# Wal-Mart Thanksgiving commercial **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 1, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791 "2006-11-01T22:15:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@The\_Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Octagon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/41 "2006-11-02T21:55:44Z")
[QUOTE=looking busy] Good god! I swear some people go around looking for some things to be offended and pissed about. Why not look to the message of the ad - Walmart is a really cheap place to shop! The ad tries to express this with some humour and real to life worries, what needs to be so wrong with that? Certainly not pittable. Would you rather the ad shows someone sitting there running up a big credit card bill because it is important to make the family feel special? Why not just face it, if the father is retired, then putting on a spread like this probably is a strain on the budget, but Walmart makes it affordable! [/QUOTE] I highly doubt the 5 percent discount you might get at wal-mart makes the difference between ‘average suburban family’ and the Rockefellers. Who knows who the hell the Rockefellers are these days anyway? I’m sure a more appropriate line would be “What are we, the Waltons?” ---
**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:** [November 2, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/42 "2006-11-02T22:04:22Z")
Most of the grocery stores around here have major discounts for Thanksgiving, including deals where if you spend so much, your turkey is only 10 cents a pound or something like that. In fact, Wal-Mart would probably be MORE expensive than these places. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/43 "2006-11-02T22:08:20Z")
My employer, for the past three years, has given each employee a $25.00 gift card to one of the supermarket chains, along with their Thanksgiving pay packet. 'Course, once I retire, I’ll need to go back to work to get one of those… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/44 "2006-11-03T01:10:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I dunno, the big feeds my best friends put on, where they have a dozen or 15 people over, from great-grandparents to little babies, cost in the area of $450, plus days of preparation time. And they have to plan it all carefully. Maybe that means they are not comfortably middle-class. [/QUOTE] What do they eat? $30 a person for home cooked food is a hell of a lot. Do they have crown roasts or something, not turkey? Expensive wine I can see, but a traditional Thanksgiving dinner? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/45 "2006-11-03T01:18:47Z")
[QUOTE=ShelliBean] And Voyager? > [@me](#): > > I suppose if you’re using decent quality food for a change it might cost more. That wasn’t actually targeted at WalMart, but at all those who freak out at Thanksgiving, as if they’ve never made vegetables not out of a can before. > [@](#): > > Could you be more condescending? Just because I buy my food at a walmart doesn’t mean I check my shoes and high school diploma at the door. It just means I live on a tight budget. Stating who WalMart targets their ads for doesn’t mean that everyone who walks in the door is like that. Remember, they just had a bad quarter since they tried to improve the quality of their fashion, and it was too much for their customer base. I truly regret you’re stuck shopping there. The one I go to once a year, at most, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is universally dirty and disordered. I’ll not list the other reasons I despise the place so as not to get into a WalMart hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/46 "2006-11-03T07:06:59Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Yeah we nabbed it because our histories aren’t intertwined and you guys are so cool we had to copy it. Sheesh. Sarcasm aside: Both The United States and Canada’s English population both come from (duh) England which had a Harvest Festival called Thanksgiving. Though not celebrated the same way it was imported by the settlers and it changed throughout history into being what it is today in both Nations. [/QUOTE] I’m English, for the record. I just _live_ here. Incidentally, I’d never heard of “Thanksgiving” as an English event. Generic harvest festivals are fairly common, so I imagine the name is archaic now. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/47 "2006-11-03T07:41:11Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] What do they eat? $30 a person for home cooked food is a hell of a lot. Do they have crown roasts or something, not turkey? Expensive wine I can see, but a traditional Thanksgiving dinner? [/QUOTE] Dancing girls. ---
**Author:** ![Leah\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Leah\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leah_M)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/48 "2006-11-03T08:13:03Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I dunno, the big feeds my best friends put on, where they have a dozen or 15 people over, from great-grandparents to little babies, cost in the area of $450, plus days of preparation time. And they have to plan it all carefully. Maybe that means they are not comfortably middle-class. [/QUOTE] I can’t speak for others, but when I saw the $450, my jaw dropped. When I was younger, we used to have extended family over. We didn’t have any prep time for things, except maybe to bake pies the night before and to begin the turkey the night before. This is for maybe 10-20 people or so. I would guess the cost at around half / a bit less than half of the $450 mark, especially less if others brought their own beverages and we did a potluck type thing for dessert. If we spent almost 500$ on Thanksgiving, we wouldn’t have had a Christmas. Maybe that means we weren’t really ‘middle class’ either, I really don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/49 "2006-11-03T08:21:29Z")
I haven’t seen the commercial but from the description it’s like this: The man is typically just a stupid moron. The woman is typically intelligent and reassures the husband-idiot she knows how to best spend his money. Why isn’t everyone a little insulted? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/50 "2006-11-03T13:48:12Z")
Bring **Carol Stream** over and show it to her. She’ll spin up reeeaall good. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/51 "2006-11-03T14:40:05Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] That wasn’t actually targeted at WalMart, but at all those who freak out at Thanksgiving, as if they’ve never made vegetables not out of a can before. Stating who WalMart targets their ads for doesn’t mean that everyone who walks in the door is like that. Remember, they just had a bad quarter since they tried to improve the quality of their fashion, and it was too much for their customer base. I truly regret you’re stuck shopping there. The one I go to once a year, at most, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is universally dirty and disordered. [/QUOTE] I know that. I chose to ignore it because I was feeling touchy about money lately. Sorry about that. I myself am guilty of making fun of people in WalMart. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/52 "2006-11-03T14:56:31Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] I think this commercial is funny because I’ve never seen or been to a Wal Mart that sells perishable groceries. I NEVER think of food when I think of Wal Mart. So if someone told me they bought their Thanksgiving dinner at Wal Mart I’d have to laugh - what, you had Pop Tarts, pretzels and Sam’s Choice pop? 🙂 [/QUOTE] My thoughts exactly. I try to take a little pride in my Thanksgiving dinners. I would no more consider shopping for it at Wally World than I would consider buying fresh produce at Ace Hardware. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/53 "2006-11-03T15:03:49Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] I would no more consider shopping for it at Wally World than I would consider buying fresh produce at Ace Hardware. [/QUOTE] Try True Value for your produce. There or Menard’s. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/54 "2006-11-03T15:44:07Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I haven’t seen the commercial but from the description it’s like this: The man is typically just a stupid moron. The woman is typically intelligent and reassures the husband-idiot she knows how to best spend his money. Why isn’t everyone a little insulted? [/QUOTE] I haven’t seen it either, but I’m picturing _belligerent_ stupid moron. I really don’t like companies that don’t bother to respect their own customers in their own advertising. Usually (at least lately) Wal-Mart is smarter than this (the whole “look at the lovely things I can get here to make my home a nicer place for my family on a real budget” is respectful - and the ads they were running that featured their own employees were respectful of their employees.) Better ad is when Dad comes up and says “Wow, what a spread! I thought we had a tight budget this year” and Mom says “I got it all at Wal-Mart.” ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/55 "2006-11-03T16:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] My thoughts exactly. I try to take a little pride in my Thanksgiving dinners. I would no more consider shopping for it at Wally World than I would consider buying fresh produce at Ace Hardware. [/QUOTE] Look, I know part of this is me being touchy, but please don’t say that I don’t take any pride in what I do for my family just because I shop at WalMart for groceries. I do, I just happen to do it as cheaply as possible because money is tight right now, and probably will be until the youngest is out of full time daycare. I’m fine with that. It doesn’t mean I don’t do the best I can with the money I’ve got or don’t take pride in it. A turkey is a turkey. They sell Butterballs at WalMart just like they do at regular grocery stores. They sell milk and meat and canned foods and fresh vegetables and fruits just like any other grocery. Shopping there doesn’t mean picking through the hammers to find bananas. It means getting 52 diapers for $10 and a bag of chicken breasts for $6.50 in the same trip. It’s not as fancy as yours, I’m sure, but it is what I cook for my family and provide for their needs. I do it on what money I have and I do take pride in it. I’m on course to derail this thread from the commercial aspect so I’ll get off my (WalMart supplied, made in China) soap box. Just know it does hurt a little to know that you (anyone) thinks that I don’t do what I can for my family and don’t deserve to be proud of my efforts because it came from a store you are looking at down your nose. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/56 "2006-11-03T16:19:35Z")
ShelliBean, you’re not being sensitive and I don’t blame you for saying something. Shopping at Wal-Mart does not automatically mean you’re a bad person, it simply means you’re money-conscious. Whether we like it or not, Wal-Mart has some things on sale for cheaper. I prefer Target for clothes, but Wal-Mart has cheaper furniture. It’s still the only place around where I can get decent quality furniture with most pieces running at around $100. I don’t need mahagony, I just need something functional. I got my sewing table there, for $110 - everywhere else I looked it was closer to $200. And it’s got a lot of the amenities of higher class places. Same with food. Some of the groceries are substantially cheaper. I don’t buy my produce there because our local Price Chopper wins awards on its produce, but dry goods, sure. The ad in the OP sucks, true, but people who look down on all wal-mart shoppers should try being in a tight budget sometime. Ok, I’ll j oin Shellibean and get off my high horse, too. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/57 "2006-11-03T16:24:32Z")
To be fair, tdn never said I was a bad person. And Voyager did make the point that just because some are like that, not shoppers all are. But it is the general tone of some of the posts I object to- peering through small glasses perched on the end of her nose, the guest of the house holding a can of Great Value sweet peas saying “Dahling, you bought food for your family _where_?” ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/58 "2006-11-03T16:34:28Z")
[QUOTE=ShelliBean] To be fair, tdn never said I was a bad person. [/QUOTE] No I didn’t, and sorry if that’s what I implied. I do look down my nose at WalMart, and admittedly I do this from a position of ignorance. I’ve been into only one, and only one time, and that was a decade ago. But it was such a godawful negative experience that I vowed never to repeat it. The mere thought of taking anything from that place and putting in my mouth makes me gag a little. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/59 "2006-11-03T16:56:51Z")
I’m not entirely certain you’re making things any better with that, **tdn**. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791/60 "2006-11-03T18:00:58Z")
[QUOTE=ShelliBean] Look, I know part of this is me being touchy, but please don’t say that I don’t take any pride in what I do for my family just because I shop at WalMart for groceries. I do, I just happen to do it as cheaply as possible because money is tight right now, and probably will be until the youngest is out of full time daycare. I’m fine with that. It doesn’t mean I don’t do the best I can with the money I’ve got or don’t take pride in it. A turkey is a turkey. They sell Butterballs at WalMart just like they do at regular grocery stores. They sell milk and meat and canned foods and fresh vegetables and fruits just like any other grocery. Shopping there doesn’t mean picking through the hammers to find bananas. It means getting 52 diapers for $10 and a bag of chicken breasts for $6.50 in the same trip. It’s not as fancy as yours, I’m sure, but it is what I cook for my family and provide for their needs. I do it on what money I have and I do take pride in it. I’m on course to derail this thread from the commercial aspect so I’ll get off my (WalMart supplied, made in China) soap box. Just know it does hurt a little to know that you (anyone) thinks that I don’t do what I can for my family and don’t deserve to be proud of my efforts because it came from a store you are looking at down your nose. [/QUOTE] A turkey isn’t a turkey. Some of the people are simply saying that they won’t buy Butterballs. I used to get my turkey fresh from the local butcher - those were some great birds (I haven’t hosted Thanksgiving in years). Fruits and vegetables from my co-op or the farmers market are so much better tasting than the ones from the grocery store (and the hamburger from the co-op - twice as expensive, but the best hamburger ever…). It isn’t that Wal-Mart can’t be a decent grocery store (the Wal-Marts around here are horrible, but I’ve been in parts of the country were they aren’t, so I’m willing to believe they can do groceries well) - its that grocery stores aren’t the best source of quality food for an “occation” meal - of course, that quality comes at a price not everyone has the luxury of affording. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-thanksgiving-commercial/378791.md?page=4)