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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/casserole422 on 2024-11-16 17:24:22+00:00.

Several weeks ago my(32 f) maternal grandfather (80m) had what we suspected to be a stroke. He was entering the last stages of his life and was vehemently anti-hospital. We never got a full understanding of what happened in this instance because he refused to go to the hospital, but think like can’t walk, speech, not making sense, trying to get undressed and random spaces etc. He was just under 6 ft. And my grandma and Mom are both well under 5’5, and physically could not manhandle him to get him to bed. So I had the bright idea that I was going to go and purchase a simple folding wheelchair so that they could get him two doctor’s appointments and back and forth from the car with less trouble, which is where our story begins…

I get the call about his stroke at roughly 6:00 p.m. and make the decision to call out of work the next day to support this change in his life. Immediately I start googling where in town I can pick up a wheelchair same day. I don’t want to out any specific brand names, but let’s say “hall-mart” has some in stock. So that’s my plan. I get up in the morning, go to the wall with Marts and pull up the app to see which aisle wheelchairs are sold in. This leads me to somewhere near the pharmacy, which has a wheelchair, but it’s on the very top shelf and appears to be a floor model. I look all around. Nowhere do I see a box that says wheelchair or anything like that. I wait patiently in line at the pharmacy until I see a pharmacist and ask them “I would like to buy a wheelchair, is that something that I have to go around back for or can you point me to where I could purchase one?”

Not sure if this pharmacist was new or something but this really threw them for a loop. They told me I had to go online for something like that, or wait, did I have a prescription for a wheelchair? Also, that they weren’t sure if they had wheelchairs in stock. I luckily already had my app open and told them I think they do have them in stock, and that I’m okay with waiting for a little bit, but I don’t want to go through the online “pickup” wait. They make a couple calls and tell me that yes, they do have them in stock, but I needed to go to the fitting rooms and request one. I figured there was a 50/50 chance that this pharmacist was just trying to get rid of me so they could help the next customer and hoped that I would not return.

But I’m a good little girl and go to the fitting rooms, I tell the lady at the fitting rooms that “I would like to purchase a wheelchair, the pharmacy sent me to you.”

Fitting room attendant number one yells at me, louder than necessary “WHY WOULD THEY SEND YOU TO US?!?” Fitting room attendant two is more concerned “Mam, this is the fitting rooms, are you having a medical emergency?”

Fair point, I did feel crazy right at that moment, but I tell them “no, I don’t need a wheelchair right this instant but I would like to purchase one for my grandfather. It sounds like there’s one somewhere in the store but none that I can go and get off of the shelf myself. I am guessing that the pharmacist thinks you guys might have the ability to go to the back of the store and bring me a wheelchair the store is selling??”

Indignant fitting room attendant number one throws her hands up in the air, annoyed at my request, and grabs her radio to see if there are wheelchairs available for purchase in the back. Wouldn’t you know it there were! So they head off on an adventure to find me a wheelchair. They come back in less than 10 minutes, wheelchair box in a cart, and I completed my purchase to skip off into the sunset…

In total I spent just over an hour and a half in the store (admittedly I did search more than necessary because I have social anxiety and don’t want to bother store employees unless I know for certain the thing I need isn’t there.) Tall-mart is always good for a laugh right?

TL;DR: attempted to purchase a wheelchair at mal-mart, broke several employees brains, spent way too much time there.