Stories from Behind the Wal: Coming Full Circle

By Micheal E. Beggs and Morgan E Beggs

STORIES FROM BEHIND THE WAL: COMING FULL CIRLCE chronicles the trials and tribulations of the experiences from working more than three decades in retail. From a minimum wage hourly associate, to twenty years as a salaried member of management, and then back to an hourly paid associate, before retiring after thirty-two years, it provides a testimonial, for those with no retail background, of some of the incredible ups and downs, funny encounters with customers and associates, and the evolution of a company with small town beginnings morphing into a global retail giant. The stories propel you on a thirty-plus year roller coaster ride of humor and drama in an environment that many are familiar with but few have any experience in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665548694

Micheal E. Beggs

MICHEAL E. BEGGS is an avid story teller, and first time author, who worked for more than three decades as a Walmart associate. He held multiple positions over the years, beginning as an hourly sales associate and rising to management positions, of which he held for twenty of his thirty two year career. He worked in a total of fourteen stores, most of them in Southern Arizona. Micheal’s father retired from the Army in 1985 at Ft. Huachuca and the family settled in Sierra Vista thereafter. Before beginning his career with Walmart in 1988, he enjoyed doing community theater as an actor and director. He also spent some time as a production assistant on several Hollywood movies that filmed on location in the area in the late 1980s. While working in his second Walmart store, he met his wife, Kerri, who also worked for Walmart at the time. They married in December of 1993. They have two great children. They live in the Tucson area with their two dogs and three cats.

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© 2022 MICHEAL E. BEGGS. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  01/25/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4870-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4869-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022900387

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1     Boy, Do You Know Who That Was?

Chapter 2     Early Jobs

Chapter 3     Some Lady Named Judy Called You

Chapter 4     The Beginning Of A Career

Chapter 5     Department Manager Micheal

Chapter 6     A New Beginning

Chapter 7     Assistant Manager Training (Development)

Chapter 8     The Meat Grinder

Chapter 9     A Rough Couple Of Years

Chapter 10   Back To The Meat Grinder

Chapter 11   I Can See Clearly Now

Chapter 12   Strawberries And Bananas, Morgan

Chapter 13   Home, Not So Sweet, Home

Chapter 14   Where It All Began

Chapter 15   A New Start And Finish

Chapter 16   Back To My Roots, Riding A Roller Coaster, And Coming Full Circle

Epilogue

Postscript

DEDICATION

To Kerri — the love of my life and mother

of our children. Thank you for your love,

support and for being my best friend

and Morgan and Matthew — You both make my

life better everyday. I am proud to be your dad.

And, Morgan, thank you for designing

an awesome cover for this book!

I love you all!

PROLOGUE

Give me a ‘W’, give me an ‘A’, give me an ‘L’…. Give me a break! That’s what most new associates think or customers say when they hear the infamous company cheer. I suppose I was no different thirty two years ago, but over the years I grew to love it and would lead it as often as I could. It really did do something to your energy level and morale.

The first time I ever heard it was on September 17, 1988 in a store that was going through the set up process. I was hired kind of late in the game because the store was due to open on October 3, 1988. My first day was a Saturday, the first day of the work week and the start for each two week pay period. The new group, including me, finished our orientation session in what would soon be the store’s snack bar around noon and were told to go to lunch and be back in an hour for the afternoon meeting. Afternoon meeting? What do you do in an afternoon meeting? Well, as it turns out, when a store is in set up they have three meetings a day: The morning meeting where the day’s agenda is communicated and a cheer is performed. The afternoon meeting where the morning’s progress is discussed and the agenda for the remainder of the day is communicated and a cheer is performed. And the evening meeting where the entire day’s progress is discussed, associates are recognized for their contributions and yes, another cheer is performed.

This was going to be the same for the next two weeks. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the next two weeks doing the cheer three times a day. As it turned out I’d spend the next thirty-two years doing the cheer at least once daily, and sometimes twice, depending on the shift I was working. And as I’ve already said, I would volunteer to lead the cheer as often as I could. I loved to be loud when asking them for each letter and asking them at the end who is number one? I’ll provide the answer to that later on, but if you’ve ever worked for the company, or been a happy shopper, at almost anytime of the day, you probably already know the answer.

This is the story of my journey from a minimum wage, hourly sales associate in the garden center to twenty years as a salaried member of management and then back to my roots as an hourly department manager before retiring after thirty two years of incredible ups and downs, funny encounters with customers and associates, the evolution of the company from a paper-based inventory system to the state-of-the-art computerized world we all live in today, and a lot more.

DISCLAIMER — Everything I’m going to tell you in this book is based on my memories, experiences and opinions. I have always been told throughout my life that I have an eidetic memory. A curse sometimes, but true none the less. I have not used any last names of anyone I worked with at Walmart for the purpose of protecting everyone’s privacy. So, if you’re reading this, and you think it’s about you, it probably is even though I didn’t use your last name. Feel free to tell friends and loved ones that you’re the person I am referring to.

There is only one person whose name, first or last, I will not use in this book due to the sad and tragic circumstances of his death. I decided to omit his name out of the profound respect I had for him as a fellow associate, a supervisor and a good leader. If you’ve been around Walmart, in Southern Arizona, for a long period of time, you will know to whom I am referring, and know that he was greatly respected and is still genuinely missed.

This is my journey — Stories from Behind the Wal: Coming Full Circle.

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CHAPTER ONE

BOY, DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT WAS?

So many of my childhood memories are rooted in retail. I am one of two children born to my parents, Thomas and Pamela Beggs. My father was a career military man and my mother was a loving, nurturing, and stay-at-home mom in the early years. My dad, Thomas, commonly known to all who knew him as Ed, was one of seven children born and raised in rural mid-Arkansas. My grandfather and grandmother spent much of their time farming. Rice and cotton were the common crops in this part of Arkansas and they grew both. My father would work the fields with the family to help provide for the household. In high school, when he started dating my mother, they would work the fields together. After a long day of picking cotton they would all gather for a family Sunday dinner. These were always fun — full of humor, pranks, and always good-quality family time.

As time went on my parents grew more in love and in December 1961, they were married. I was still a few years off from arriving. For the first few years, of their marriage, my dad held odd jobs around town providing for himself and my mother. He finally joined the National Guard and in late 1963 enlisted in the United States Army. He was soon deployed to Vietnam. He served one tour, November 1967 to November 1968.

In April of 1967, the year of the fifth anniversary of a retail company that would later take the country, nah, the world, by storm, I was born. I would have no idea that I would some day be so intertwined with this company that it would change my life in ways I could not possibly imagine. My connection would begin earlier in my life through a brief, chance encounter with a man I would later come to admire and respect. It would continue to unfold and fill my life with experiences, adventures and stories I knew, after 32 years, needed to be shared, if for nothing more than their entertainment value.

Jump forward — late summer of 1979. We were on vacation at my grandparent’s home in a little town called Des Arc, Arkansas. It is a town on the White River in the Arkansas Delta. It is the largest city in Prairie County and its history is preserved by seven listings on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located approximately 60 miles east of Little Rock, the state capital. I remember it being a quiet little town. It had an IGA grocery store, the Dairy Bar (similar to a modern day Dairy Queen Brazier, but with the best chili/slaw foot long hot dogs I have had, or ever will have tasted in my life!), a Fred Meyer’s five and dime retail store, a gas station, one doctor’s office (Doc Schumann) and a little mom and pop convenience store called M&M Produce.

In a small cinder block building with all-glass front and a light-boxed Coca Cola sign with the name M&M Produce on the bottom hanging above the front door is where I loved to spend most of my vacation time. We also spent time visiting other relatives in the surrounding areas, all of whom I love dearly and enjoyed visiting, but that store was where I would spend the majority of my time.

The store was now the livelihood and business of my grandparents, Marlin and Mary (M&M Produce). When we visited I would get up early everyday, have breakfast with PaPa and then walk across the yard to the back of the store to go in and open the front doors for business. Typically, I spent my time behind the counter, at the cash register, especially as a younger kid on through my early teen years. In my mid-teen years I had gained some retail experience and I once attempted to rearrange the store. I was directed to return everything back to the way it had been and never do anything like that again. I believe that to be the only time my PaPa was firm, and somewhat angry, with me.

Late summer 1979, I was sitting behind the counter, at the cash register, when a couple of older gentlemen entered the store. They were dressed in what appeared to be fishing apparel, but considering the neck of the woods I was visiting it could have been just everyday wear. As they entered the store it was obvious that one of the two men was much more conversational than the other. While one went on to gather snacks and drinks the other casually leaned up against the front counter and began engaging in conversation with my PaPa. I didn’t pay much attention to the conversation because I was focused on all the items I would be ringing up on the register and trying to remember some of the prices for those items.

After completing the sale, my PaPa and the man concluded their conversation. The two men left the store. When they had gotten in their truck and pulled away my PaPa turned to me and asked, Boy, do you know who that was? I can’t say I was surprised by the question because the way I saw it my PaPa knew everybody in town, and as far as I knew, the entire state of Arkansas, so I recall replying flatly, No. Boy, that was ‘Mr. Walmart’ Sam Walton. He owns Walmart.

I remember thinking to myself, Okay. So that was Mr.Walmart. I knew all about Kmart because that’s where we bought most of our yearly school supplies, clothes and shoes. Kmart is where my last two bicycles had come from as a kid. That’s where we went for Icees and the best popcorn in the world. At the time I don’t think I’d ever heard of Walmart. PaPa went on to explain how Walmart was kind of like Kmart and that the man that he had just been talking with had founded Walmart .

Cool, I thought.

So, in the late summer of 1979 I had my first encounter with a man that little did I realize at the time, nor did I probably actually care, would later go on to impact my life in so many ways.

September 1979. Our vacation ended and we were on the road to my father’s next duty station: Fort Huachuca, Arizona, home to the United States Army Intelligence Center. All I knew was we were moving to the desert. The only thing I could imagine was sand dunes, cacti and tumble weeds, whatever they were. Hey, I’d seen a few John Wayne movies; my mom was his biggest fan. What we learned in school about the Southwest was the stuff in books and all I remember seeing was sand, cacti and tumble weeds.

We arrived, and as we turned left off Interstate 10 and onto State Highway 90 there was little left to the imagination. Those books and pictures from grade school had obviously misrepresented the Southwest. There was a lot of empty land all around filled with funny looking trees, bushes and cacti. There were also a lot of mountains. In fact we seemed to be surrounded by mountains. We’d never lived anywhere that had mountains. Well, none that I can remember, anyhow. Once on Highway 90 there was a sign that said, Fort Huachuca 25 miles and Sierra Vista 26 miles. If you’ve never traveled it, that 25 miles is the longest 25 miles I had traveled, or ever will travel in my life. Even after all these years it doesn’t travel any faster. I like to refer to it as the highway to nowhere.

For many years the stretch from Interstate 10 to Fort Huachuca/Sierra Vista was just nothing but the highway and Southwest desert. Years later a few businesses popped up at the corners of Interstate 10 and Highway 90 but it hasn’t made that drive any quicker, even by today’s standards. Now to be fair, you’d really have to hear my mother tell this part of the story to truly appreciate the humor, but for the sake of not wanting to share authorship of this book I will do my best to paraphrase what she said out loud, in the car to my father, as we entered Huachuca City. Oh my gosh!(not the exact words) I think we may have made a mistake!!!

However, this is not where we would be settling down because another sign in about the middle of Huachuca City indicated that Fort Huachuca was another 3 miles down the road. The next 3 miles would again be just barren Southwest desert without any sign of human life until we reached a stop light and a great big rock wall that read, Welcome to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Founded in 1877. We had arrived and my life would start down the path that would figuratively and literally reunite me with Mr. Walmart one more time, but not for a few more years.

Once we settled in, things began to normalize, as they always did after the Army had moved you to where ever you were going. My sister, Karen, and I started school. I was in the seventh grade. I went to Colonel Smith Middle School. Karen was two years younger than me, so she was in the fifth grade. She went to General Myer Elementary School. Everything was normal, for a short period of time.

Not long after we moved to Ft. Huachuca my parents announced that they were getting a divorce. The plan was for my mom, Karen and me to move back to Arkansas. I guess I thought that was cool. We’d be closer to Papa and Grandma, and M&M produce, but we’d be moving without our dad. That sucked.

As it sometimes does, things worked themselves out and my parents did not divorce at that time. I managed to promote from seventh grade into eighth grade but that year was not a very good year for me. I lost focus and just plain didn’t care. I did not promote from eighth grade. I had to repeat it. The story I tell is that I liked so much the first time, I did it twice! There was a plus side to it though. Karen was now in seventh grade, and she and I were going to the same school. I was able to keep a better eye on the wild child of the family.

At the end of that school year, I promoted into high school at Buena High School, leaving Karen to complete the eighth grade at Colonel Smith Middle School without me. We would reunite when I was a sophomore and she was a freshman. I was again able to keep a better eye on the wild child of the family.

To give you some perspective on how wild Karen was, she once launched a bottle rocket firework at the gas station across the street from M&M produce while we were visiting. Okay, that’s not really fair to say, she didn’t actually launch it at the gas station on purpose. She accidentally kicked the bottle after she lit the firework and it launched in that direction as the bottle started to fall. We were no longer allowed to set off fireworks in front of the store after that.

The next firework disaster almost changed the course of my history and my second encounter with Mr. Walmart. Fortunately, it did not, but this is how it almost happened.

After the incident with the gas station, we were relegated to setting off only ground level fireworks. One of these was a sparkling spinner. When you lit it, it would just spin in place and shoot sparks in a circle. Pretty harmless you would think. Well, not if your yard is full of dead grass. Now to be fair, we were lighting them on the dirt drive way and we were setting them on top of some old Coca-cola wooden crates. What we didn’t notice was that one of the crates was sitting on the dirt and the edge of the yard. After we had lit a few, with great delight and no incidents, we lit one more. It spun and started spraying it’s sparks and then it fell between the slats on the bottom of the wooden crate and onto the patch of dry, dead grass.

Instant inferno! The fire spread quickly as I ran very quickly into the store to tell Papa that the grass was on fire. He was talking to some man at the front counter and very calmly excused himself, walked me back to the sink in the back of the store and filled up a bucket of water. He told me to go out there and put the fire out. I ran through the back of the store, spilling most of the water in the bucket, and back out to the scene of the crime. What little water was left in the bucket wasn’t going to wet a t-shirt.

As I ran back into the store to tell Papa that that hadn’t done the job, my father was looking out the kitchen window, and saw the raging blaze approaching the back of our brand new Fiat Brava station wagon. By the time my dad made it to the front yard, Papa was already using the garden hose to bring the inferno under control.

We were officially banned from fireworks. At least until we no longer lived at home.

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CHAPTER TWO

EARLY JOBS

Now it was the mid 1980s. My father was still in the Army and stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. I was now a junior in high school. There wasn’t a whole lot for teenagers to do on the fort. There was a bowling alley, an AAFES(Army/Air Force Exchange Services) movie theater, a skating rink that was only open on Saturdays and a couple of swimming pools that were only open during the summer months. The adjacent city, Sierra Vista, wasn’t much better. It, too, had a movie theater, the R&M Cinema, a bowling alley and a skating rink. There was a city park but not much to do there. From time to time, about once a year, a carnival would come to town, set up for a few days and then we were back to basically nothing to do.

Aside from all of that, I did manage to catch the acting bug during the summer of 1983 by auditioning, and landing a small role as Korean Child #1(make up, it was all in the make up!!) in a production of the stage version of M*A*S*H, produced by the Fort Huachuca Family Morale Support Division. I had become quite a fan of the television show and was told by a family friend that they were holding open auditions for the play just down the road from where we lived. I jumped on my bike and rode down to the theater, which was only about a mile from our house. I was 16 years old. I originally auditioned for the part of Radar O’Reilly but fell short, not in height, but acting experience. The director thought it was kind of cool that a kid would go out of his way to attempt the audition so he changed one of the characters in the script from Korean Woman #1 to my character, Korean Child #1, and changed another character to Korean Child #2 for the daughter of one of the other actors cast in the play so I wouldn’t be the only kid on stage.

I was in heaven! I was doing M*A*S*H and I had one line, but would be on stage nearly the entire play doing bit things like sweeping the camp or eating Oreo cookies in the mess tent set with the other child actor and the guy who played the cook. My one line was, "Ah,