Signs at Walmart

[manning]

I see one error. You went to Walmart.

Two, also red the sign (I know it's "read").

 

[SandrA9810]

Of all the people shopping at Walmart, I'm surprised no one else pointed out the mistakes.

I have a tendency to point out spelling errors if I'm talking to a store employee. During my math class, the girl who passed around the roll call sheet, had "sing in sheet" for the first month or so of class.

 

[herdtoDisney]

I'm not sure what the other employees are supposed to do about the signs. If it's not their department, it would probably cause friction if they went and took them down and remade them, or embarassed the origional sign-maker by telling management. I imagine other employees have seen the signs, but they probably just let it be and figure that the bread vendors can decipher it enough.

My first thought, like some PP's, was that perhaps the sign-maker's first language was not English.

And my local Walmart's signs are always correct (that I've seen, and I've been going there for 15 years), so it's not a Walmart thing

 

[Ember]

Oh dear. Working retail at Christmas once, one of our employees was trying to write out a gift certificate (before gift cards) and was having a heck of time. Finally she looks up at me and asks, "Where does the 'gh' go in 'twenty." The customer and I were both horrified.

 

[eliza61]

Whoever makes those signs at YOUR Wal-Mart obviously can't spell well. This doesn't reflect on all of the stores.[/QUOT

I agree, I can't image how busy they are this time of year, a simple mistake, I can't believe anyone would take the time to take pics of it.

Just wanted to mention that I'm an amateur photographer so I have my camera with me almost daily, especially since I got a nice new DSLR for Christmas.
I would take the time to photograph it because thats pretty much what I do, go around taking random pics.
Some thing funny like this, if it caught my eye, would have been snapped

 

[McRed]

Seeing notices like these at a Wal-Mart doesn't really bother me. Getting notes from my daughter's 2nd grade teacher with similar errors in grammar and punctuation is what really drives us up a freaking wall!

 

[kamik86]

Honestly they do sound like someone for whom English isn't their first language, mostly because my grammar is really bad so if I think the errors are obvious most people that natively speak English would have seen them as well.

However I was on a team for grad school last quarter where several of our members were not native English speakers. It didn't take us long to if given the choice have one of the native English speakers be the ones to type up notes that would be seen by the professors and clients. We could right things faster and more accurately then they could. When we needed to work on more things concurrently we just reviewed there work and corrected the really big mistakes for readability.

So if you work in a store and you know one of your employees doesn't write English well or phrases things strangely when speaking, then why would you ask them to write the sign?


So would you be surprised that on vacation last year my nieces and I took a picture of a Chinese place that had a sign that said "Chinese Takee Outee" in this case we were 99% sure it wasn't a native English speaker but it was still funny.

How about the SOTP painted on the road at Worcester Polytech? I have seen many pictures of that as well.

 

[Swan4Me]

I actually saw a funny sign at Walmart yesterday at each checkout(no grammar or punctuation errors)

"All Toys will scan the correct price"

Apparently too many people were asking to check the prices

 

[kamik86]

Oh and I remember at the gym once seeing an add for a "message". I live in an area with very few people that don't natively speak English (Note I'm attending grad school remotely, the school is across the country from me).

However I have also made these mistakes. My first batch of save the dates I made a few years ago for my wedding had my own name spelled wrong. There is also a mistake in the shutterfly wedding photo book I had made after the wedding. (None in the real invitations though, I made like 10 people proof read those for me!)

 

[cornflake]

Honestly they do sound like someone for whom English isn't their first language, mostly because my grammar is really bad so if I think the errors are obvious most people that natively speak English would have seen them as well.

However I was on a team for grad school last quarter where several of our members were not native English speakers. It didn't take us long to if given the choice have one of the native English speakers be the ones to type up notes that would be seen by the professors and clients. We could right things faster and more accurately then they could. When we needed to work on more things concurrently we just reviewed there work and corrected the really big mistakes for readability.

So if you work in a store and you know one of your employees doesn't write English well or phrases things strangely when speaking, then why would you ask them to write the sign?


So would you be surprised that on vacation last year my nieces and I took a picture of a Chinese place that had a sign that said "Chinese Takee Outee" in this case we were 99% sure it wasn't a native English speaker but it was still funny.

How about the SOTP painted on the road at Worcester Polytech? I have seen many pictures of that as well.

Anything's possible, who knows, but I've known plenty of non-native speakers and those just aren't mistakes they've tended to make. I've also known some in school - and at work - who have asked me to look over written stuff for them to check for errors in English and those aren't the types of errors I've seen. Which could be the different populations or people or levels of education but... dunno, it's like ASL natives tend toward recognizable errors when their written English isn't perfect. You can tell the issue if you're familiar. Just doesn't seem ESL to me.

Seeing notices like these at a Wal-Mart doesn't really bother me. Getting notes from my daughter's 2nd grade teacher with similar errors in grammar and punctuation is what really drives us up a freaking wall!

If you're not kidding... I'd have pulled my kid out of the school and sent every single note to every newspaper and tv station in town because that is just not even close to acceptable.

 

[MIGrandma]

Something similar happened at our local Wal-Mart.

My DD is the front end zone supervisor, and asked the photo dept. to make up a couple large signs to put up at the doors to let people know their layaways had to be picked up. They did, the signs went up and were up a day or two before another employee brought it to my DD's attention that there was a word spelled wrong.

Instead of "layaway" they had put "lawaway."

DD was mortified!! She looked at the signs herself and went directly to the photo dept. and told them they needed to make them over again. The woman said "no, they cost about $80 EACH!" DD said "I don't care, layaway is spelled wrong, make them again!" They made them again.

Personally, I don't understand why an employee couldn't have just taken pieces of poster board and made up the signs so they didn't have to be made through the photo dept. and be so costly. But I do understand remaking them so the spelling is correct.

 

[tinatark]

It happens. I am sure the store management hasn't seen it.

I got a letter from my son's school once- from a teacher. It was SO full of errors! I gave it to the principal. I had to. It embarrassed me as a parent-leader of the school for that type of correspondence to go out representing the school.

 

[snowy76]

Seeing notices like these at a Wal-Mart doesn't really bother me. Getting notes from my daughter's 2nd grade teacher with similar errors in grammar and punctuation is what really drives us up a freaking wall!

Those of us who teach AND can write correctly are horrified by our less grammatically-talented colleagues. I can remember one occasion where an e-mail was printed and left in the teachers' room for other teachers to mark up with their red pens. It sounds awful, but the e-mail was from a much-despised assistant principal who always acted smarter than everyone else. He couldn't write to save his life (he'd gone to college to be a math teacher, so I guess that was his excuse).

 

[snowy76]

Something similar happened at our local Wal-Mart.

My DD is the front end zone supervisor, and asked the photo dept. to make up a couple large signs to put up at the doors to let people know their layaways had to be picked up. They did, the signs went up and were up a day or two before another employee brought it to my DD's attention that there was a word spelled wrong.

Instead of "layaway" they had put "lawaway."

DD was mortified!! She looked at the signs herself and went directly to the photo dept. and told them they needed to make them over again. The woman said "no, they cost about $80 EACH!" DD said "I don't care, layaway is spelled wrong, make them again!" They made them again.

Personally, I don't understand why an employee couldn't have just taken pieces of poster board and made up the signs so they didn't have to be made through the photo dept. and be so costly. But I do understand remaking them so the spelling is correct.

Good for her! I love your DD. Can I adopt her?

This whole thread reminds me of that e-mail that went around a few years ago. The cake was supposedly from Wal-Mart too:

 

[cornflake]

That cake is nuttin. Check out its friends here.

or...

or...

or...

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

That cake is nuttin. Check out its friends here.

or...

or...

or...

Okay...Ignoring the fact that they are really ugly cakes...I think those were just honest mistakes. I switch letters, or forget a letter all of the time. My mind is just working too fast.

I mean...I would have fixed it...But still.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Good for her! I love your DD. Can I adopt her?

This whole thread reminds me of that e-mail that went around a few years ago. The cake was supposedly from Wal-Mart too:

You know how you have to fill out the slip when you order a cake and you write what you want it to say?

Maybe they couldn't read the paper...Or misread it?

 

[cornflake]

Okay...Ignoring the fact that they are really ugly cakes...I think those were just honest mistakes. I switch letters, or forget a letter all of the time. My mind is just working too fast.

I mean...I would have fixed it...But still.

If your job is to write things in icing on cakes... I'm guessing you'd a. be a little more careful than when dashing off emails or notes or whatever, b. yes, check them over and fix them! The cakes on that site were all professional cakes, purchased and handed off to the buyers like that.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

If your job is to write things in icing on cakes... I'm guessing you'd a. be a little more careful than when dashing off emails or notes or whatever, b. yes, check them over and fix them! The cakes on that site were all professional cakes, purchased and handed off to the buyers like that.

Ooooooooooohhhhhh...See they looked amateurish to me. I thought they were homemade.

 

[ms.yt]

You didn't indicate that. Others did.

It is a shame that no one noticed or cared.

Here's another example of people just not caring. This sign was posted in the front of my doctor's office and was obviously created by a professional ad agency. You would think that someone at the agency or someone at the doctor's office would have noticed. There are multiple clinic locations throughout the town, so I'm guessing that the sign is at all of them.

The really sad part is that when I went there in late October I told the receptionist and a nurse about it. Neither of them seemed to care. When I went back there a couple of weeks ago, it was still there.

This is a different kind of error than the signs in Walmart because it's obviously just a typo, but it still should be corrected. It doesn't really instill confidence in your doctor's office when they can't even have a properly worded sign in their office.