The Infamous Walmart Game

There are a lot of things I would like to be famous for in my lifetime; taking beautiful photos, composing beautiful music (like Victoria), raising Guide dogs and saving people lives (like Captain Sulli), but being famous for the Walmart game, I really didn't foresee.

Now days, every time I get introduced to someone around here, they inevitably remark "Oh! you are the Kleins! We play your Walmart game all the time now, it was the hit of my daughters birthday party". Or, "our Young Men group played your Walmart game last week, it was great".

Who would have guessed?

The Walmart game was just something my husband made up once upon a time to keep the kids and their cousins occupied during family vacations and give them something fun to do while the grownups were shopping. (The moms were all delighted because it kept them busy and from dragging behind the shopping carts whining about wanting toys and candy . . .) Since then, they have played it with their friends at sleepovers, friends at dance day activities, saturday mornings when they didn't have anything to do . . .

This only comes up right now because we recently visited my college student daughter and upon our arrival, all her roommates and neighbors were so excited and wanted us to take them to play the Walmart Game.

It goes something like this:

• Any number can play
• Divide players into teams of 2 or 3
• Each team gets a pre-made up shopping list (different items each time)
• Each team gets a shopping cart
• Running is not allowed (or any other activity that would attract the attention of the Walmart staff)
• Asking help from Walmart Employees is not allowed
• Each team has the same list only in a different order
• They must get every item on the list and in order
• They can skip two items but have to go back to retrieve them once the entire list is finished and in order as skipped
• The finish line is the item at the end of the list which is the same for all teams (usually in some obscure location like the the camping aisle)
• If you get reprimanded by Walmart - YOU'RE out!
• The prize is a certain amount of money that must be spent at Walmart to purchase a prize that the whole group can enjoy - treats, games, food etc. Winners get to choose the prize.
• All items have to be returned carefully at the end of the game.
• Items are subject to interpretation as in this photo.

(The item on the list was "mouse" - most people brought back a computer mouse. But this team creatively brought back a stuffed toy mouse from the pet department - hee hee! (one day the item was umbrella - we had these tiny little kids cart back a huge patio umbrella from the garden department!)

We started this when the kids were pretty little and barely able to read and push a shopping cart and as you can see - it's still a big hit!

Soooo - when you're in Utah (or Idaho) and at Walmart - watch out for crazy college kids walking briskly around the store with shopping carts and lots of embarrassing items in their carts - like adult diapers (it seems to be my husband favorite), laxatives and tampons - ha!