The terrors of ye olde Walmart

Oh, Walmart, the glorious tales I could tell of you. This is amoung them. Today I went to one of the local Walmarts. I try to avoid shopping at them, but this one is special; it has one of the ever-elusive fabric sections.

I like to experiment designs on cheaper fabric, in case I don't like how it turns out- that way I'm out $10 of Walmart discount fabric on a skirt rather than $30-$50 of fabric from a different store. That way, too, no matter how it turns out, my roommate Astrid inherits a nice skirt for casual wear. I almost always make such things in her size for that reason.

I found a fabric that caught my eye; I knew she would like it, and I thought it was cute. I'm lacking a camera currently, so I ganked a stock picture of it from the manufacturer's website.

I take it to the fabric to the counter for cutting and ding the bell, only to receive no answer. I ring it again. Ten minutes pass, and nobody comes.

I walk to the electronics and have someone paged. Twenty minutes pass, to no avail. I ask another passing employee, who says he'll page someone, then proceeds to stand there and chat to his friend, very clearly ignoring me.

At this point, I threw the bolt onto the rack and started to leave in a huff, deciding they'd lost a sale. As I headed out the door, though, I was greeted by a manager who asked me how my experience was.

I explained in no uncertain terms how I'd pissed away nearly an hour when she apologized profusely... and proceeded to present me someone from the shoe section to cut my fabric.

The shoe girl was better than nothing, perhaps, but completely unaware of how to do anything. I can't blame her for being unable to do a job she was never trained to do. First of all, when I'd asked for three yards... she tried to cut me three one yard pieces rather than a continuous length.

When she finally cut it, it was cut off grain, slightly sideways. I actually ended up with about a fourth yard more than I bought, due to the crooked cutting.

Forgive the bad quality of the photo. It was shot on my cell phone. It does show the terribleness of the cut, however.

To add insult to the injury, when I took it to the cash register, it rung up for nearly $10, more than the $6 on my fabric ticket.

I've written them a rather firm letter, though I doubt it'll change anything. Anyone know anywhere else to purchase cheap fabric for experimentation?