How to qualify to be a true Wal-Mart shopper
By Theresa Dilks

Wal-Mart is a discount store with a few added amenities such as groceries, photographers, optometrists, a hair salon and Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Stores. In fact, it is often one-stop shopping for most customers. With Super Wal-Marts popping up on every corner, it has become the "Saks 5th Avenue" of working class folks.   

Sam Walton started his "empire" in 1962 and it has been growing by leaps and bounds every year since. On the Wal-Mart website (www.Wal-Martstores.com) this phenomenon is referred to as the Wal-Mart culture. There are other discount stores, so why is this one popular enough to create its own culture?  First, every advertisement and commercial depicts ordinary people not actors or actresses. All boast about their homes filled with Wal-Mart inventory from chicken breasts to bath towels.

The resulting financial figures from Wal-Mart's web site are impressive. This chain employs 1.3 million associates in 3,200 facilities in the U.S.A. and 1,100 facilities in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom. Wal-Mart's stock sold at the time of the writing of this article for $57.49, with a 13.1% increase in sales for 2002's third quarter.  

Compared to Target, with 1,107 stores country-wide and stock selling (at the time of this article) for $31.72; Ross with 507 stores country-wide and stock selling (at the time of this article) for $44.81 and Kohl’s with 428 country-wide with stock selling (at the time of this article) for $58.20, Wal-Mart is simply blowing the doors off the competition.   

I spoke with some Wal-Mart shoppers and asked a few questions. I asked the first question to Lori, "Was this the only store you shop?" Her reply, "Of course!", surprised I would even think to ask such a question. "I do my grocery shopping, clothes shopping, all my bath products and more all under one roof," Lori continued, "I pay less for everything, even pumpkins for Halloween!" She went on, "And I am not running around from store to store." Note that Lori does have five children to take out of the car, take into the store, and put back into the car. I was exhausted just after speaking with her. 

Laura and Mary are a mother and daughter shopping team. Once in the store, Mary goes one way and Laura the other. They cover more territory that way, especially when Wal-Mart has their Christmas sales. I asked Laura if she would consider shopping at Super Target about half a mile down the road. Laura's reply, " That store is too expensive! I bought a pair of shorts on clearance for $2.00 at Wal-Mart, Target was selling their clearance items for $5.00."

"So you did go into the Super Target?" I asked. "Hell, no!" she balked, "A friend went in."  

Mary did add that she does shop other clothes stores. "I am young and need to stay in style with the rest of the kids", she explained. "My Mom is old and does not care how she dresses," she added.  

I asked the three ladies if they thought they were true "Wal-Martians?" Mary shook her head "no" but Lori and Laura answered with a "Damn right I am and proud of it!"  

I do admit I have shopped in Wal-Mart a few times. Once I bought a patio set because they were cheaper than the other stores. I bought Calgon water softener because no other store carried it, and, once, in Florida while vacationing, I needed some items and Wal-Mart is open 24 hours a day.  

Each time seemed like an eternity: The cashiers were slow; the associates did not know where the items were I was looking for and they seemed to scan at least one item with a different price then the sign that was advertising it.

I am sorry, but I was not impressed then, and I am still not impressed with this store. 

For what it is worth concerning my credentials as a critic, I will never pass as a true "Wal-Martian." I do not care to buy my bath and bedroom items in a discount store, nor do I care to purchase my groceries while shopping for underwear. I like to purchase my lamps at Pier 1 and my dishes from Lenox. Most of all, I like to buy my garden items from a nursery, my eyeglasses from Vision One and I have no small children so I will let Wal-Mart keep the photographer. 

                                                                                       ###

Theresa Dilks is a native of New Jersey and has been living in Georgia for nine years. An amateur writer, with many stories to tell, Theresa's peers encouraged her to write and publish her articles. 
 
Copyright © 2002 by Theresa Dilks.  All rights reserved.
 
 The Magazine’s writers welcome your feedback.  Please be sure to reference the specific article in your response. 

Click here to respond.

Return to top      Return to Issue Three contents        Return to Main Page