3 ms·

This article doesn't seem to cover much but I'd be curious to know the implications of this. Is this very common? How long do people stay? Are these people m

This article doesn't seem to cover much but I'd be curious to know the implications of this. Is this very common? How long do people stay? Are these people making trips or living there? I've heard a lot about crime occurring in Walmart parking lots, does this have any effect?

VLM 13y ago
"I've heard a lot about crime occurring in Walmart parking lots, does this have any effect?" My parents RVed around the country when they semi-retired and occasionally got stuck at walmart (Reservations? Sir I am sorry but I have no record of you ever having made reservations... etc) Real criminals like empty lots and good numerical odds, so its extremely dangerous to be in a deserted shopping mall lot completely alone except for the crooks at 3am, or at a park all alone, or anything like that. Its not just walmart, some campgrounds are pretty sketchy during the empty work week. On the other hand trivial "crime" is much worse at walmart if by crime you mean "turned the radio up a little too loud at 8pm to cover sound of having sex" which might technically be a noise violation, but its not exactly armed carjacking or murder. RVers talk a lot to other RVers and from what I heard from my parents, the culture is very bovine, stay in the herd for safety. The more people in the lot sleeping, the safer the lot is by definition. You have to have serious guts, or be a police sting, to be the only vehicle in the lot. I would imagine the homeless are about the same. They want/need a good nights sleep and a screaming crime victim is not going to help them sleep, so there's more than a little self policing. There's ten guys here sleeping every night, and tonight there's one outsider checking door handles and prowling, well, there's going to be ten really pissed off guys if the interloper succeeds, so you do the math on what happens to the one interloper... There is also a lot of bias in that RV national park touring means visiting civilized rural areas not uncivilized urban areas. So that means a lot of hunters and concealed carry and an armed society is a polite society and all that stuff. So a rural Idaho walmart parking lot where 10% of the people carry is likely near infinitely safer than a Chicago walmart in the bad part of town where all the victims are disarmed. As such my parents experience visiting national and state parks may not be representative of urban ghetto walmart parking lots. The experience of a cow herd in the presence of wolves varies greatly if some random selection of the cows have razor sharp teeth and pointy horns vs a herd where everybody knows all the cows are completely defenseless so go have as much "fun" as you want.

VLM 13y ago

"I've heard a lot about crime occurring in Walmart parking lots, does this have any effect?" My parents RVed around the country when they semi-retired and occasionally got stuck at walmart (Reservations? Sir I am sorry but I have no record of you ever having made reservations... etc) Real criminals like empty lots and good numerical odds, so its extremely dangerous to be in a deserted shopping mall lot completely alone except for the crooks at 3am, or at a park all alone, or anything like that. Its not just walmart, some campgrounds are pretty sketchy during the empty work week. On the other hand trivial "crime" is much worse at walmart if by crime you mean "turned the radio up a little too loud at 8pm to cover sound of having sex" which might technically be a noise violation, but its not exactly armed carjacking or murder. RVers talk a lot to other RVers and from what I heard from my parents, the culture is very bovine, stay in the herd for safety. The more people in the lot sleeping, the safer the lot is by definition. You have to have serious guts, or be a police sting, to be the only vehicle in the lot. I would imagine the homeless are about the same. They want/need a good nights sleep and a screaming crime victim is not going to help them sleep, so there's more than a little self policing. There's ten guys here sleeping every night, and tonight there's one outsider checking door handles and prowling, well, there's going to be ten really pissed off guys if the interloper succeeds, so you do the math on what happens to the one interloper... There is also a lot of bias in that RV national park touring means visiting civilized rural areas not uncivilized urban areas. So that means a lot of hunters and concealed carry and an armed society is a polite society and all that stuff. So a rural Idaho walmart parking lot where 10% of the people carry is likely near infinitely safer than a Chicago walmart in the bad part of town where all the victims are disarmed. As such my parents experience visiting national and state parks may not be representative of urban ghetto walmart parking lots. The experience of a cow herd in the presence of wolves varies greatly if some random selection of the cows have razor sharp teeth and pointy horns vs a herd where everybody knows all the cows are completely defenseless so go have as much "fun" as you want.