The Thing I Didn’t Want to Do

WalMart.  I have been vocal for a very long time about not shopping at WalMart.  I don’t believe how they treat and pay their employees is conducive to a healthy society, and can’t wrap my brain around how profits are more valuable than the people who help you make those profits.  Cheep goods are just that, cheep.  But they come with a hidden cost that I’m not comfortable paying.  I’m elitist, I know.  I have many friends who shop there to help make ends meet.  If you can only afford so much, you go where you can make your money stretch the most. It’s just logic. I get it.

Off my soap box, I know that once on the road, WalMart will become a mainstay for the things we’ll need for the trailer.  They have the best selection for trailer equipment, they tend to be uniform from city to city, and they are freaking everywhere. Additionally there is the ever looming possibility that we might, for a night or two, boondock in one of WalMart’s fine parking lots.  You always see the campers in the back of the parking lots, I always assumed people were parked there to be out of the way while they shop.  Turns out that is a common place if you have to stop for the night, if you get stranded, or in some places like Alaska if you need a place to live for the summer.  There are rules on this type of camping, but mostly WalMart doesn’t seem to bother folks who need an overnight spot or two.

In order to breakup all the big, new experiences I’ll be having, and hunt down some storage solutions for the trailer, Ken and I went to a WalMart. And bought some crap. It’s true!  I am certain I was the most awkward thing in there, everyone else seemed totally at ease.  People from every socioeconomic class where there, families playing with toys, day laborers picking up some food and soda, sportsmen and women talking about different bate worms, a dude riding a bike through the store with a rug rolled up and crashing into everything. It somehow didn’t seem at all strange.

I will continue, however, to spend my money at places where I feel it will do the most good.  For now, things can and probably will change. If you hate change, stop reading now.