Eatadonut

Wal-mart won't unionize, and many times won't build in a union environment.

As for the original topic, every wal-mart I've ever lived near has been easy to park a bicycle at, and been in a pretty convenient place. There's one in Norman that's off the highway I don't bike to, but there's another that's just on a normal road that poses no difficulty.

pedex

got a wal-mart/sam's club complex about 6 miles away down high st, never been there by bike, been across the street from it once on a delivery, but didnt go over there

rs_woods

The walmart I frequent is kind of difficult to get to, unless you take the back way in from where an abandoned mall was demolished (makes a great skate park, btw). For locking up, I find that the rails on the backside of the cart cubbies are perfect (better than the bike rack at my LBS). I don't shop there often, but when I do I'm generally satisfied with the bike accessibility. I would think if they tried to alter anything to accomodate me they'd probably just end up screwing everything up.

kf5nd

Y'all need to rent the DVD "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price"

You'll never set foot in one again.

margoC

When walmarts were first invented they WERE small stores. the first one I ever went to was in millington tenn in the 70's. I only noticed them getting bigger in the last 10 or 15 years. We had a couple of small ones here when I first moved here in the late 80's and they moved and got a little bigger. Then they moved again and got mega big.

If the "poor" spent their money on things other than bling maybe they could afford nutrional food. They certainly seem to be eating well in these parts.

Eatadonut

Seen it, shop there all the time.

When you're on a budget, it's hard to argue with marginal goods at unbeatable* prices.


*I also coupon shop at the albertson's down the street. Doorbusters are great for people with willpower.

Spaceman Spiff

The fact that some places are hard to get to is the single biggest thing preventing me from getting rid of my car.

Do you guys avoid roads that have very high volume of traffic, or roads on which traffic travels fast? I'm not talking about highways where it's illegal to ride bikes, but just regular roads in the city.

Me, I avoid roads with heavy traffic, and roads where the speed limit is above 50 km/h. This is the main reason I refuse to get rid of my car (at least as long as I stay in this city), there are some places in my city where you cannot get to unless you ride on heavily used roads, which I won't do because I'm too scared of getting hit. When I drive and see a cyclist on such a road, I think to myself he must be crazy.

JeffS

I haven't been in a WalMart for years, for a variety of reason, but am curious... how do you have a hard time finding a place to put your bike when the parking lot is full of cart racks?

Roody

This is a very interesting question. I think you should start a new thread about it. I bet a lot ofpeople would respond.

wahoonc

You are joking...right? There is no way I would lock my bike to a cart rack in the parking lot...have you seen the condition of those cart racks? Most of the ones I have seen have been run over, backed into and have carts shoved at them from all directions ... I DON'T THINK SO! In fact that would be the last place I would consider locking a bike, also too easy to get at to steal.

Aaron

BearsPaw

I've locked mine to the cart rack at the Home Depot (coincidentally, right next to a Walmart) in South Philly many times. I probably go there 5-6 times a year. They have no where else to lock up. Never had any damage to my bike. I don't think anyone is going to intentionally try to hit one with their car, so your odds of getting bumped are pretty low.

Michel Gagnon

I haven't watched them for a whole day, but I think that most of the damage comes from snow-clearing vehicles cleaning the parking lot at night. Paint damage to the racks (and to bikes attached) is often done by people who throw the shopping cart, hoping it will stop at the proper place.

But around here, car drivers don't run into those cart racks, simply because they care about their own paint.

Chris L

Yep. As I said before, a lot of those roads have nice wide shoulders, and drivers with better things to do than harass cyclists. Most of the problems I've ever had with drivers have been on quiet roads at quiet times of the day.

littledog

Where I live those roads have a stripe marking the shoulder. This is called the "passing on the right" lane. Not for me

wahoonc

The last set of racks I saw at Walmart were in Charleston, SC....no snow removal there. Brand new Walmart >3 months old and two of the racks were already heavily damaged. Rode to my local grocery store last night, locked the bike to the cart rack (under the store canopy) Coming out heard a crunch noise from the parking lot, woman had backed half way over the cart rack, then pulled forward and hit a parked car... given the condition of the car I would suspect it was a common occurrence...drove off. I did give the plate number and descripton to the store manager. FWIW this store is working to get proper bike parking.

Aaron

nelson249

Yup, everyone has their story about welfare queens living high off the hog... The Ontario government exploited this in the 90s to inflict deep cuts in welfare while giving their corporate pals big tax breaks. Frankly, I would rather have odd person scam the welfare system than the wealthy and connected to hide their money in off shore accounts and all sorts of obscure tax havens. Which, do you think, represents the greater loss to the common weal?

JeffS

I would rather have neither.

My take is that a poorly implemented welfare system kills the morale of the working class, especially the working poor.

le brad

I am so tired of hearing about people scamming welfare, it really doesn't happen as frequently as people would like to think. I've been on foodstamps and it was great. It was the difference between feeding my daughter and not feeding my daughter. The reason they are there is so poor families don't have to eat top ramen and tuna every day. Don't look down at people on govt. assistance, you don't know their story, you don't know why they are getting it.

Roody

Most of the people complaining about imaginary welfare scams are middle class people who happen to write off their mortgage interest payments on their income taxes. That's a far larger government give-away than all the welfare payments combined. I know that here in Michigan there is no welfare for able-bodied adults--only for families with children, usually single-parent families. If that bothers somebody, I don't know how they live with themselves. They should read their Bibles--there's lots about giving to the needy.

JeffS

The govt. is the one wanting people to buy houses... it's not a giveaway so much as an agenda - and one that is very much at the root of urban sprawl. Many people would be better off financially if there wasn't this home ownership push. It's nothing but a govt mandated savings plan. It's a really crappy one though, given the expenses incurred as a result of it.


Again, if the tax plan made sense to start with, you wouldn't need all these rediculous credits and deductions. Of course, then they would have given up their way of manipulating society.

chephy

Toronto has several easily bike-accessible Walmarts. I don't shop there anyway though because those stores are somewhat out of my way and because price is not the main thing that determines what I buy. But if it were convenient to buy something there that I liked, I would do it.

chephy

I actually like roaming big self-service warehouses. I prefer that much more to talking to salespeople. (Yes, I am a sociophobic introvert, I know.) But I dislike just about everything else about big box stores...

chephy

Really?? God gracious, have mercy on us all. I knew Detroit was bad... but that bad??

bmclaughlin807

I love the Walmart fights. Personally, I can't say anything bad about them... here are my two major experiences with Walmart:

1. I grew up in a small town in Arizona, when they built the new Walmart there, it was the biggest Walmart store ever. Walmart paid to upgrade the surrounding streets, attracted several new businesses to the shopping center, and pays a pretty large amount of sales tax to the city, as people drive 50-100 miles to shop there. There is a 6 month long waiting list for jobs at that Walmart. Why? Because the whole area's economy depends on tourist money, and 75% or more of the jobs are minimum wage, part time retail, with no benefits at all. They're also pretty active in the community, and when we were evacuated due to a forest fire, they not only donated all their perishable food to the various shelters, they offered their parking lot for people to park cars that they wanted protected from the fire, if it came through. Being that it was as large as it was, and mostly clear of trees, it would be a lot easier to protect than cars parked at individual houses surrounded by trees.

2. Here in Denver they just built a new Walmart Supercenter near where I used to live. Did it destroy the neighborhood? Put everybody else out of business? On the contrary, they tore down an abandoned warehouse, a bank and house that had sat vacant for years, and attracted more than 10 new businesses.

The area went from a dead intersection with a barely hanging on gas station, an abandoned bank, and a few other shabby, decrepit looking buildings to a vibrant retail area, full of shops and restaurants. Even the existing businesses that stayed where they were cleaned up their buildings quite a bit. Yeah, it was terrible for the neighborhood.

Oh, did I mention that I ride my bike there all the time? They have a bike rack right in the middle of the front of the building.

bmclaughlin807

Maybe not, but I ride home with about 100lbs of grocery items every week on my bike.