# Have you ever hung out at Wal-Mart? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650 "2003-12-03T04:23:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/21 "2003-12-04T05:31:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beegirl13 \* > \*\*My brother and I have actually made a point to go sit in the Walmart parking lot all day. As in 7 or 8 hours straight. We go there early in the morning to get a parking spot close to the entrance with maximum view of all people going in and out. We observe the cart collectors, and make up names and personalities for them. We speculate on whether that woman taking a smoke break by the pop machines giving everyone dirty looks is really as bitchy as she appears. We count the number of people parking illegally in the fire lane, and how many people going in are wearing sweatpants (inside joke). Did you know that between March of 2002 and November of 2002, sweatpants appearances declined from .32 sweatpants wearers per minute to .27 sweatpants wearers per minute? > \*\* Please tell me you’re getting stoned while doing this. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/22 "2003-12-04T05:40:36Z")
No, but when I was a teen, the place for hanging out “in town” was the parking lot of the Winn-Dixie (a grocery chain in the southeast). (We would not get a Wal-Mart until about 20 years later) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/23 "2003-12-04T06:13:26Z")
The Wal-Mart near me is creepy-I have never seen so many mullets and so many mall-claws in one place at a time. At least, not since I was in grade school. I dunno, I just really, really don’t like Wal-Mart. I’ve never had any luck there, ever. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/24 "2003-12-04T07:13:06Z")
I am filled with homicidal rage when I spend even 5 minutes in Wal-Mart. I never go there if it’s humanly possible to avoid it. Which is too bad because I live literally right next store to one, and it sure is convienent. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Defense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Civil\_Defense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Defense)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/25 "2003-12-04T07:16:50Z")
We still hang out there a lot. Well, we have 4-5 within a 15 minute drive. None of them induce nausea, and all are very clean and have great prices. Plus it’s just funnnn. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/26 "2003-12-04T08:19:10Z")
If the Walmart has a huge discount DVD bin you have to sift through for several minutes to maybe find a good movie, that maybe constitutes “hanging.” ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/27 "2003-12-04T12:22:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*The Wal-Mart near me is creepy-I have never seen so many mullets and so many mall-claws in one place at a time. At least, not since I was in grade school. > > I dunno, I just really, really don’t like Wal-Mart. I’ve never had any luck there, ever. \*\* **Guin** , come out to Carlisle and hang out at the Wal-Mart here. There are wall-to-wall mullets and Claws. Robin, who has finally found the Source of All Mulletude. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/28 "2003-12-04T13:54:28Z")
I tend to do my grocery shopping when I get off work (around 4 AM), Wally World is the only thing open then. I do browse the electronics and music section and read stuff in the magazines and books aisles, when I’m trying to tire myself out or if I dread going home becaue I’ve been cooped up too long. So I guess I have hung out there since I take longer than I really need to shop. On the rare times I shop during more normal hours, I like to people watch as I shop. Plus I found out lots of cute college coed types tend shop the local Wally World on Monday nights around 10 PM. I’ve gone in there after drinking during those “don’t want to go home yet” times. OTOH, it’s fun to see all the strange combos of people that come into Wal-Mart just before midnight on Saturday to load up before the local no Sunday liquor sales law kicks in. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/29 "2003-12-04T14:26:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*I’m sure if I needed something carried there and happened upon one, I would gleefully dance right in. \*\* Gleefully may be pushing it. My experience is that they’re big, crowded, and uncomfortable. But they save time or money for people who don’t have much of either. It’s suprising how much class animosity seems to surround this place–_noblesse oblige_ be damned, right? Interestingly, I stopped by WalMart the other day and was suprised to see a whole bunch of really beautiful people. It turns out that I was in the section with all the mirrors. BTW, did you see the episode od Isaac Mizrahi’s where Conan O’Brian took Isaac to a K-Mart? Heh, heh. ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/30 "2003-12-04T18:41:33Z")
The “boop boop boop” noises from all the scanners from the endless line of registers makes me go mental (or mental-er). ---
**Author:** ![Achilles\_Last\_Stand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@Achilles\_Last\_Stand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achilles_Last_Stand)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/31 "2003-12-04T18:45:48Z")
The only way to hang out at Wal-Mart is to wait in line while the cashier turns the blinking light for assistance. And it happens each and every time I go there, Wal-Mart is hell. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/32 "2003-12-04T19:59:43Z")
I avoid Walmart as much as possible now, but I admit I was a Walmart hanger-outer until a few years ago when Target came to town. Now I’ve been spoiled by Target’s wide, uncluttered, clean aisles and short checkout lanes. Oh, and Target’s book section sooo kicks Walmart’s book section’s ass. ---
**Author:** ![No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/no_me_ayudes_compadre/32/5224_2.png) [@No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Me_Ayudes_Compadre)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/33 "2003-12-04T21:01:36Z")
What’s a “mall claw”? I found a site that says’s it’s a “genre of late Eighties/early Nineties girl’s hairstyle, contemporary with the mullet’s heyday, which challenged gravity and common sense” … but can you give a specific example of some TV or movie personality who has or had one? ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/34 "2003-12-04T21:12:13Z")
We didn’t have a Walmart when I was a kid. We’d just go to the local shopping plaza and if we were really bored we’d find the makeup samples at the drug store and smear the blue eyeshadow over our faces so we could look at ourselves in the mirror and find out what dying cholera victims looked like (we read a lot of books about things like cholera epidemics.) Or we’d go to the pet store and then somehow the kittens would all get out of their cages. I’m surprised the owner didn’t ban us from the place. ---
**Author:** ![Live\_Better\_Electrically](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@Live\_Better\_Electrically](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Live_Better_Electrically)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/35 "2003-12-04T21:43:46Z")
[sub] **js\_africanus** wrote:[/sub] > [@](#): > > It’s suprising how much class animosity seems to surround this place You hit the nail on the head, but it doesn’t surprise me. Classism has to be the most widely-sanctioned form of prejudice around. I enjoy going to the Wal-Mart in my town because it’s a cultural experience. Depending on where they shop and live, middle class folks can practically avoid coming into contact with the hordes of rural and working poor that comprise a huge part of our society. But at Wal-Mart you not only find them _en masse_, but you see them in a comfortable environment where they let it all hang out. When I go there I see enormous unwashed women in house slippers, people missing a lot of teeth, filthy kids gorging on junk food, people openly littering, tons of Pentecostles in long denim skirts with their hair piled high, homemade tattoos, leather boots and jackets with fringe, and an incredible number of American pride t-shirts. I’m not making fun–these people are practically invisible in a lot of places and seeing them at Wal-Mart gives me a lot to think about, like: the composition of American society; the culture of poverty; privilege and prejudice; and the widening gap between rich and poor. That, my friends, is worth the trip. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/36 "2003-12-04T22:16:56Z")
The best hangout spot in the Universe is Fry’s Electronics. OOOOOOOH, just think of what I could buy if I had a few mil… ---
**Author:** ![Omikawaii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Omikawaii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omikawaii)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/37 "2003-12-04T23:10:53Z")
My friends and i are planning on spending 24 hours in a walmart, with a video camera, and make a Walmart documetry… ---
**Author:** ![peritrochoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peritrochoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peritrochoid)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/38 "2003-12-05T02:05:15Z")
People hang out there? :eek: After visiting one out of necessity, Walmart has edged out the mall on my list of Most Frightening Places To Go. The occupants freak me right the hell out. I knew several people who worked at a Walmart back in college. I heard many stories of strange customers after midnight. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/39 "2003-12-05T02:20:05Z")
A mall claw is what I used to wear from age 12-14. Basically, I would take my bangs, curl them around a tiny barrelled curling iron, and drench them in hair spray, then tease them out like a big koosh ball. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650/40 "2003-12-05T02:30:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Omikawaii \* > \*\*My friends and i are planning on spending 24 hours in a walmart, with a video camera, and make a Walmart documetry… \*\* They might not let you - IIRC, the big chain stores get awfully funny when they see people walking around with recording devices. The closest I’ve come to hanging out at a Wal-Mart was when I had to spend an hour and a half or so waiting for a new battery for my car (it was seven pm, and everyone else had closed). I was already tired and pissed off. Wal-Mart didn’t improve matters. I still shop there, though, being poor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-hung-out-at-wal-mart/216650.md?page=3)