Australians of Walmart

So you are American and you have a visitor from Australia. You want to be a good host, and you’re thinking of places you could take your guest. Local historical monuments, national parks, a local restaurant to try the specialities of your area….

You fool. What are you even thinking?! Give them what they want. There is one place you simply MUST take them, and you can mostly blame a certain website for having made it a US tourist attraction.

people of walmart logo

Yep.

When friends found out I was going to the US for 2 years, they didn’t say “wow, you’ll get to go to the grand canyon!” or “so lucky, I want to visit Dollywood one day!”. Pretty much all of my friends said “You get to go to Walmart! PEOPLE OF WALMART!!!!” or words to that effect. One asked me to take a selfie in front of a Walmart sign as soon as I could (and obviously I obliged). Australians I know who have been to visit the US recently have posted pics of Walmart storefronts and commentary regarding what they’re looking at, what they have bought, how cheap certain items such as wine are etc. One of my confused US based relatives asked “Why does everyone want to go to Walmart?!” after recounting her experience with an Australian guest who asked for a Walmart visit shortly after arrival, while she was probably still jet lagged.

Why the fascination with this store? You can buy most of the things there in Australia anyway. Is it just the chance to see poor fashion choices on fellow shoppers such as those featured on that infamous website? The gun section, which certainly doesn’t exist in Australian department stores? The chance to buy some cheap shit? I suspect shopping at Walmart is also considered the stereotypical American thing to do, and dammit, when in Rome. In spite of the fact that I know plenty of Americans who seldom or never darken its doors. But as there is no “People of Kroger”, “People of Publix” or “People of Trader Joe’s” that I’ve heard of, for now you’ll just have to put up with us all thinking that Walmart is the place you all shop.

When your stupid guest has had their giddy Walmart fix……then you can take them to see some of the zillion other things in your country that are actually good. But humor them with the Walmart trip first.

Grand canyon view

(What a lovely little place to take them to after the Walmart visit!)



(My site contains some affiliate links and ads, from which I can earn commission. So far it is making me an Centenaire, but I dream of someday being – a Dollaraire! Feel free to buy through my links to help me reach this lofty goal).

I am an Aussie currently enjoying my time as a non-resident legal alien in the US. You can find me on Facebook and I have also just started lurking around Twitter and  Instagram. Come lurk with me!

4 Comments

  1. Noooo not Wal-mart! I hate that place, but shop there a lot unfortunately. That is pretty funny that people really want to visit wal-mart. I have a penpal from Australia she came here in 2014, I am curious now, I didn’t think our wal-marts were a big deal. I will have to ask her if she went to one while she was here. I am sure she did though. This was a nice read!

    • Daniela

      99% chance she did just because she could! Just last night I found the selfie I sent a friend of myself in front of Walmart. Now that I’ve lived here over a year the novelty has worn off and I shop mostly at Krogers and Publix, even though Publix freaks me out with how friendly and overly helpful they are….no, I don’t want you to help me get my one bag to the car!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *