Rant & Rave: Walmart Cashiers and Cannabis Weddings

Rant: Say it ain’t so.

During the holiday season, it’s not unusual for big box stores to be in the news for mega sales or Black Friday stampedes. This week, a Walmart in Pueblo is making headlines for a different reason: A customer posted a video on Friday about a store clerk, a confrontation, and a tragedy, and it’s gone viral .

In the short video, Paige Yore describes how, after being yelled at by a customer, the cashier started crying and explained that his mother had committed suicide that day but he still came into work to make rent and pay bills. Yore says it is a reminder that “you never know what’s going on in” someone’s life.

It’s the stuff that the giving season is made of, as we try to give back and remember what it is we’re all working so hard for. The video quickly went viral, and Yore posted on her Facebook page that she’s trying to track the Walmart employee down to “start a donation for him.”

But there’s a chance it isn’t true. KRDO reports that Walmart checked the security video and “found no evidence that there was ever any yelling, no evidence that the cashier and the woman hugged, and no evidence that the woman gave the cashier money.” And now there is, of course, backlash.

While we can’t condone making up a story like this, we also can’t ignore the spirit of the message. As reporters, we are fortunate that people share their stories with us to, in turn, share with you. Sometimes those stories are uplifting (people starting businesses, growing food, doing good). Just as often, people share stories of grit, perseverance, and hope that you’d never guess if you passed that person in the street or stood behind them in the checkout line. That is a universal truth, regardless of whether this particular story is fact or fiction.

Rave: A new toke take on wedding planning.