Shaun feeds the machine

Last week I was down on the south side of Edmonton....the deep south side to be exact. I had an MRI appointment...and no I am not 72, I just have the knees of someone who is that old. Let me just say sitting in a loud tube that makes your hair stand on end is kind of a weird feeling. I was espicaley concerned when the attendant did not give me any protection for the boys (ie lead underpants) but he assured me it was painless and uses no x-ray technology.

That is besides the point. This post is not about MRI machines or my boys. It is about giving in to low prices at ridiculous costs. See while I was in the deep south of Edmonton I stopped off at Wal-mart. Well, not just a Wal-mart...a "Supercenter" Wal-mart which is really a Mega Supercenter Wal-mart. Anyways, it's huge. The reason I stopped there (other than being in the deep south and that's what you do when your in the deep south...see Florida) was to get cleaning supplies. Now I have been one to avoid Wal-mart as it destroys small businesses and small town cores. If you go to any mid-sized town in rural Alberta you will find two things:

1) A strip mall area on the outskirts of town with a Wal-mart smack dab in the middle
2) A deserted downtown core.

If you go far enough south in Alberta you may see tumble weed in that deserted downtown core so I guess that 's 3 things.

So reluctantly I poked my head in to see what all the fuss is about. Sally greeted me with a look that said something along the lines of "Welcome to Wal-mart, please get me out of here!" A far cry from the welcome hugs I had heard about. I grabbed a shopping basket and tippy toed my way past her. 25 minutes later I finally found myself at the cleaning isle. The prices were ridiculous and really did shock me. Products that I buy at my local grocery store were, in most cases, over half the price at Wal-mart. Being such a far trek from home I started grabbing two of everything. Before I knew it I had traded in my basket for a cart and was heading for the meat section.

$300 and enough laundry detergent to float a batleship later I was out. My head was spinning. I was confused as to how I got to that point but the bottom line is it is just that much cheaper. I almost feel dirty for it. Good thing I have plenty of detergent.