If only life were like "The View."
'The View' from Wal-Mart
MIKE ARGENTO
Jul 10, 2006 —
NEWS ITEM: Star Jones Reynolds abruptly left daytime yakfest "The View" after delivering a surprise announcement during a segment on air conditioning. Her co-host and "View" founder Barbara Walters said she felt "betrayed" by Star's action and producers of the show asked Star to leave immediately. Later, Star posted the e-mail addresses of Walters and the show's producers on her Web site, urging her fans to air grievances to them.
If only life were like "The View..."
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Wal-Mart greeter Corky St. Clair shocked shoppers yesterday when he abruptly announced that he would be leaving the store at the end of his shift.
"Welcome to Wal-Mart," St. Clair said. "And I'm leaving Wal-Mart at the end of my shift after the managers said I would not be asked back for the back-to-school season. I thought I would be here all through back-to-school and Halloween and the Christmas rush. But the managers have decided to make a change and I have not been asked back."
St. Clair said he made the announcement because he wanted Wal-Mart shoppers to know why he was leaving and did not believe that managers would tell shoppers the whole story about his abrupt departure from the store.
"My shoppers, our shoppers, deserve the truth and I gave it to them," St. Clair told Larry King last night in his first television interview since leaving the retailing giant. "I didn't want shoppers coming into the store tomorrow or the next day or next week and wondering what happened to that guy with the mullet who handed them a cart last week."
The announcement and departure of St. Clair ended months of speculation about his future with Wal-Mart that began when the store hired Lloyd Miller to fill in as greeter during St. Clair's breaks. Miller is believed to be more shopper-friendly and is expected to increase traffic with his presence.
The beginning of the end for St. Clair was believed to have begun when St. Clair refused to cut his signature mullet and was the subject of complaints from colleagues about his personal hygiene.
In a "People" magazine story, published online moments after St. Clair's surprise announcement, St. Clair was quoted as saying he no longer felt comfortable at Wal-Mart, particularly after the rumors circulated hinting at an affair between him and head cashier Libby Mae Brown and allegations that he and Brown had been caught together in the break room, prompting a visit from the health department.
St. Clair was also believed to have stolen a "Little Nicky" DVD and was suspected of smuggling a lobster out of the seafood department in his pants.
"'Little Nicky'? That movie stank," St. Clair said. "And what kind of person would smuggle a lobster in his pants. I have too much respect for crustaceans to do something like that."
Wal-Mart manager Ron Albertson would not elaborate about the reasons for St. Clair's departure and would only say he felt "betrayed" by the greeter.
"We gave him time to look for another job and hoped he would announce it at our store and leave with dignity," Albertson said. "But he made another choice. It is becoming uncomfortable for us to pretend that everything is the same. Therefore, regrettably, Corky will no longer be with us and was asked to leave before we called the cops."
Albertson said, "Look, we decided to go in another direction and looked to replace Corky with somebody with a hairstyle from this century and who didn't smell like the Italian soccer team after an overtime match, OK?"
St. Clair told "People" that he felt he had been fired and that Albertson had forced him out of the store. He said he had planned to announce that he was leaving Wal-Mart "to seek new challenges" or "spend more time with his family," but decided to tell the truth after being unable to find another job and reports surfaced in "US Weekly" about him being kicked out of his mother's basement.
"The truth is, I decided to leave the basement for other challenges," he said. "The basement had no longer provided me with the kind of environment I require to grow."
Speaking on "Hardball," his mother said, "I know what he was growing down there and I didn't like it one bit."
St. Clair wished his replacement luck in his old position.
"He'll need it," he said. "Those people are weasels."
Mike Argento, whose column appears Mondays and Thursdays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints, can be reached at 771-2046 or at mike@ydr.com.Read more Argento columns at ydr.com/mike or at www.yorkblog.com.
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