacation home in upstate NY.  Living in NYC, this promised to be an fun filled two hour drive.

It was quite a trip.  Our car skitzed out on the way out of town (3 hour delay), our local dry cleaner's work space and storage areas behind neighboring storefronts were closed off by the government for reasons unknown (so we didn't have all of our clothes), and a 2 hour trip took nearly 8 hours in total (thanks to some traffic thrown in for good measure).

But we made it and the weekend was pretty nice.

Saturday night, my wife and I went on a date to Walmart.  As NYC natives, Walmart MegaStores are stock full of fun and great deals, and a great time was had by all... for about 20 minutes.  Then we ran into a sales person harassing/poking fun at an 8 year old girl because she had a speech impediment.  One associate was leading the "fun", with another playing backup, making this little girl repeat her request over and over again while they stood by and laughed at her.  It was just pathetic.

We left with our items in hand (we needed the clothes), but with a different view of what was once a favorite destination.

On the way home, we stopped a Getty station in New Jersey.  Traveling with an 11 month old is always fun, but also often requires making additional pit stops along the way.  While I was gassing up and our son was asleep, my wife utilized the opportunity to use the restrooms.  They were filthy, lacked any toilet paper, and has no soap or other cleaning supplies.  When we asked the station attendant for soap and other basic necessities, he told us to purchase it at the station store.  We were told that this was "station policy" as it promoted the sales of toiletries.

And here's the kicker - at the restroom exit was a clearly printed and displayed plaque reading as follows, "All station employees must wash hand thoroughly with soap."

It's a shame that some companies don't care as much for their customers as they do for themselves.