Rave: Walmart Open on Thanksgiving

When it comes to Walmart, it takes no time to find plenty of complaints and criticism… and I’ll admit, I could easily write a “rant” about Walmart if I wanted to. (Actually, searching back, I already have.)  And I usually hate the way some businesses make people work on Thanksgiving — after spending Thanksgivings 2005-2008 at work myself.  But today, I have to hand it to Walmart for staying open this year… it really helped me out in a major bind.

I’m not talking about needing a can of creamed corn or grabbing a last-minute pumpkin pie.  This morning, my sister and I were going to run out for a quick breakfast.  As I pulled out of the driveway, something felt weird about the steering.  When I got out and looked at the car, I found one of my front tires was almost completely flat.

I went immediately to the nearest convenience store to use the air machine, then we both used our phones to look up numbers for various auto repair stores.  Monro, Pep Boys, and so forth.  Every single one we called had no answer.

There was no way I was going to drive the hour from Syracuse to Rome on a damaged tire — not knowing how long the tire was losing air or how damaged it was inside.  Didn’t need it blowing out along the Thruway.

Then, my sister had the winning idea of the day: “What about Walmart?”  My face lit up as I told her to look up the number immediately for the Cicero supercenter.  She called, and they said the auto repair department was open.  We headed right up there.

Down side: We arrived at 11:45am.  The counter worker told us that the tech on duty was due to end his shift at noon, and the next one wouldn’t be in until 1:30pm.  Up side: My car would be first to be done right at 1:30, the tire replacement would take about an hour, and we’d make it to Rome only about 1/2 hour later than originally planned.

As I was sitting in the Walmart waiting room, I read a newspaper article which informed me Walmart used to be closed on Thanksgiving; this was the first year they remained open to jump on the “pre-Black Friday” bandwagon.  Well, I’m glad they did!  Kudos to Walmart for being open and available to help me with my emergency.