I know that I’m not really a cool person. The cool people love Target. And I love Target too. But, in podunk Reno where I live there are two Targets that I can think of. One is in Sparks and I generally try to avoid Sparks (unless we’re talking Spanish Springs, which is semi-okay however it does require driving on the Road of Death to get out there). The other is in a place I call “South of Town” and is located just south of the mall. Both are far from where I live and generally far from any where I generally tend to go. AND, both are not “Super”, meaning they don’t contain the supermarket portion of the store that I enjoy so much. And heck, that’s the whole point. I mean, I won’t go to a Wal-Mart that isn’t “Super”. There’s this one here in town (coincidentally, the one that is closest to where I live) that we call “Ghetto-Mart”. It’s located in the same center as “Ghetto-Co” (Winco) and I won’t even go in the parking lot there, much less the store. And there is a Supercenter down near our church that I don’t go to unless I have no other choice because I don’t enjoy it one little bit. Too many scary, scary people. It’s not like I don’t have standards. I like the one in Spanish Springs (ah ha!), the one Way, Way South of Town and the one in the Northwest. The Northwest Walmart is the one I go to most often as it is the perfect blend of Not-Scary and Close to Home.

I can get anything I want at Walmart. If I want soda and a belt and potting soil and light bulbs in one place, that’s the place to go. And it’s so friggin’ CHEAP. If we need to pick of groceries real quick during the week, we’ll go five minutes down the road to Smiths, but considering I pay $2 more for the same box of cereal there, it’s not really good for doing a whole lot of shopping. At Walmart, everything is sinfully inexpensive. I can afford to get the more expensive things that I enjoy like fresh squeezed style orange juice and Charmin Ultra mega-roll toilet paper because they cost about the same as the cheap-o alternative at other grocery stores. And if I don’t care and the store brand (not the peanut butter) (anymore at least) is what I want, then I can save SERIOUS moolah. And that? Fills me with such glee that I can hardly contain it.

Now, I have another reason to love the ‘Mart. Its pharmacy. Dear God, why am I just now discovering their pharmacy?? I’ve endured such awful hell dealing with prescriptions in the past, that I assumed that I needed a fancy-shmancy pharmacy. Like the one at Smiths. Though I’ll admit that I was mostly lured in by the delight of a drive-through pick up and drop off window. Seriously though, I used that window maybe four times. Five, tops. And when we switched to HMO this summer, and our prescription coverage kinda got scary-expensive, I just stuck with it because I figured it’d be the same pretty much anywhere. And at least Smiths was close to home (and had that window). But when I had to fill the prescription for Liam’s flouride drops a week or so ago, I thought I do it at Walmart, see if I could get it any cheaper there. Having nothing to really compare it to, I guessed that the roughly $15 I paid was okay and went on about my business. Then I thought, when Liam got sick, that maybe we could refill his albuterol there relatively cheaply. After all, couldn’t be much more expensive than the $60 that Smiths charged us. For one box. And they told us our insurance would only let us have one box at a time. Consider ourselves lucky, because two boxes would have been $120. ACK. So I figured Walmart would have to be cheaper. Right? OH SO RIGHT. We had our doctor transfer a refill to the pharmacy at my favorite Walmart on Friday at the height of Liam’s illness and imagine my shock when Kile told me he got it for $10. And that was for TWO BOXES. I don’t know which I felt more vividly; nausea at the thought that we spent $50 unnecessary dollars for this stuff from Smiths or pure joy at the realization that Walmart has come through for me yet again.

So today I thought I would transfer my prescription for my thyroid medicine there as well. Hey, why the heck not, right? It’s not like Smiths has been charging all that much for it, $11 and change for a thirty day supply. Well guess what? Walmart gave it to me for $8. And, you got it, that’s for TWO MONTHS. I heart Walmart. I know that’s not exactly a popular way to feel about the retail giant, but I cannot help myself. I love it so. I’m sure there are a million and one reasons to hate Walmart, but when they save me so much money, it’s hard to think straight. You understand, don’t you?