# sign on walmart door **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331 "2001-12-07T00:09:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zydecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@zydecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zydecat)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/1 "2001-12-07T00:09:54Z")
There is a decal on the local Walmart entrance that says “Code Adam”. I seem to recall seeing a similar sign on other Walmarts. I gotta know what this means. Don’t ask me why. I guess because it seems like a secret. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/2 "2001-12-07T00:14:30Z")
Snopes to the rescue, again. [http://www.snopes2.com/](http://www.snopes2.com/) If the actual link doesn’t come up, just search for “code adam.” ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/3 "2001-12-07T00:18:44Z")
Snopes lists the URL at the bottom of each page. [http://www.snopes.com/spoons/fracture/codeadam.htm](http://www.snopes.com/spoons/fracture/codeadam.htm) > [@](#): > > Claim: Some stores sound the alarm when a child is reported missing, and that protocol is named “Code Adam” for 6-year-old Adam Walsh, who was murdered in 1981. > Status: True. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Chief\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/4 "2001-12-07T00:27:28Z")
Wal-Mart has a buch of “secret” codes. I only remember one of them from working there in high school besides Code Adam. Code Blue means there’s a person with a gun in the store. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/5 "2001-12-07T00:33:01Z")
Huh. I woulda bet that code blue meant there was a spy from Kmart in the store. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/6 "2001-12-07T00:38:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chief Crunch \* > \*\*Wal-Mart has a buch of “secret” codes. I only remember one of them from working there in high school besides Code Adam. Code Blue means there’s a person with a gun in the store. \*\* let me guess - ‘security’ is a number - one number for dealing with locks, another for shoplifters? ah, memories… ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/7 "2001-12-07T00:39:06Z")
At the hospital I worked at, “Code Adam” was the signal to _immediately_ lock all the exits at once, the theory being that whoever had the kid wouldn’t be able to get out with him/her (assuming he hadn’t done so already). ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Chief\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/8 "2001-12-07T01:02:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by manhattan \* > \*\*Huh. I woulda bet that code blue meant there was a spy from Kmart in the store. \*\* What’s funny about that is managers actually encouraged employees to “scout” the local K-Mart and report back items that were on sale. I swear that place had an atmosphere that bordered on being in a cult. Before our shift, they’d round everyone up and make us recite this weird chant as we clapped our hands. I kid you not. And then there’s “coaching” or re-education as I called it, if you screwed up or missed too many days. ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/9 "2001-12-07T01:33:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*\*Originally posted by Chief Crunch \* > > What’s funny about that is managers actually encouraged employees to “scout” the local K-Mart and report back items that were on sale. \*\* What was one manager’s _encourage_ was my _requirement_. I had to send my people out to price shop, make decisions about pricing based on the results, keep records, and produce them upon demand from my higher-ups. If the competition was selling an item below my cost, I had to send people out to buy it all out, add it to my stock, be reimbursed, and keep records on that too. Wal-Mart plays very, very rough. They know the power that they have, and they know how to use it. About the only thing that truly frightens Wal-Mart is unionization. They’ll fight that to the death. ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/10 "2001-12-07T02:03:09Z")
I never worked at WalMart or KMart but I remember one occasion when our child barfed in Kmart, and they called **Code M in Aisle 6**. I suppose **M** for **mess or mop**? :eek: Ohhhh, miatachris, watch what you say. Walmart may [sue you](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=100137). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/11 "2001-12-07T02:08:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Code Blue means there’s a person with a gun in the store. Didn’t Walmart sell guns until about 3 months ago? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/12 "2001-12-07T03:00:52Z")
> [@](#): > > they’d round everyone up and make us recite this weird chant Was it “Owah tastoo Jaiyam”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/13 "2001-12-07T03:01:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PhiloVance \* > \*\* > > Ohhhh, miatachris, watch what you say. Walmart may [sue you](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=100137). 😃 \*\* Nah, they want me to come back too bad. There’s a shortage in my line, fortunately. miatachris, D.Ph. ex-Wal-Martian ---
**Author:** ![jane\_says](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jane\_says](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jane_says)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/14 "2001-12-07T03:21:59Z")
The codes aren’t really “secret” as I just saw the list (about 3 feet long) in the lay-away department while taking my daughter to the bathroom. It must depend on the Wal-Mart you work in, and the management, as to how “cultish” it is. Several of my best friends worked their ways through college at Wally World and none of them would have ever put up with chanting or spying or other such rubbish. I hate to be the bearer of such news, **k2dave** , but Wal-Mart _still_ sells guns. At least they do at the Super-Wal-Mart in Bristol, VA and the regular Wal-Mart in Bristol, TN. I have seen it myself within the last week. Not handguns, mind you, but guns (“long guns”, as my father the hunter would say) nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/15 "2001-12-07T04:32:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by miatachris \* > \*\*About the only thing that truly frightens Wal-Mart is unionization. They’ll fight that to the death. \*\* Why do they want to be ionized? You touch something metallic or a co-worker and **ZAP**! Pisses a lot of people being zapped. Being unionized is much better. ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/16 "2001-12-07T04:54:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AWB \* > \*\* Being unionized is much better. \*\* My father would agree with that, and he disagrees with everything. He hates being _ionized_ and bitches for about 30 minutes after each _deionization_ event. See what we did? One person didn’t know about the strange things that go on inside Wal-Mart, and now my Dad’s bitching again. The internet is truly a marvel. ---
**Author:** ![dreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@dreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2001, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sign-on-walmart-door/97331/17 "2001-12-07T06:27:00Z")
Every time I go to Wal-Mart I hear the Same woman’s voice saying the same thing, every time! I don’t know if it’s a recording or the lady works long hours, but she’s always saying “security, please scan aisle 7 and 8, tape and record”. What the heck is that? I do try to stay out of aisle 7 and 8 though!