Bye, Bye BJ's

Well, I've added another store to my "No Shop" List. It seems the list just keeps getting longer.

Some Members of the Do Not Honor Role:

Walmart, because of its labor practices and the fact that it has squeezed out so many small businesses wherever it goes;

Circuit City, because it laid off good workers with experience just to save a few bucks (rather than giving the CEO an unpaid day off, which would probably equal the wages of the fired employees);

Urban Outfitters, because the owner, Dick Haynes, is the retail version of Don Imus; and

Ikea, who's owner, Kamprad, was a member of the Hitler Youth (and who claims a memory lapse about it).

Latest entrant is BJs, one of the warehouse giants.

I trekked out there today to stock up on pet food and paper products, among other items. I hadn't been there for a while, so my basket runneth over. Got in the checkout line, dutifully put all my junk on the counter & handed my membership card to the cashier. He told me that my card was rejected, so I needed to go to Customer Service. He then informed me that I also needed put all my stuff back in my cart. I told him that the card had most likely expired, but he said that he couldn't renew it. I had to go to customer service.

I reloaded all my junk into the cart & went to customer service. Stood in line again. Finally, I was told that my card expired (surprise, surprise). However, I could not renew because I didn't open the account. The business account, which has my name on it, couldn't be renewed by me of the same name, because my secretary originally opened it several years ago. Customer Service (a misnomer if I ever heard one) couldn't help me. I said they could do one thing -- put all the stuff in my cart away, since I was outta there.

Went to Costco instead (without caskets) and ran into another problem with my card. However, unlike BJs, Costco checked me out first, then said to stop by Customer Service on my way out to pick up a new card, which they had ready for me.