You all have heard me wax poetic in the past about Walmart. And while I don’t want to imply that those feelings are cooling (except I think they totally are), I’ve felt a lot less love in recent months.
At the end of the day, we shop at Walmart because it’s CHEAP there. I would love to shop at Smith’s or Safeway or (God bless it) Whole Foods. That would be my idea of grocery heaven. Shoot, way back in the day before Reno had a Walmart Supercenter, I used to do all our shopping at Safeway and it was mighty fine. Shoot, they have a Starbucks right there in the store, complete with a handy cupholder right there on the shopping cart! I loved shopping at Safeway. But, the fact of the matter is that we save SO MUCH more money by shopping at Walmart. And it seems like anymore that saving money isn’t just a jolly whim, but a dire necessesity.
Now, I’m a firm believer that all Walmarts are not created equal. Why, just here in the Reno/Sparks area alone, there are four Walmart Supercenters and one of those I try not to ever step foot in unless it’s an absolute emergency. It’s just too damned crowded. And the clientele, for lack of a better word, is a touch on the shady side. (There’s also a regular Walmart that I won’t even look twice at as we drive by. It’s very existence chills me to the bones.) My Walmart of choice is located in the neighborhood we used to live in up in Northwest Reno. It’s maintained fairly well, is kept fairly clean and is fairly well organized. And, on average, the people there are fairly normal. You know, for a Walmart.
There’s also one clear out in the boonies of Sparks and another one waaaaay south of town. Ironically enough, all three of these Walmarts are located extremely close to all three Kohl’s in town. Hmm. Interesting. Anyhow, I generally try to pick the less ghetto of Walmarts to do my shopping at. But there is something about the average person who shops at a Walmart. They have no freakin’ concept of BEING IN SOMEONE’S WAY. For the record, my husband is rather poor at this too. He’s frustrating to grocery shop with anyhow, what with the poring over labels and per-unit prices. But he also leaves his cart right in the middle of the aisle. And since we each have to have our own cart these days (the joys of three kids), it’s kind of difficult for me to move it for him. But I try and I make sure that Harry isn’t standing out in the middle of the “traffic path”, picking his lip and staring into space as usual. Because I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was a selfish douche. You know, like everyone ELSE that shops at Walmart.
Honestly, I would love to be able to shop somewhere else. Shoot, if we had a Super Target here in town I would be there in a HEARTBEAT. It’s all about saving money though. And Walmart saves us a LOT of money. At the end of the day, I just can’t ignore that. Still, someone needs to remind me to not try going to Walmart on a Sunday afternoon. Because that’s just asking for it.
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4 Responses to “I love/hate Walmart”
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I would be hard pressed to even TELL you where a WalMart is here that is close enough to shop at. I think Portland has done a pretty good job not allowing them in city limits!
Also, I can see a Safeway from my house, so I shop there. Because I’m lazy.
OMG! OMG! OMG!
We have the SAME problem here. Folks at Wal-Mart who cannot get a freakin’ CLUE and stay on their side of the aisle. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart, but guess what? In this economy, I have began going there for certain items that are cheaper.
Well, in Virginia, the wal-mart nearest us was kinda… well, to be blunt, white-trashy. And they were always stocking the ailes during peak shopping times. So, the park your cart in the middle people would be out in full force and the aisles would be crowded with pallets of items waiting to be placed on shelves. Way to frustrating to deal with. So I ended up going to one of the stores a little closer to my house, even if they were more expensive.
Here, I shop at the Commissary cuz it’s cheaper than wal-mart. And closer. But, I have a choice of 2 wal-marts and they’re kinda up-scale as wal-marts go. I was actually impressed.
LOL I know what you mean. Here in Lincoln County MO there is just one Wal-Mart and it’s the law that we have to go to it at least once a week. If we don’t they call you up and it’s all like “Uhm, we haven’t seen you this week, and when are y’all gonna get around to being here ’cause you know you hafta.” Yeah. Like that.
You are right. All Hell-Marts are NOT the same. Alas, they have managed to succeed in annihilating the better part of our small town businesses so we have next to nowhere else to go.
Capitalism at its bestest worstest.
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