A fascinating story about WalMart and how it seems to be a hotbed for crime. The article, from Bloomberg, mind you, makes the implication that it’s WalMarts fault for all the crime and this it is somehow taking advantage of overworked police departments.
I shop at WalMart for groceries. There is no doubt in my mind that WalMart id a good place to save a few bucks on things like groceries and housewares. However, because of those ‘everyday low prices’ it is also a magnet for the very low income. Now, not all very low income people are criminals or troublemakers….but many of those VLI people are VLI people because they’re scum. In other words, because they’re tweakers, drug users, criminals, gnagsters, and morons, thats the reason they’re very low income…not the other way around. A person can still be dirt poor and still be a good person…if they already started as one.
Anyway, this is the reason I never, ever go to WallyWorld without a pistol and a healthy dose of situational awareness. And a huge bottle of hand sanitizer in the vehicle.
The article goes on to say that the Target stores don’t have the same issue. Interestingly, in this town, Target has a rep for being *very* pro-active on the shoplifters. They take that stuff quite seriously and their loss-prevention guys sometimes wind up getting into law enforcement. Back in the day, Rudy Giuliani had the ‘broken window’ approach to crime fighting…previous administrations had let the little crimes (fare jumping, drinking in public, littering, etc) go ignored in the name of concentrating on the big crimes. Giuliani figured if you come down on the little crimes, you stop people from graduating to bigger crimes, improve quality of life, and reduce crime. To a degree, it worked. (There were some..uh..civil liberties…issues raised, but thats another story.)
As I used to tell someone, when there finally is a mass shooting event of some type in this town it’s gonna be at the Super WalMart. Sometimes its a freak show out there. Especially in the South.
Re carry, yer preachin’ to the choir, brother! I go there under duress and my head is on a swivel. One of our three superwallyworlds was being remodeled which left the parking lot unlit; “I don’t always walk with my hand on the butt of my gun, but when I do, I’m at Walmart”.
I think our WM is pretty safe, due to it’s location, but I still don’t go at night. A couple times I’ve stopped there after evening church services – definitely a different type of customer. I’ve even noticed a difference between morning & afternoon customers – morning is much better.
Go on the first of the month when the
welfarefood stamps“benefits” have posted to their EBT cards…it’s a real show then.We have a great grocery store (HyVee) in my area. They have clean stores, fresh food, and friendly people. They also take a “we stand by the law” approach to concealed carry, whereas their major competitor (Dahls, now out of business) posted Gun Free Zone signage. Even if their prices are nominally higher than Walmart, I’m very happy to give HyVee my business for all of the above reasons.
On the small number of occasions in which circumstances dictate a visit to Walmart, I’m always in and out as quickly as possible.
I do wish that Target stores sold ammunition, though.
Our local grocery is the best for fresh food, including meat. I usually buy non-food items at WM. One reason is that in spite of signs saying pets aren’t welcome, there are plenty of people who put their dogs in the carts. Yuck.
My Walmart philosophy is to go in the morning and leave before 10 am. The Walmart shoppers I want to avoid don’t seem to ever be around that time of day, and checkout is less like a trip to the DMV. Around here, there is very little crime from about 6 am to noon, with the vast bulk of it after dark and on the weekend. That fact is more important than where you live or where you shop. Scum have a predictable work schedule.
Here’s the money quote: Instead, he says, it offloads the job to the police at taxpayers’ expense.
A lot of Wally World’s profit come from off loading what should be its costs onto tax payers.
I’ve got a nice little grocery store down the street from me. I figure what I save on gas and hassles by not having to drive somewhere or deal with MegaMarts, which I dread going in, makes up for the few extra bucks their products cost me every month.
hell a 7 a.m. stop by the local food lion grocery store turned into a tactical learning situation the other day as a domestic argument wound up at the checkout line right in front of me complete with two goons brought along to beat the spouse up. i had just done the old should-i-carry-or-not before going in and luckily decided to carry. walmart, grocery store or your backyard, it’ll come when you least expect.
Heh, I live in a resort town in Colorado and our Walmart is pretty much the only thing going for most items with in 50 miles. So, while we do have a large amount of “poor” people, there is also a certain percentage of Ferraris and Porches in the lot at any given time.
Midnite to 6am seems to be optimum shopping time at the local WM, as far as least hassles go. You do have to dodge all the workers and their carts and boxes as they re-stock the shelves, though. Very few weirdos to look at, but then they can be seen on the web, if you want.