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“Attention Wal-Mart shoppers. We are now giving away a free Wal-Mart umbrella if you apply for our Wal-Mart credit card until 9:00p.m. this evening. If you apply tonight, you will get 3 months of no interest for purchases of $250.00 now until January 31st! So come over to the service desk and get yours today and as always thank you for shopping your Tampa Wal-Mart Supercenter.”

Alana Patterson hung up the phone after paging the extremely long message for the store manager, Linda Stevens, every hour. She was the head customer service manager (CSM) of the Tampa Wal-Mart Supercenter. The store was opened 24 hours, so Alana worked as many hours as she could without exceeding the 80 hours maximum in a two-week pay period.

It was Friday, October 3rd. Alana had gotten to work at 6:00a.m that morning and it was just about 6:30 p.m. that evening. Another CSM, Bonnie, came up to the grocery podium to get some change for the cashier on register 11.

“Alana, it’s 6:30p.m. Why don’t you call it a night?” Bonnie asked opening the change bag and retrieving $40 in five dollar bills and putting them into the blue cashier bag. “You have been here for way too long.”

Alana gave her a weak smile. “It shows, doesn’t it?” She asked.

Bonnie was an honest woman. Alana admired her for that. Bonnie worked the 2-11, 3-12 closing shifts. She was a small woman, about in her middle 40’s and had dark hair, with gray pieces starting to show.

“Honey, you have been here for 13 and a half hours. You have been working 12 hour days for the last two weeks. You are going to wear yourself out,” Bonnie answered. “You have circles under your eyes.”

Alana looked at her watch. It was a little after 6:30p.m. Her stomach growled. Her last break she had taken was lunch at 12:30 that afternoon. She looked at Bonnie.

“I’m going home,” she finally said. “But after I do some grocery shopping.”

Bonnie smiled. “Now don’t forget about your weekend.”

Forty-five minutes later, Alana was putting groceries into the trunk of her 99’ green Pontiac Grand Am She spent over $100 in groceries, considering the last time she had gotten any was three weeks ago. She finally got into her car after a long day at work and headed for home.
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