John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Walmart as Hotel California

Warning: If you try to go to Walmart to pick up a half gallon of milk, you will soon realize your errand is not about the 2% milk.

Instead your journey is about the exploration of a wild, weird and wonderfully kitschy world where you will see things that will bend your conventional mind and make you whisper to yourself, “Gee, I could use that.” Followed by “and that too.” Or maybe, “Who thinks up these products?” Followed finally by “These prices can’t be beat.”

And you will soon realize that even though you walked into a Walmart that you have really entered the Hotel California.

That’s right. “You can check out any time you want (through self-service check out), but you can never leave.”