1st Walmart Overnite

gypsymom said:

Hi, I am new here and am still in the planning stage.  I just found this post odd as I have never heard anyone accuse Walmart of being expensive.  But, I'm from Kansas and here in Kansas Walmart is the cheap place to shop - most snub their nose to it as they would never be seen shopping at Walmart.  So I was wondering - is Walmart not the same everywhere?

Being from Kansas and barely being outside of Kansas I am sure I am going to have my eyes open to many new things.  My first destination trip is going to be to Manhattan.  I am excited about this and scared all at the same time as I will be traveling alone with children.  I do have a tazor and have used it before.  I have seen other post in other forums and have never seen anyone say they didn't feel safe in the Walmart parking lots. 

Anyway... enough rambling... how about the cost variance in different Walmart locations? 

Click to expand...

If you want to stay at Wal*Mart for visiting Manhattan the best place is Wal*Mart at 400 Park Place Secaucus NJ 07094 GPS 40.790561 - 74.044055
From here you can catch the New Jersey Bus direct into Manhattan ($3.15 each way). The Bus runs every 6 minutes Monday to Friday and on the weekend 10 to 20 minutes.

We would much rather stay at a campground also but Walmart has done the trick on more than one occasion. If we could find a campground fairly close to the highway for $20.00 and just sit in the parking lot I'd love it but they all want you to park in a spot and when there we usually open the bedroom slide and nothing else.


Gary

Sam Walton was an avid RVer and he is the one responsible for the policy allowing Rvers to stay in the Walmart parking lots over night. Think about it. 5000 stores, about 6 RVs per store per night and each one spends at least $50. Millions per year. I have spent a lot of nights at a Walmart parking lot and never had a problem. I feel safer there than in a campground. Walmart security is more on the job than ANY campground host. My cell phone almost always works in a Walmart parking lot and rarely works in a campground. I don't see the problem with putting down the jacks and popping out the slides. I see that happen at almost every Walmart I have stayed at.

I can understand why certain people would not want to stay at a Walmart, but I can't understand why they would bad mouth the concept if they have never tried it. Thinking it is somehow unsafe is silly.

Lighten up, we're just having a little fun, and that includes folks who overnight at WM and those that don't. Heck, I even make fun of myself in that linked message. OTOH it is amusing to see how folks rationalize their behavior .

Anyone seen the movie documentary This is nowhere? Here's a short description of the movie.

I wish I could lighten up but no diet I try works. I am giving up junk food for my New Years resolution.

Me too  ;D

I've given up New Year's Resolutions. They cause too much guilt and take too much pleasure out of life (at least until January 15 or so).

Simple diets work best: If it tastes good spit it out!

Good plan, Jeff, but....

Here is my plan. (still at same weight I was at age 20 - 185 lbs, 6'1")

   Have a light breakfast. At lunch time, if you are hungry, have one can of beer.
That will get you to 3pm. Then have a dish of ice cream, to get your carbs.

  At dinner eat only what DW cooks. No problem with weight control.  ;D  *

* Mind you that only works for retired people.

   Stay under 2000 calories and you'll be fine.

carson FL 72? F.

** I will not be responsible for adverse effects on anyone.

Have a nice Year End. everyone.

Carson, are you saying that beer is not just for breakfast anymore?

LOL Lou, I gave that up with a New Year Resolution 70 years ago.

Yeah, I'm trying to change my habits too.  My doctor told me not to drink on an empty stomach so I eat a beer for breakfast then I can drink one for lunch.

Tom:

We have that movie (TV Documentary) and we LOVE it!  It is one of the funniest documentaries we have ever seen.  Next time we see you at a rally will be glad to show it to you or lend it to you.  It was produced by a Montana TV station.

Now I will admit, any non RVer seeing it will get a VERY negative view about staying at WalMarts.  But I have never seen anything like it in real life and that is what makes the documentary so funny.

I guess we have mixed emotions... it surely does not give non RVers a very good impression.  But RVers love it because it rivals the Robin Williams movie!!

BTW, when we reported this summer our misfortune about getting hit by dozens of Wal-Mart shopping carts in a storm in Terre Haute, we didn' report back on the final outcome. 

Wal-Mart came up with several thousand dollars to cover all the body work that had to be done, and also rental car money.  We were told by our insurance company that they believed Wal_Mart would not pay us a penny.  But since we did not want our insurance rates to go up, we dealt directly with Wal-Mart. 

The WM claims manager told us one of the main things that worked in our behalf was the parking lot cameras.  They watched the whole thing on tape.  They were especially impressed by seeing me get out of the coach at 2 am and run around for 45 minutes chasing hundreds of carts and preventing many potential disasters.  In fact, I was so busy chasing down carts I did not see any of the carts hitting our own vehicles because they were parked at the far back end of the lot.

I think we got better treatment on this claim than we would have gotten from most campgrounds under similar conditions.

Smoky,

Thanks for the report on the movie. I was hoping someone had seen it.

Glad to hear the positive outcome with WM over the shopping cart issue. Didn't realize your vehicles sustained such a high degree of damage.

Tom:

Most of the damage was done to the car.  In fact I didn't file any claim on the MH.

However I learned something about body repair shops.  It appears they WAAAY overcharge.  We got three estimates and they ranged from $1400 to $2000 for some dents on the front right fender and the right door.

We got our check very quickly from WM and we were going to go to the lowest price.  Almost on a whim I stopped at Mako (spelling?) which we had overlooked when we got the estimates.  This particular shop in Surprise, AZ is run by two Mexican brothers.  The guy looked at it for less than a minute and told me he would fix it for $250.  Frankly I didn't believe him.  He did admit that they did not order new fenders like the estimate people had said, but that we would never be able to tell the result was not brand new.

Then he pointed out some scratches on the rear and front bumper panels and said they had a special going and for another $200 a piece he would fix those additional two panels.  The entire job would cost $650 including tax.  The Admiral and I struggled over this and were afraid of the "No free lunch" theory.  But a sixth sense told us these hard working Mexicans were really solid.  We also noticed how efficient the shop was behaving while we discussed it all.  The clincher was when he told us we could have the car back the next day.

We picked up what appeared to be a brand new Taurus the next afternoon.  We were astonished.  I'd recommend these people without hesitation.

I wonder what they would charge to remove decals, paint and clear-coat a motor home.

Well, I figured I might do a Wally World overnite tonight.  Stopped in Quincy, FL, parked, went in, and while walking in, a number of cars went by with loud music, (rhymes with crap), the clientele just didn't make me comfortable.  (and this after the handgun thread!, I figure I am ready, just didn't want to need it)...  So, we moved down the road a bit and booked into a FHU site.  Relaxing now, TV on, PC online, and a beer keeps calling my name.

Bill:

Was this Quincy FL WM off an interstate exchange?  Most of the really good WMs we have stayed at where located near Interstate exchanges.  I have never flt uncomfortable at any of those.

However I have been uncomfortable at some WMs well off the national routes, whether they be in a city or rural.  In fact, some of them we wouldn't even be able to fit a motorcoach.  WMs are mainly useful, in my opinion, as quick stopping points on national routes when you are trying to cover great distances each day.

Lorna:

I have no idea if they do such work on motorcoaches, but if you wish, in the next couple of days, I will stop in there and ask some general questions.

That would be appreciated since we won't be in AZ this winter.

Just off of Rt 10.  Maybe 2 miles, if that.