We had to go to Walmart tonight because they were the only store that had something that we as a family wanted very much. So, we, as a family, went to Walmart in Westminster. I have never been a big fan of Walmart. The quality of the clothing is not real high, the place is like a warehouse store with linoleum, and in some areas, it doesn’t attract the finer clientele, if you catch my drift.

Some Walmarts are fine, kept up nicely, not very disgusting at all. In my unscientific opinion, based on observation of about 4 Walmarts, these nicer stores are connected to malls, such as Buena Park Mall or Orange Mall. I have come to believe it is because there are numerous other shopping choices for customers, and therefore Walmart is forced to compete on a higher level. The disgusting ones have been stand-alone stores, or occupy the largest business in a strip mall. It’s a destination store that people intend to visit. They know they’ve got you.

I should have suggested we head to the one at Buena Park Mall. The Westminster Walmart has a filthy parking lot that I didn’t even want to walk through. There was trash and even an apple just strewn all down the walkway through the parking lot. The decorative fountains in the lot were not running, the concrete was broken up and in one place there was a chunk of concrete just sitting on the walkway. A big chunk, not a pebble, but a quasi-slab. Inside it just felt icky. Fortunately what we wanted was very close to the front of the store, we hit the self checkout and left. We had to walk that gauntlet back out to the car. Both times passing the stranded fruit, Melody said “there’s an apple!”

I guess I should try to focus on the sunny attitude of my child at times like this.

UPDATE: here’s #373, a shopper slapped a child – not his own – because she was crying. Read the story here.