Woman asked to leave Walmart after staying 72 hours
A woman who spent 72 hours shopping, eating, and sleeping in a 24-hour Walmart in Lilburn, Georgia, was finally kicked out of the store by police.
[I]t is likely that because of all the shoppers, the woman was able to blend in with the carts, crowds and chaos and go unnoticed for 72 hours a week before Christmas. When asked by Wal-Mart employees why she was there for so long she simply said, 'I'm shopping.'Link (Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)The woman was escorted home by police after she paid for her merchandise.
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There was a movie about the same sort of stunt, pretty sure it was an actual Walmart in the movie. Can't remember the name though.
Stories like these boggle the mind...although this woman was obviously very clever to pick out Wal-Mart as her home away from home.
There are have been at least three or four movies (made-for-TV and otherwise) based around this sort of situation.
In fact, wasn't the great Tom Hanks in a movie about a guy living 24-7 in a terminal?
@Hyperkine - That would be Where the Heart Is, with Natalie Portman. It was a cute little movie, kind of cheesy, but fun for watching as background noise. The book it was based on (by Billie Letts) was much stranger, and the author didn't focus quite as much on the Wal-Mart as the movie did.
That being said, I would rather kill myself with a rusty Boy Scout knife set than spend more than 30 minutes in a Wal-Mart this time of year.
CHICKIE PANTS SAID:
"I would rather kill myself with a rusty Boy Scout knife set..."
Wal-Mart probably sells rusty Boy Scout knifes.
I live in San Francisco and, seeing as how we don't have a Wal-Mart, and are probably not getting one any time soon, I've never been inside one. Isn't that kind of strange? People think I'm being elitist when I say that but if there was one near me I would go. I've just never had the luxury of shopping at Wal-mart.
A long shopping list, that's all...
@ Anaxaforminges
Oh trust me, shopping at Wal-mart is not a luxury. I agree with Chickie Pants. You can borrow my rusty Boy Scout knife when I'm done.
She paid for her merchandise so I do not see any problem... except staying that long inside a Wal-Mart and...
Who are we kidding here:
She was kicked out because of her increasingly odious old-lady effluvia.
When I was homeless I would go to a local coffee shop, not Starbucks, buy a cup of coffee and spend a fair amount of time there.
Q: What is the first thing you learn when you are homeless?
A: There are no bathrooms for you anywhere.
Even if you want to stay away from the dealers and the working girls and the thugs on the street you can't. There is no where for you to go. No where for you to sit and rest. No where to relieve yourself. No where to eat. And everyone, everyone, is your enemy or wants something from you.
This was in socialist Minnesota where we actually try to take care of people here. I can't even imagine what it must be like in Georgia. America is a very sick place.
Insofar as she was escorted home, I expect she wasn't homeless.
That's not to say our "ignore the homeless" system is a good one, Noen. From a purely economic standpoint, it costs more in emergency room care and arrests to deal with the folks on the street than it would to provide inexpensive housing for every homeless person in America.
Ah yes, I didn't see that. Though I suspect there is more to the story there. Sorry.
@ Anaxaforminges:
Jump in a car and head down to Mountain View for all your Wal-Mart needs.
Or on second thought, don't. The place is dirty, the employees are zombies, and the prices aren't any better than Target.
Was she hot like Jennifer Connelly in Career Opportunities?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101545/
@ Noen,
You were homeless in Minnesota? Damn, I didn't even know Minn. had homeless people. I figured they would die in winter. It gets kind of cold in SF but nothing like Minnesota and I always wonder how the homeless can stand it. (I guess in fact, they don't. I've known several homeless guys in SF and they don't live long. They all died several years after I began to know them. Being homeless is a slow death sentence.)
Thanks for the advice, Xenu. I'll stick to Target in Colma.
theres a wall mart somewhere in the easy bay between oakland and san jose. i forget exactly where but only because i have no interest in going in a wall mart.
Business practices aside, the kind of people that shop at wall mart... it reminds me of living back in michigan.
To the dismay of alot of 'ethical' UK shoppers, walmart bought out the Asda chain and is slowly but surely developing these travesties across our fair land. Personally I think they are a great idea - you gather a vast demographic under one roof. Sure fire way to save on smart bombs imvho.
I live in San Francisco and, seeing as how we don't have a Wal-Mart, and are probably not getting one any time soon, I've never been inside one.
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Anaxaforminges, There are 18 WalMarts in your area. They typically build in the suburbs rather than the urban areas so, technically speaking, many major cities don't have a WalMart. As far as WalMart infestation goes, however, they have infiltrated the San Francisco area just as much as the rest of America.
http://www.walmart.com/cservice/ca_storefinder_results.gsp?serviceName=ALL&sfatt=ALL&rx_title=&rx_dest=%2Findex.gsp&sfsearch_zip=94102&%23.x=8&%23.y=6&%23=Find
ASDA used to be somewhat small and intimate and now is large and cavernous - but I can't imagine anyone staying 72 hours in an ASDA
Anaxaforminges
You were homeless in Minnesota? Damn, I didn't even know Minn. had homeless people. I figured they would die in winter.
Not so many but yeah, and yes, they do. I was homeless for one summer and was able to get into a place by Nov. I was not homeless for the usual reasons, I don't drink or drug and stayed away from those who did. I was a middleclass suburbanite for whom a number of things fell apart for various reasons.
I saw:
Too many children alone
Too many families with children
Too many who worked full time jobs (40% of the homeless in Minn work fulltime jobs).
Too many GLBT folk.
Too many seriously mentally ill.
The assholes, the pushers and hustlers and the gangbangers are not homeless. Every morning when I left the shelter I watched as the office workers bought their drugs at a nearby corner. I didn't hang around though.
Americans like their drugs the same as how they like their sex, nice and dirty.
They didn't taser her? Huh. Must be Xmas.
@ #16 Cpt Tim,
"Business practices aside, the kind of people that shop at wall mart... it reminds me of living back in michigan."
You mean poor people? Well if any get near you, you can just tase them.
...yeah I agree, 2008 must bring an end to all "tase" comments in BB discussion threads.
"You can fill 6 trolleys worth of stuff...pile it high, look all shifty, go up to where the doors are AND RUN!
IT'S LEGAL"
This story is bunch of crap and blantant publicity stunt by Walmart. Don't give me a bunch of bs about how the security didn't notice some woman for 72 hours (where did she sleep?). No details from anyone other than Walmart, quotes are only from shoppers who were told the story, no police comments, no information on the woman... Who said it was 72 hours? Did the woman say that? Can't be from the store...they didn't even notice her! Give me an f-ing' break! This story is just another attempt from Walmart to get their name in the news!
It is upsetting to hear all of the ugly posts. She obviously was homeless and just needed a place to stay. You act as if she was hurting and harrassing people. You people are just mean. I'm homeless with children and I may have to roll up in Walmart for a while!