Lol, someone please explain this logic to me… 
The former has much more publicized negative PR baggage, disagreement with family’s politics for some, and for some folks I knew from California…especially USC alums, negative PR from the academic cheating scandal involving one of their family members/heirs.
Latter doesn’t have as much publicized negative PR baggage and some view it as a bit more upscale*.
- Really depends on the individual store rather than the entire chain IME. And I'd assume the same with Walmarts.
@fractalmstr #143, there’s a social class component, first of all—I remember (over a decade ago, so mentally adjust for inflation as necessary) reading something that said each car in a Walmart parking lot represented an annual household income of ~$35k, each car in a Target parking lot represented just under ~$50k, and each one in a Costco parking lot nearly ~$70k.
There’s also the fact that Target marketed themselves early on as purveyors of high-fashion products (made by actual name designers) at down-scale prices, and by carving that niche for themselves they gained a lot of middle-class goodwill that remains to this day, I think.
Getting back to the original thrust of the thread, I got a 43, which is just above the border between 1st-gen middle class with working-class parents, and 1st-gen upper-middle class with middle-class parents; since I’m 1st-gen upper-middle (or higher) class with parents who kept teetering on the edge of middle and working class, I’d say it did pretty well on me. I have some issues with the precise markers that were used, but it’d probably have to be a way too long for pleasantness survey to do better.
145 That's interesting but it may be due in part to location. Costco is in the suburbs and other affluent areas. Walmarts are in small rural towns.
For whatever reasons, Walmarts have taken the blame for a number of things (whether rightfully or wrongfully is debateable). For example, with their obsession about being the lowest price, period, studies have determined that Walmart, because of its size, had an oversize influence on vendors sending jobs overseas, everything from home appliances to tools to other things, vendors to meet Walmart’s price point basically had no choice. Target obviously sells a lot of stuff made overseas, but they were seen (again, talking perceptions here) as being more ‘upscale’ and their motto was not “lowest prices, period”, so they took a lot less of the heat. Likewise, I doubt Target pays its people more or gives better benefits, but when all the stuff about Walmart deliberately limiting hours of people so they didn’t get health care benefits, and the studies that showed that Walmart employees often got their benefits through government programs (medicaid, food stamps, etc) and it led to the perception that Walmart was ‘using’ the government to make more money. Also, with Walmart, it is a very different experience where I live and small town America. Where I live, there are Walmarts, but there also are Targets and there are plenty of stores to get things you can get at Walmart. In small towns, what often happened was Walmart moved in, they forced out anyone else, and then in more than a few cases, deciding the town economically wasn’t making them enough money, pulled out, leaving people having to go a long distance to find another store (often another walmart), leaving the town basically wiped out of stores and such.
It is debatable whether Walmart is the ‘baddie’ and Target is ‘the good guy’ (I doubt it) but Walmart also changed focus when Sam Walton died, they went from being a service oriented store that had decent prices into being an upscale dollar store where service wasn’t where it was at IMO and I think that hurt them. I talked to employees at Walmarts I was in (long before they came to my area, talking the early 90’s when the nearest ones were not even in NJ), and they had pride in working there and in the service they gave, that died a long time ago when Walton’s kids took over.
I know someone who worked at Safeway. They limited hours so workers couldn’t get health benefits also.
Elizabeth Laurie’s cheating at USC 12 years ago is old news (hope she paid the roommate well to write her papers for her for several years!) and return of her USC diploma 11 yrs ago is the least of Walmart’s bad press. Walmart is notorious for reports of, wage inequality, sex discrimination and glass ceilings, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/walmart-sex-discrimination-women-_n_1575859.html and the hour limits to limit benefits as noted above (thought ;lots of employers now do that too) …
So, back to topic, This “survey” is silly for a number of reasons. The regional component is pretty apparent, and the HUGE swath of score ranges (11-80) with a potential range of 0-99 says most are first generation upper middle class with middle class parents. That’s a big duh.
We have both and we are in the suburbs.
@dfbdfb I appreciate your serious explanation. My statement was more of a rhetorical one though.
I get the socioeconomic differences between Target and Walmart shoppers, and that Target is generally nicer to shop at. I prefer Target as well. I just think it is a little amusing that some people want to boycott Walmart because of their business practices when in reality, Target is very similar, if not worse in some aspects. 
“They limited hours so workers couldn’t get health benefits also.”
Tons of retail employers around me do that. It’s the norm.
IMO, Walmart gets the brunt of criticism because its the biggest/market leader just like McDonalds is the whipping boy of the fast food world, even though they’ve made more efforts to improve the quality and healthiness of their food than some others.
In my neck of the woods, Walmart has gotten better while Target is going downhill. We don’t have Costco.
And that’s the ironic rub.
Some of the Target stores I’ve visited were very nice. Others I’ve been to in the same general area were shabbier and it showed the manager/employees didn’t really care enough to put in the barest minimum effort.
Re: employers limiting hours to avoid paying for medical insurance
Obviously, this is a distortion in the labor market created by the tradition of medical insurance as an employee benefit and the high cost of medical care. (And ACA neither caused nor fixed it.)
I got 51, though don’t watch TV and have not seen any of the movies. Being a small town back to the land sort of person in my 20s scored me a lot of points, including the poverty I lived in at time and the Greyhound trips. The ex, being of the same persuasion, drove a pick up. Working as an RN with sore feet is yet another point. The question about Rotary stumped me. Rotary is typically business and civic leaders. My involvement with them stems from Rotary Youth Exchange.
Oh yeah, I don’t own a pickup, but my Dad did for a while when he was pretending to be a gentleman farmer. (He grew grapes, but never got to the wine stage of the operation.) I talk to contractors nearly every day, sometimes we even talk about hunting or politics.
All that said, I think I fully deserve my low score. One thing that is sort of interesting to me is that when my kids were in elementary school I had lots of PTA friends who were from blue collar families, but as the kids grew older we socialized less and less. Part of it was that a lot happens through churches and those families were mostly Catholic. Part of it is that as the kids got older they had fewer if any classes together. Neither of my kids did sports which has the big advantage of moving across class lines.
The Costcos where I live are nice stores, but the one up where my late dad lived was, shall we say, rough around the edges. And it was sad the degree of security they had to to to try to minimize theft at that store up there.
Pickup truck was kind of a unfair questions for parents. I have kids. A Pickup truck or sports cars wouldn’t work for my family. Now have they said mini van many of us on this site might be able to mark yes
“Pickup truck was kind of a unfair questions for parents. I have kids. A Pickup truck or sports cars wouldn’t work for my family.” You haven’t seen the pickup trucks in my neck of the woods. They are crew cabs and can easily fit a family of six. Then you too can bomb around driving super aggressively, tailing others constantly, and being the most obnoxious driver on the road. But that is a topic for another thread.
Minivans tend to be popularly associated with “elite” upper-middle/middle class suburbanites in mainstream popular culture.
One stark example of this was the widespread Burger King ad campaign some years back using a parody of Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” song which included a group of “rebellious men” pushing a minivan off an overpass into a dumpster below.
A friend of mine is in the heart of NYC upper west side. Does not own a car. Cannot drive. Takes busses and trains everywhere. Greyhound very much included (Jolt bus, Big Bus, etc.) Same thing for my sister. She lives in heart of DC. Also trains, busses, metros everywhere. No car. No driving. Neither would fall on the presumed side politically. Not even close.