One thing not mentioned yet is the priority WalMart gives in remoteness in location weighting, tending to build a brand new location on the nearest correctly-sized vacant lot on the edge of a town. While this lets them build a brand new building to their own specifications and size, it is also the very definition of sprawl and does nothing for the environment either in habitat or the infrastructure and gas needed to support traffic to it.
For instance, the local WalMart to me is 3 1/2 miles farther from me than K-Mart and (the grocery store) Publix. So taking into account gas and car maintenance, I am already a dollar behind if I decide to go there just based on distance. I don’t go to my local one, partly for that reason but also because this particular WalMart plays loud video ads in their checkout lanes. I do not need to be subject to loud ads just for the privilege of paying for my stuff.
I do go to WalMart when on vacation because they are likely to have a range of different stuff I may need at the same time without needing to know the location of many local stores, and the flipside of building in a sprawling location means you also are built in a very visible location so they are usually easy to find. Plus I have yet to see another one that had loud video ads in the checkout. Maybe they just want to drive me away as a customer for some reason. I wrote them to complain about this and even received an email back in acknowledgement but they are still there.
There are plenty of horror stories on the news, but it’s still broadcast every day. Of course the most attention-grabbing is getting the attention. That’s just how people are. That’s why people circulate ‘photo albums’ and why peopleofwalmart.com exists.
I am dismayed at your judgemental tone, but I will try to explain.
These people are shopping at a store, which presupposes the ability to get to the store, navigate through the store, pick out what they need out of thousands of items, get said items to the check-out, pay for those items, and return home. Or perhaps they feel like being social or just need to get out of the house. Most people do not choose their upbringing, and some have little control in their lives now.
Anybody can go to Walmart and they do. Don’t go if you don’t want to risk making your eyes roll up in you head.
I shop at Walmart regularly and have never seen people the outrageous garb that shows up on People of Walmart. My guess is a lot of those shots are set-ups.
You do see poor people there, but so what? You see everyone else there too. Walmart has its faults, but it also provides cheap cloths and food, and some fairly priced services to the poor that other businesses don’t, such as check cashing, prepaid money cards, and prepaid cell phone plans.
I’ve got a brother-in-law who has worked at a Walmart store for years. He’s got some issues, and it’s one of the few jobs he could get. I appreciate that they have given him a stable job.
I get what you’re saying, but you’re only partially right. The big thing to remember is that there are enormous differences in Walmarts depending on where they are. And yes I’ve been to a lot. Just my experiences follow, from the midwest:
Nice small to midsize town, Walmart was the first main big retailer - Walmart tends to be clean, staffed by friendly people, not a bad place to shop.
Medium to large-size town, other similar retailers exist (Target, Sam’s, whatever) - Walmart tends to be patronized by working people with a special concentration of zero and first-gen immigrants. The draw is cheap and good enough, but not great. Not the hellhole you’d think, but does tend to be a bit disorganized. Lots of little kids (STEREOTYPE! ;)) running around unchecked. Not my favorite place to shop, but I don’t dread going in there.
Small declining town suffering from industrial flight - Walmart tends to be a hellhole. Dirty, not well kept, full of “Walmart people.” Stay away. :rolleyes:
I live in Greater Suburbia; there is a Wal-Mart & a Target 3-4 miles apart. While I haven’t seen PoWM-bad, it always seems the Wal-Mart has more lower class & many more poorly/inappropriately dressed people than Target does. (Is it too much to ask that you wear a shirt big/long enough that you don’t show off your gut at all, not even just a little bit?) Also the shelves are piled high, which gives the store a more closed & cluttered appearance. In Target, I can see from section to section of the store, not so much in Wal-Mart.
If my list includes a new thermos, bananas, plant food, shoelaces, a present for a new mother and catfood, or somesuch varied list, I go to Walmart because it’s all there. That said, I avoid it like the plague on the weekends. It seems families go there en masse on weekends, as though it is a destination park.
I once saw a woman change her infant in the cart, and stuff the dirty diaper on the shelf in housewares .
I do all my grocery and a good part of my general shopping at Wal-Mart. It’s in an outer-ring suburb and you see a lot of the lower socio-economic class there but rarely something as wild as people of Wal-Mart. Worst I saw was a teenage guy in swim trunks with no shirt.
I like that Wal-Mart bags your groceries for you, something the big-box dedicated grocery stores in my area do not, and I like being able to buy general merchandise when getting groceries without having to stop at a different store. More than once I’ve visited snobby stores and been made to feel like I don’t belong.
Oh FFS…it was a simple question. I live on the other side of the planet from you, and we don’t have Walmarts. My only exposure to the store has been from various threads here over the years, and as I said, photo albums of Walmartians that get sent via links to FB. IOW, I wanted to know if my perception was an accurate one, and thanks to the other helpful posters, I know now that the freaks who wear crazy stuff are in the distinct minority.
kambuckta, WalMart is pretty much identical to Big W* - so much so that I had to get some convincing that they were not connected at some point in the same megaconglomerate chain. They’ve the same philosophy, the same general appeal (or lack thereof).
About the only real difference is that WalMarts, especially lately, tend to be much bigger than any single store in Aus. I don’t think that there is an equivalent (yet) to the Super Walmart, which is basically a WalMart and a grocery store merged, all under one roof. And there tend to be a lot more of them in any given area.
Just bear in mind, the population of the States is about twenty times that of Aus - so there’s twenty times the nutters, slobs, and snobs.
Actually, I prefer that a big box business try to find a lot that’s big enough, rather than have the city abuse eminent domain laws to force people to sell their homes and property in order to make a lot big enough for a store. WalMart isn’t the only business that does this, but it certainly does throw its weight around. WalMart is also pretty good at negotiating tax breaks and concessions, too.
Hmm. I did not know that you are on the opposite continent and had no way of knowing about Walmart except by social links. Yes, there are some ‘different’ people at the stores, but most are mainstream.
It was the phrases “sheer freakiness” and “not encounter a situation or person that makes your eyes roll upwards” that sound judgmental and derogatory.
It’s just a store. There isn’t anything different about it than other stores. It reflects the people who live around it. There are three Walmarts that I might frequent due to their location. Each one is different because of were its located. You can’t really generalize about who goes there except to make a joke. It’s not like they live in there.
But there is one factor you have to add in. Some Walmarts are open 24 hours. In any store that’s open 24 hours you see some strange people at 3am.
There is an Urban WalMart about to open its doors not far from where I live. It’s said to be geared more towards grocery type items. Given that this is a very affluent area, I’m surprised it’s a WalMart and not another WholeFoods or FreshMart or Balducci’s. I guess WalMart is looking to compete with the more upscale grocery stores as well. Has anyone been to one of these upscale urban WalMart stores? What’s it like?
That’s my nightmare, is that a dead large-town/small city main street would be replaced by a WalMart Grocery (the entire downtown area might still be too small for a Megalomart.) Although I had envisioned WalMart buying up the facades of vacant buildings and just gutting the interior in order to appeal to upscale consumers with an appearance of a small town store, rather than using eminent domain to force out existing businesses to tear down and build a big box.
I still think that either of these is possible when gas becomes expensive enough that more consumers focus on transportation costs as well as raw costs at the checkout.
Lilke a huge Meijer. If you don’t have a Meijer near you then I suppose that comparison won’t make any sense, so just picture a huge grocery store with a bazillion other things too. With great prices. Next time I’m at my Lake Zurich WalMart I’ll take some pictures.
Ours is OK, in that it is at the end of a road that only has stores on it, and it’s the only such road for miles, so you can avoid all of them by just avoiding that stretch. It’s on the way to the landfill so it’s not desirable to live there anyway.
I am used to thinking of businesses budgeting by the month or the week; I heard in a training once that WalMart budgets by the 15 minutes.
But I go there because there are few choices here and WalMart has a variety of things in one place, cheapest. You definitely see poorer people but I’ve never seen anything remarkable.
The urban WalMart opening here won’t be “huge”. The property footprint is about the size of a large WholeFoods or common Giant. I’m mostly wondering about the quality of their produce and fresh foods. I can get chips and crackers anywhere. But a great selection of fruits, vegetables, fresh eggs, meats and fish would be very welcome. Especially if some of it is sourced from local farms. But it’s WalMart, so I’m not holding my breath for that sort of selection.
As mentioned above, WalMart is nothing compared to the parade of freaks you see at any State Fair. 40 WalMarts combined couldn’t equal the crowd of weird you’ll see waddling down the midway in Dallas or Springfield or Sacramento.
Does that sounds derogatory and judgmental? Good, because that’s how I meant it. Give me Target any day. Much lower oddball count.
The only thing I really notice is that WalMart is the store where it seems to be acceptable to wear your pajamas. At all times of day. I don’t understand why/when pajamas became fashionable?
