<p>WalMart has pretty inexpensive weight plates for barbells and dumbbells.</p>
<p>They have very good prices for bulk protein bars.</p>
<p>What they have can be found at other stores but sometimes one-stop shopping is more convenient.</p>
<p>I shop exclusively at Wal-Mart for very inexpensive work-out clothes. Usually Danskin. I never see the same stuff anywhere else.</p>
<p>I also think asking if millionaires shop at Walmart is too broad a question. I bet plenty of them would shop at Walmart for certain items, but not for others.</p>
<p>It’s sort of like the Sear’s shopper. Plenty of wealthy people would shop there for applicances or tools–but they are not headed there for their wardrobe or jewelry.</p>
<p>Same with Walmart. I’m far from a millionaire, but Walmart is not on my list of stores to shop for clothes (TJMaxx and Marshalls are). However, we have made trips to Walmart for a dorm refrigerator and a tool box.</p>
<p>I bet if they keep track of what people purchase at Walmart, they would find that the household salary earned will be lower for people who are buying clothing items on a regular basis vs people who shop for hard goods or dry goods. This would especially be the case in areas where there are a lot of other places to shop for clothing.</p>
<p>Wal-Mart has the socks I like.</p>
<p>“Just to clarify on why I would never shop at Walmart. Walmart pays extemely low wages, barely over minimum wage and the majority of their employess rely on some type of public assistance for healthcare, because they can’t afford to pay the premium for their own healthcare.” </p>
<p>A part-time Walmart employee that has to pay the smoking penalty pays $3,325 a year in premiums, with large deductible. Any resident of MA who pays their own health insurance pays significant more in premiums per person and with large deductibles. Public employees get these great health benefits because joe taxpayer has been saddled with the costs of their health benefits. In the private world, all employees pay the actual cost of the premiums themselves in the form of reduced salaries. Walmart’s health plan is $1 per day per person, if the associate does not smoke. There is only one restriction, PT employees can only cover themselves and their children, not the spouse. The plan is very affordable.</p>
<p>From NYT, “a sales associate at the Wal-Mart in Placerville, Calif., said that the premiums for the H.M.O. plan for herself and her 5-year-old son would rise to $18 every two weeks from $10. Her big concern, she said, was that her deductible would jump to $5,000 a year, from $1,000”</p>
<p>Wow, I pay $95 by-weekly for employee/child and have $4k deductible.
BTW, for those who like to badmouth Walmart, “other competitors like Home Depot, do not offer their part-time workers the same health plans they offer full-time workers. Instead, those employees can enroll in plans that sharply limit the amount of coverage.”</p>
<p>My mom says that many of the country club women she knows (many of whose spouses net over $1 M/year) are the most frugal people you will meet anywhere and pay close attention to how they spend their money. </p>
<p>I know many whose net worth excluding real estate is over $1M who DO shop at WalMart while others choose not to. Am not sure what this thread is supposed to be eliciting. When you have enough assets, you surely are able to choose where you shop and what you buy–which items you splurge on and which items you buy as cheaply as practical and where you obtain such items.</p>
<p>I find that WalMart in the early morning weekdays is much more pleasant to shop in than at most other times, FWIW. As it is not convenient to where I live, I don’t shop there very often and much prefer Costco or local CVS or grocery stores, which are closer and generally have what I want/need.</p>
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<p>I don’t. Never have, never will. </p>
<p>I prefer to shop at second hand stores and local mom and pop shops. For food, farmers markets in the summer and Meijer in the winter. For the reasons why I wouldn’t- well, the stereotypical reasons that have been stated over and over again by many. </p>
<p>Oh, I’m also not a millionaire (obviously), but I just wanted to respond to that question :)</p>
<p>The problem with “millionaire” is that term was given its character and stereotype many decades ago when a typical guy out of college was happy to land a high 4 digit salary. Many people in our social circle are millionaires especially when you factor in paid-up real estate. And those public servants with generous defined pension plans really are sitting on million dollars (or close to) if you look at the actuarial values of their pension payout. It’s a bit like comparing the atmosphere in a casino in a 60s James Bond movie to what you’d experience if you walked into one today after a busload of seniors had been discharged on a mid-week discount trip.</p>
<p>So I would hazard a guess that a lot of millionaires shop at Walmart, but it doesn’t mean anything.</p>
<p>Why shop Walmart (what do they have that other retailers do not)? </p>
<p>They have the market power to get, by far, the best deals from from their suppliers. About 10 years ago, before they had started a push into big cities, Walmart typically had 30% market share in any product line they sold. To put that in perspective second place was typically under 10%. For example, Walmart sells more office products than Staples, Office Depot, or Office Max and it’s not close … and they don’t even push office supplies.</p>
<p>The extent they leverage this market power certainly gives them a price advantage in many-many cases … it also leads to practices that keeps some shoppers away.</p>
<p>Consumer Reports just released a study on supermarkets, and found that Walmart was near the bottom of the list in consumer preference. They do a lot of volume because they are perceived to be cheaper, and many folks (even well-off ones) will tolerate a fair-to-poor customer experience if they think they are saving money.</p>
<p>(A millionaire in assets, even excluding home equity, doesn’t mean much in terms of spending power with current monetary policies. Invest that million in supposedly safe 10yr US bonds, and it will generate about $20K in annual income. Better have a day job, too, and use Walmart only for upscale shopping trips.)</p>
<p>Another reason for everyone to shop at Walmart: the entertainment value of the other shoppers. If you can afford to waste some time, check out the addictive images of bizarre shoppers at peopleofwalmart-dot-com. Not for the queasy.</p>
<p>Don’t shop at Walmart,they carry not a single item of clothing i’d wear, and for the most part, you get what you pay for…Quality and Walmart are usually not used in the same sentence, also i don’t care for their business practices…</p>
<p>And while i am sure there are a few frugal millionaires who roam Walmart stores, i seriously doubt many shop there on a regular basis…</p>
<p>Furthermore, not to sound like the elitist i will be called shortly, the clientel,for the most part, are a shady group of people,there is a reason the thing you brush your teeth with is called a TOOTH brush,check out the folks wandering the aisles. :)</p>
<p>Most people who are shopping there are not shopping for clothes, qdogpa. I don’t go regularly but maybe once every couple of months for things like office supply-type things, printer paper, pens, envelopes, tape; detergent, fabric softener, garbage bags, paper products; and I go when they have diapers on sale to help my daughter stock up. Oh, and I doubt that anyone would describe me as frugal.</p>
<p>^^ Huh? qdogpa, I don’t understand your point about tooth brushes.</p>
<p>Many…if they are up to shopping.<br>
Some people do not care to go shopping at all…</p>
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<p>Fruit of the Loom underwear is the same at WalMart as it is at Target. Fruit of the Loom is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.</p>
<p>I’ve wore jeans from WalMart for many years. They last a long time. I’m currently wearing jeans purchased 20+ years ago due to extreme weight loss.</p>
<p>I’ve purchased many pairs of socks from them - no problems.</p>
<p>I’ve purchased belts there too - no problems.</p>
<p>I’ve purchased those really cheap jackets ($8) which are fuzzy on the inside and cloth with hand pockets and button chest pockets on the outside. They keep you warm in the winter and you don’t care if you damage or lose them. I don’t wear them anymore because I’ve gotten a lot smaller.</p>
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<p>We go there a few times a year. WalMart isn’t really convenient for us - my wife likes to go there from time to time and we usually spend two hours there. I spend most of the time on my laptop in the Subway.</p>
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<p>The one that we go to is in a city that’s adjacent to one of the best school districts in our state and it’s a complete bedroom community. It has no grocery or department stores and has one restaurant. There’s another affluent community next to it. A lot of those folks go to WalMart simply because there aren’t a lot of choices around.</p>
<p>Alwaysmom, don’t you find the prices are no differnt then that of say, Staples for office products?i see their ad in sundays paper,and don’t find them to be lower then anyone on most products…they guarantee lowest price,but like Toy R Us does, they aren’t the lowest price…if you find a lower price, they match or beat it…</p>
<p>I’ve found that WalMart’s prices on technology (computer stuff) has always been awful and they frequently carry obsolete stuff. It’s one area that I avoid.</p>
<p>BC, we shop in different places ,i guess…quality is not Walmart’s forte,price is…amd you get what you pay for…can’t imagine buying any article of clothing there…Don’t care for their business practices,or how they treat their employees…</p>
<p>qdogpa, as I mentioned, I go when they have their big sales on diapers to help my D stock up for my GD. 
When I’m there, I also get the other mentioned items that I need. The items I buy are usually a little cheaper than at Staples but, as I said, I’m not really a consciously frugal person so it’s more convenience than the savings. I know several neighborhood kids who have worked at Wal-Mart through high school and it’s just as good a retail job as any but then, as I may have mentioned once or twice here, we don’t have those pesky health insurance problems. I live in an affluent area so perhaps the clientel here are different than elsewhere, but I’m not sure why that matters, to be honest. I also shop at Whole Foods but not because their customers might have large bank accounts.</p>
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pretty much true … however … while at Walmart you can shop at virtually an even price as a series of specialty stores … why go to Staples, Bed & Beth, Pep Boys, etc when you go one place at get all the items at one stop relatively cheap.</p>
<p>Again, I do not frequent Walmart but I certainly see why many do.</p>