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I don’t mean to be a bummer, but walking around a Walmart in a lower income area shows you just how bleak the situation is in the United States. My wife and I
by tnel77 4y ago
I don’t mean to be a bummer, but walking around a Walmart in a lower income area shows you just how bleak the situation is in the United States.
My wife and I recently went to a Walmart near a “not good area” and it was depressing. Just about everyone was overweight. Many were hobbling or needed the use of the electric scooters. Looking into their eyes often resulted in a near zombie stare that went right through you. People looked at Walmart’s relatively low prices in desperation and despair as they mentally tried to grasp how they’d be able to handle the bill for the mass produced garbage they were trying to buy to save money (compared to fresh meat and produce). My wife and I paid for our stuff and headed to our basic SUV (one of the nicest cars in the parking lot) and you could see rundown cars on the edge of the parking lot with blankets up to block the sunlight (aka homeless people).
Things are not good over here.
Edit: I didn’t directly address your question, but it’s all tied together. People are drugged up and just trying to get by. For many Americans, day-to-day life is nothing short of a nightmare.
- l33t233372 4y agoThis is patronizing hyperbole to the point of absurdity. Complaining about mass produced garbage instead of fresh meat and produce is just silly. Walmart has plenty of all three.
- tnel77 4y agoWalmart has all three, but it doesn’t mean that every customer can afford it. If you are broke, you are going to skip out on some of the healthier stuff.
- opportune 4y agoMeat and produce are very often cheaper than processed food. People just prefer the processed food/don’t want to cook Yes there are people without kitchens. But don’t tell me you think that’s most of the poor people at Walmart.
- tnel77 4y agoI don’t think that’s most poor people at Walmart. I do think that most poor people at Walmart are so worn down and tired that cooking a healthy meal can be difficult. Especially when there’s a box that only needs water and a few zaps from the microwave.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dfxm12 4y agoMeat and produce are very often cheaper than processed food. I went on Walmart's website. Per ounce, name brand fish sticks were cheaper than the cheapest fresh fish, tilapia. Pre made, microwavable burgers were the same price as just 80/20 ground beef. Jurassic Park white meat dino nuggets are the same price as Perdue chicken breast.
- opportune 4y agoOk, and how much does it cost to make fish sticks or Dino nuggets, knowing that they are mostly breading?
- machinawhite 4y agoIs this a rhetorical question? It costs the cost of labor multiplied by the time that they take to make? So obviously fresh food will always be more expensive, given you need to invest time into actually cooking it
- hackerlight 4y agoThe point was there's many people that can't afford to buy food from those sections.
- r3trohack3r 4y agoThis seems to be a uniquely Walmart experience. I don’t experience it anywhere else in the States. I no longer shop there and I know of many people who feel the same way. It’s the only store I avoid because of “the feeling of human suffering.” Walmart’s stores are cold and uninviting, the employees don’t look happy to be there, and the shoppers don’t either. I don’t believe the people inside a Walmart are a representative sample of Americans, the store self selects for people who are willing to shop at a Walmart.
- phpisthebest 4y agoIt is not even a Walmart experience. It is a Online Walmart tall tale. I shop at walmart all the time, in all area's poor, rich, middle class, are there fat people, sure. Are they "Dead zombies looking hobbled to their mobility scooters" .... I think the OP fancies themselves a fiction writer..
- tnel77 4y agoI wish I was lying. Multiple people almost bumped into me and I did the Midwestern “oop my bad,” and these people didn’t even flinch or acknowledge my existence. I just felt so bad for them.
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoThis. And the demographics change wildly depending on what day of the week and time you go.
- hammock 4y ago> This seems to be a uniquely Walmart experience. I don’t experience it anywhere else in the States. Literally 95% of the US shops at Walmart, so... you might be in a very small bubble
- tnel77 4y agoFor a large amount of rural America, it’s the only option. That or a Dollar General with its bountiful selection of bananas and limes.
- phpisthebest 4y ago[flagged]
- tnel77 4y agoWhile I agree overall, I think you are overlooking the time factor. Homemade lasagna vs something you throw in the microwave has a different time cost which is an important consideration for someone working multiple jobs.
- phpisthebest 4y ago[flagged]
- tnel77 4y agoI see you have never been poor. I hope you never learn the harsh realities of poverty in our country. Edit: I remember watching my mom ration her insulin. I sure wish we could have been “welfare leeches” because that would have been super neat.
- karp773 4y agoI feel for your mother but the conversation was about food, not medicine. Food in America is the most affordable in the world relative to income. Medicine is, unfortunately, among the most unaffordable.
- phpisthebest 4y agoI grew up in a trailer park in the 80's and 90's. My toys were a old used bike and the woods behind the trailer park. but no, I dont know anything about being poor....
- matthewmacleod 4y agoPeople buy garbage premade food because either they cant, or choose not to cook for themselves. This "ohh the poor people at the walmart just dont have options" is frankly disinformation. If you are working two jobs to make ends meet, I imagine it becomes much more difficult to squeeze in the time to make a nice fresh lasagne. I think the “food desert” issue can sometimes be overblown, but equally this nonsense idea that anybody who isn’t cooking from scratch is just stupid or lazy needs to die. It’s an absolutely perennial pet argument from some quarters and it just skips over so many complexities. I have worked with and spoken to people dealing with these challenges over in the UK. A constant problem is the challenges people face in getting access to time, equipment and resources aside from food itself. How do you cook a lasagne if you work 14 hours? If you don’t have an oven? If you don’t have a refrigerator? It really saddens me to see such surface-level, knee-jerk dismissal of complex problems.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 1123581321 4y agoPeople on Metafilter used to make up similar stories about Walmart and fast food, including the fanciful details about the dead eyes and making up inner thoughts.