The produce at my local Wal-Mart is very nice. The bathrooms are clean.
In my hometown, there were a couple of mom and pop shops that sold appliances or clothing. They were very expensive and closed at five pm Monday to Saturday. If you wanted a t-shirt for a four year old to get messy in, you had to drive sixty miles. The farm supply has a few work clothes, but not a lot. Mom and Pop traded in their Cadillac every other year. And they didn’t make any bones about the fact that they sold clothes for their kind of people and Mrs Garza should sew her kids’ clothes herself.
I’m not ashamed to admit that when I get home from work in the summer, I put on my $9 A-line t-shirt dress with pockets. They’re sturdy and comfy and as good a product as I’ve seen in department stores.
Walmart does provide a service that others don’t (at least, in my neck of the woods.) They have stores in locations others won’t consider.
The higher-end grocery stores will open in newer, higher income areas. We won’t see anything special in my older, established, lower income neighborhood. Costco is everyone’s darling but in my area, they have very few locations in only the high income areas. And crowded as shit most of the time. Sam’s are everywhere and you can general find a place to park in the same zip code.
Everyone loves Trader Joe’s but be prepared to park among the Lexus SUVs when traveling to one as they would not dream of opening in lessor parts of town (at least in my state, I realize this is not true everywhere.)
Knock Walmart and Sams all you want, at least they are available everywhere and don’t discriminate over income levels.