Do you mostly shop at places like Walmart or Target?

Parent Cafe
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There is a thread about “your most beloved shop in all the world.” This makes me wondering whether there are other CC parents who are like our family: We shop mostly at the Walmart (in the past) or the Target (now). Or, we are really a minority there.

When DS was a freshman in college, the majority of the families of his suitemates seem to be more well-to-do than us. At one time, a suitemate made a comment that it is “depressing” to go to a shop like Walmart. DS said in response: “that is almost the only place my parents shop.” It was true we had said the following while our child was growing up with us: We only need the Walmart and a grocery store for our everyday shopping need.

To be sure, right now, we also shop quite often at Amazon. But for a real store, we still go to the Target mostly.

BTW, we noticed the Target is more “upscale” than the Walmart on the west coast (especially, their location is in a more upscale area), while on the south where we used to live, they are more comparable. So the stores we shop have been upgraded recently.

Also, because we mostly shopped at such stores, we did not not know where we could shop for a better quality clothes for DS when he headed to the NE where the weather in the winter could be “brutal” (at least brutal in our opinion.) That was when I found the CC. In a sense, the first thing that I found this forum is useful is that there are many parents here who know where to buy a better quality winter clothes. We found LL Bean here at that time. (We found the North Face, slightly later, after DS had been in college. He still has not had any North Face jacket just because we had found LL Bean first. He must have learned more about the brand name stuff from his GF since last year. LOL. I heard he described his mom in the following way to his GF: My mom is a very practical person. She would never buy flowers. Well, she bought a very expensive (in our standard) corsage for his high school prom date and now encouraged him to buy flowers for his GF. She was not unreasonably practical.)

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I should add that, for what our child needs (or occasoonally wants), we do buy “expensive” stuff. Both his violin and piano cost in the range of $5000. His other music gears cost us a lot also. His smartphone is iPhone 6. His latop is Macbook Pro (before that, Thinkpad T43.) So we do buy more upper-end stuff for him. It is just for our own “everyday need”, we buy cheap stuff. We also inherited, say, the computer he stopped using (if it is still usable.) Oh…we do go to Home Depot or Lowe’s - especially when we lived in a house.

3

I think the thread about “beloved” stores has nothing to do with regular, everyday shopping. That being said, since I live in So California where the retail scene is highly competitive and diverse, Walmart has not been as successful making the inroads it has made in other parts of the country. For a variety of reasons, that tend to make people on CC angry, I will not set foot in a Walmart. Besides it is not the most competitive retailer here so what’s the point of shopping at a place that makes me angry. I can’t think of one retail store that gets more than 10% of my spending. Places I shop for food and household supplies:Costco, Trader Joes, our local farmers market, Smart and Final, Ralphs, Sprouts, Target and once in a blue moon, Whole Foods. For clothing and everything else, it’s all over the map. I shop online direct to retailers most of the time and I also like shopping at discounters like Nordstom’s Rack.
Whenever possible I also like to spend a little extra and give my business to the local retailers (bakery, butcher and florist) in my smalll town. This is all about freshness, local sourcing and the good feeling it gives me to interact with people I know and love.

4

I can’t stand Walmart and can barely stand Target. I certainly recognize the value of these stores and the items that might be worth buying there, but they aren’t for me. My husband does a lot of our shopping for household things and food at Costco and Sam’s, though.

5

We stop going to the Walmart (in Northern California) mostly. It is mostly because it is difficult to park our car there. My wife said it was aggravating to find a good parking spot there (similarly at COSTCO here - we are a member there but it is kind of wasteful for us to be COSTCO members, because we almost never shop there - we only bought our tire and occasionally vitamin/medicine there.) My wife still got her glasses from the Walmart though.

My wife loves Sprouts, but never shops at Trader Joe’s. We will hunt down the Whole Food (quite far from where we live now) whenever we want to buy special treats to be mailed to our child (usually during winter only) but we ourselves never buy anything there. We need to buy more special treats now because of his GF.

The only time we need to go to a shopping mall is when we needed to go to an Apple Store in that mall - to buy iPhone for our child. It is aggravating to find a parking space there.

6

We buy a lot of stuff at Target. And Costco. TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, etc.

7

As an American now living in London, I can say that the American store that I miss the most is Target. There is nothing comparable here. Outside of central London, there is Asda, which is owned by Walmart but the quality and “ambiance” is not like Target. When I go back to the States, I just wander the aisles buying everything from T shirts and underwear to chocolate chips and BBQ sauce. I usually bring an extra suitcase!

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Avoid Walmart at all costs - but have to say that our Walmart is similar to the “stereotype” Walmart in terms of shoppers. Not a pleasant experience overall! There is one across the street from where I work yet I visited it very briefly last week for the first time in a year.

Like Target, but only go occasionally. Only when I need to. If there was one a hop-skip away from home I might go more often, but I won’t make a trip out there to just browse or anything - only with a purpose.

I think this is a good thing cause I could surely get sucked up into buying things I don’t really need.

9

We do not have a Walmart in the area, and I would not go there anyway.
We do have a Target out by the mall, but I don’t go there either.( or to the mall)
We have locally owned grocery stores where we buy groceries. Also locally owned hardware stores although occasionally we need to go to Home Depot.
I buy garden supplies at local nurseries or at Fred Meyer.
( a Portland chain which was bought by Kroger)
Fred Meyer is a decent store, it’s close and the workers are unionized.

REI is probably the biggest local chain I regularly shop, although I also consider it local, and it is technically a cooperative, as the grocery store.
I also like to shop in my immediate neighborhood when I can, although I admit, I have used online shopping- even Amazon, to buy something I couldn’t find locally, or don’t have time to make a special trip to buy.
But we moved to the city all these years ago, * because* of the vitality of the neighborhoods.
If local shops aren’t supported, they go away. I don’t want them to go away, so I budget a little extra, for the extra service and quality I get by staying local.
Some I admit I * want * to go away, so I never go there, like the “too pretentious for their shirt” coffee shop that is only two blocks away. It doesn’t kill me to make my own coffee or go a little farther.

Home Depot has agreed to stop selling plants treated with neonicotinoids, but looked like Lowes has not.
http://www.foe.org/beeaction
I think it matters where we spend our money, I want the businesses to keep it in the community.

I also don’t believe in buying adult children higher end stuff than I do for myself.
Young people- even young adults are materialistic oftentimes, I realize, but they don’t have an innate need for expensive items that they cannot afford to purchase themselves. If they do, then they can work and save for it, like everyone else. :slight_smile: it will mean more to them, when they do.

I understand that while children are at home, they are generally living higher up the food chain than they will be while at college or on their own, but I think it is deterimental to their sense of autonomy, to constantly be bolstering their finances. That demonstrates that I don’t think they can manage a budget or are able to make do with less.

10

Walmart has been banned in my house for years. They went against us in competitive bid, beat us, yet don’t sell the product as it’s a medical product, not retail. I don’t support their business model.

11

Most of my shopping is at HEB (grocery store), Target and Amazon. I don’t like Wal-Mart for many reasons and will not shop there.

12

We live in SoCal and are Target fans. Very rare occasions to shop at Walmart (plus there just aren’t very many around). It really does depend on what items we are shopping for. My husband is a huge Amazon shopper, but will go to Target for some clothing items. We are huge Trader Joe’s fans! As our family size is shrinking, I am finding that we shop there more and more.

13

I don’t shop at Walmart because it’s not in a stripmall that I consider safe. My DH and I will go occassionally when he wants something from there. I also dislike the layout, but if it were in a safer area I’d go. I like Target and frequent it, but not for clothing. Nothing ever seems to fit me right. I shop everywhere, start at the least expensive places and work my way up if I can’t find something. I’ve been shopping Amazon ALOT this month trying to find things for vacation this summer that I can’t find at stores. I also like consignment stores, we have some GREAT ones around here. They are very picky in what they sell…they have specific racks of WHBM, Chicos, JCrew…very nice. I typically don’t shop Nordstroms or that expensive. For some reason I get intimidated by those stores, yet I’ll go to Amazon and buy something at around the same price. I don’t know why I’m like that.

14

Yes. We mostly shop at Walmart, Target, warehouse club, and the outlet stores. Never buy anything full price. My kids are used to it : Mom, can we get this? Me: is it on sale?
Squeeze every dime until it begs for mercy.

15

I shop our local “boutiques”: Costco, REI, Nordstrom (and their Rack especially), and Amazon. :wink:

16

Target and Amazon are my go–tos. When the girls were younger, I bought all their clothes at
Kohls (but only when I had a 30% off coupon). Apparently Kohls was not looked upon
favorably at high school so when someone asked where they got a cute top, they lied and said
another store name!

17

I used to shop at Target and Costco more when the kids lived with us. Now that it’s just Dh and myself, it’s the local REI, Nordstrom, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, or online L.L. Bean for clothing. Sometimes I’ll try Neiman’s or Sak’s sale if I need something really special for an event- maybe once a year, but it will require an hour trip to Orange County or taking a chance online. Since our kids left, my shopping habits have “moved up” a bit. :wink:
For garden, I use our local nurseries. Amazon for books or small hard to find items.

For food, it’s Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and I also belong to a CSA that delivers fresh produce. We also have a small boutique grocery that I frequent if I’m in the area and need something specific or am in the mood to cook something special.

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I try very very hard not to shop at Walmart. Everything about their corporate practices and philosophy turns me off. But I concede that there are basics (like curtain rods and trash cans) that are easier to buy there. I wish there was a Costco closer to me. I do shop at Target, Staples and Amazon; TJ Maxx and Marshalls. Our locally owned supermarket was just bought by a chain, and I feel my loyalty evaporating, so not sure now where I’ll go for food.

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OP- you are definitely not the only one who shops like this. We don’t go to Target as much since our youngest lesft for college but it is still my go-to for cleaning supplies, food staples, cosmetics and some electronics. I avoid Walmart like the plague- we are in So. Calif. and don’t have as many here, and they are not very nice stores here. I know where my sister lives in Arizona, Walmart is all they had for years and it was much nicer than ours. Now that she has more options, she won’t shop there for other reasons.

We also shop at Costco a lot- I used to buy more from Amazon, but I refuse to pay the increased fee for Amazon Prime so don’t buy much there anymore. I’m a mid-range shopper when it comes to clothes- I’ll sometimes buy basics at Target but for the most part don’t buy clothes there. My H wears suits/dress shirts for work so we shop for him a couple of times a year at usually Macy’s. Our younger D worked at Anthropologie for years so shopped there a lot but with her huge discount. I have trouble paying their regular prices. One of the largest outlet malls in Calif. happens to be in our town but I actually don’t shop there a lot. Many of the “outlet” stores are actually not discounted at all or carry special merchandise-not their regular line. One of the places where I can get great deals is the North Face Outlet-sometimes find things for 75-80% off. We also live near the Patagonia factory and their outlet, where we find great outdoors clothing and suppllies.

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^^^^^^^ LUCKY!!! I would love to have access to a Patagonia factory/outlet!!!