digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Filthy Wal-Mart: a photo essay

flickr.com — Upon entering around 8:30pm, I was completely blown away by how disgusting this entire store was, I had to go out to my car and grab my camera. I could not believe my eyes. This place was absolutely filthy.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • Skunkhair, on 10/12/2007, -4/+76as someone who's managed retail for more than 10 yrs now, this completely made me cringe.
    • sQPha7e, on 10/12/2007, -17/+284I thought walmart always looks like this.
    • domataos, on 10/12/2007, -99/+56Ok, this is bad, but as someone who has gotten paid WAY to little to clean up this crap for years, it's not the people that work there's fault. It's borderline pathetic that people's first responce isn't "god, what kind of filthy people made this mess". I mean, the people working there are trying there best and dont sit around throwing stuff on the floor, the messy loser customers do, so I blame them.
    • EGOvoruhk, on 10/12/2007, -8/+87domataos: My local Wal-Mart looks similar. The Target right down the street, does not
    • domataos, on 10/12/2007, -33/+23Well, thats because target has 3 times the man power of a wal-mart. Get more people to clean you have a cleaner store. it's the difference between a staff of 900 vs 2800
    • zavigny, on 10/12/2007, -18/+6Looks like the Digg Effect in meatspace.
    • davidsmero, on 10/12/2007, -26/+9I destroyed that store.
    • Richggs, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5Looks like the cleaners were having an off day - as was the food.
      very off day.
    • RickySan65, on 10/12/2007, -18/+169"but as someone who has gotten paid WAY to little to clean up this crap for years, it's not the people that work there's fault."

      Ahhh the american way huh, being lowly paid doesn't mean you can get away with crappy work ethics mate.
    • shadus, on 10/12/2007, -35/+16That's ludacris... we have 4 walmarts within a 30m drive of my house and they're *ALWAYS* clean and shiny... 2 are supercenters and they're very very nice inside. I would never go back there after going in that place one time.

      Hell I have even been at our walmarts at 4am and such and they've never looked like that... and there are like 10 employees in the entire supercenter at that hour :P

      That's just disturbing, no store should EVER look anything like that... the 7-11 and quicky marts down in the ghettos where I live look better than that :o/

      Our Target/Walmart/Acme/etc are all clean... the parking lots are patrolled by security in the off hours if they're open... glad i don't live there.
    • SOhp101, on 10/12/2007, -8/+108It's ludicrous (amusing or laughable), not Ludacris (R&B artist).

      You did certainly prove that you do live in the 'ghettos,' however.
    • rm999, on 10/12/2007, -14/+33"Ahhh the american way huh, being lowly paid doesn't mean you can get away with crappy work ethics mate."

      I think his more valid point was about man-power. They don't pay ENOUGH employees to do the work, so each single employee has to do more. Pretty demoralizing when you make 12 dollars an hour...
    • wh00dini, on 10/12/2007, -20/+10Walmart's problem is their executives are some of the greediest people alive. There is no excuse for an (operational) store like this. I haven't shopped in Walmart (or ASDA now that I live in the UK) since I have been able to make decisions on my own.

      If anyone wonders why I boycott them please visit http://walmartwatch.com/ (and no i do not have anything to do with this website).
    • sinfree, on 10/12/2007, -10/+21FTA: "Upon entering around 8:30pm, I was completely blown away by how disgusting this entire store was"

      This would indicate that it isn't typically like that.
    • shadus, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4@SOhp101 "It's ludicrous (amusing or laughable), not Ludacris (R&B artist). You did certainly prove that you do live in the 'ghettos,' however."

      I don't live in the ghetto and never claimed to. Anywhere you live, if you live within 30m of a major city you live within driving distance of the ghetto... and I'm really sorry mr spelling nazi, I was never taught phonics, I was the last year they taught kids to sight read at my school, I can't sound out words, I never even learned what the funny little symbols in the dictionary for sounding out words mean, I can't tell you the difference between a long and short vowel, I either know a word at sight and know how to spell it or I take a guess. I know the meaning (ridiculous) because I have a pretty good vocabulary, but there are a hell of a lot of words I can't spell. On the other hand I read faster and retain better than 99% of the population, so it's not such a bad trade.

      So long and short of it, piss off jackass.
    • dvddesign, on 10/12/2007, -18/+5Dugg down. Every wal-mart in middle america looks like this on any given saturday afternoon.

      Are you new to this country?

      Welcome to America, home of the fat lazy slob who always gets their way, lest they sue.
    • KibibyteBrain, on 10/12/2007, -4/+61Wow, that Wal-Mart is almost down to K-Mart standards...
    • UltimaNut, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19@domatoes

      So its the customers job to throw away old fruit that should no longer be out for sale?
    • CardinalFang, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29The Walmart where I used to live was open 24/7. It looked like a warzone even at 4AM, plus the place would still be busy as hell. Customers are always putting things back wherever they felt like. I even saw a guy put a frozen dinner in a fish tank.
    • tommyhanks, on 10/12/2007, -4/+52@domataos

      Why should cleaning up ***** be a high paying job? What skill does it take? Personally I think anyone who is paid $12 an hour to stock a shelf is being fairly compensated. From 1998 until 2003 I made less than $8 an hour to put up with retail *****. Then I got a real job.
    • Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Of course this only represents one store, one set of management and employees. I'm quite sure the management manual doesn't include a line that says "make SURE the produce section looks like absolute filth." The Wal-Mart near me is quite clean, no cleaner/dirtier than the Target next door. Of course, upstate NY probably is a bit cleaner than Anywhere, SC.
    • kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Same here - I did retail management fifteen years ago and a cardinal rule was to keep shelves faced off and full.

      WalMart exists because they could exploit both employees and vendors. For example, did you note that all produce is trayed? Makes it easy to just slap a tray out rather than unpack a box. And employees are treated like so much dirt.

      I think there's a backlash coming against Walmart.
    • GamerzCorner, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11EGOvoruhk:

      I agree there are 2 walmarts by me one brand new and both are rather unclean to say the least. However I walk in the target and it is clean and full of a more friendly staff as well.

      Target: 2
      Walmart: 0
    • 35chililights, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14i think it is pride thing.

      some people have it, and value it. others seem to value different things.


      if i make a mess in a store, i feel bad. i at least help clean it up, because the mess was my fault.
      i think less and less people have these feelings.
    • ThrasherC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@Elranzer: "The Wal-Mart near me is quite clean, no cleaner/dirtier than the Target next door. Of course, upstate NY probably is a bit cleaner than Anywhere, SC."

      I live about 25 mins from this Wal-Mart, and I can tell you that this does NOT exemplify the typical Wal-Marts that you see around here. However, these pictures don't look any different from a lot of K-Marts or Wal-Marts that I've seen traveling pretty much anywhere outside of a major metropolitan area. Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, or South Carolina -- doesn't matter. You're always going to have areas with retail stores that employ bad management or bad employees, and this is the result.
    • RiemannLebesgue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This Wal-Mart is just a few miles from me. I can confirm that the past few weeks it has looked like this. Recently, I went there to get some produce for an event. The strawberries were COVERED with white mold. I mean almost every single freaking strawberry in every freaking container was white. The melons were damaged and old to the point where they were dripping. I ran out of there as fast as I could.

      I went there again two days ago, thinking it might have been a short term problem, but nope. Everything still looked like garbage. I will not shop there again until they make some serious changes.

    • hellyes, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2@shadus

      where's ludacris?
    • zweben, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8""Ahhh the american way huh, being lowly paid doesn't mean you can get away with crappy work ethics mate."

      I think his more valid point was about man-power. They don't pay ENOUGH employees to do the work, so each single employee has to do more. Pretty demoralizing when you make 12 dollars an hour..."

      12 dollars an hour!? Yeah right, more like half that.
    • ggarenn, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4walmart is pretty much a consumer's wet dream...so ***** anyone who puts it down. so one walmart, one day, was dirty. great.

      from my experience, the walmart i go to has always been clean. and even if it was a little dirty, who would make such a big ***** deal about it? get over it. i bet your ***** house looks like that sometimes too.
    • gapotter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I can understand if these pictures were taken New Years Eve, where people just want to get out of work and go celebrate with friends and family - Most stores get cleaned out just before a holiday - but this is just GROSS!

      It takes a lot of people and time to clean up after disgusting, dirty and lazy people. It's how they are raised and don't know any better.
    • manova, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9The 24/7 Wal-marts where I used to live looked like war zones almost all of the time. One thing you have to consider is the type people who shop at Wal-mart, they will ransack the place. From college students to the not-so-rich, people will tear the place up, place discarded products anywhere, and will spill things without bothering to tell an employee. The Wal-mart staff would start re-stocking the shelves around midnight and if you came in around 6am the store looked fine, but by 6pm the store was half empty and dirty again. The customers that make the mess should share some of the blame.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4That's cause it's in Taylor, South Carolina. Everything looks like that in rural SC.
    • NewNole2001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"That's cause it's in Taylor (sic), South Carolina. Everything looks like that in rural SC."

      I grew up in Taylors, and actually worked at the grocery store across the street from this Walmart. I hate to break it to you, but the area this Walmart is located in is by no means rural. The Greenville-Spartanburg metro area in 2000 had a population of nearly 1 million people, and, based on the the growth I see when I return to visit family, I would say it is at least 1.3 million now.

      Not many rural areas have over 1 million people.

      Granted, I left as soon as I started college because I didn't like living in the bible belt.
    • RiemannLebesgue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Shyshock, that's not true. This particular part of SC has a lot of people who work at GE and BMW. No grocery store I know of looks like this Wal-Mart. The Target that's just down the road doesn't look anything at all like it either.
    • DwightKSchrute, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I think his more valid point was about man-power. They don't pay ENOUGH employees to do the work, so each single employee has to do more. Pretty demoralizing when you make 12 dollars an hour..."

      I worked at a Target for a couple months and that's very true. I had 6-8 hours to do what would have taken at least 12 hours to do right. I also only made $7/hour.
    • converge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@GamerzCorner

      Target is the *****. I don't particularly like shopping or praise department stores but I've always had a positive experience at Target. It's very clean, well laid out, and has friendly employees.
    • andreo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"I think his more valid point was about man-power. They don't pay ENOUGH employees to do the work, so each single employee has to do more. Pretty demoralizing when you make 12 dollars an hour..."

      12 bucks an hour! I'm not saying that 12 bucks and hour is a good wage. But I can show you a warehouse full of people that make minimum wage and do twice as much work. They would have this place clean enough to let a baby crawl around in. For 12 bucks an hour they would have the place so freaking clean you would have to wear sunglasses to cut down on the shine coming from everything.

      12 bucks an hour, oh whoa is them, cry me a ***** river...
    • praisethelard, on 06/06/2008, -3/+3Then again, this is a Wal-mart Supercenter, so the pictures you see are probably only representing 0.00000005% of the actual store.
    • theblt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Worth_1.html

      The Waltons aren't one of the richest families in the world because they pay their employees properly that's for sure.
    • Xenafor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Ahhh the american way huh, being lowly paid doesn't mean you can get away with crappy work ethics mate."
      "I think his more valid point was about man-power. They don't pay ENOUGH employees to do the work, so each single employee has to do more. Pretty demoralizing when you make 12 dollars an hour..."

      The more money the employers pay, the less employees they can pay, therefore they hire less people, and the people they do hire have to do more. If they are paid less, the people that are willing to have a job that pays said amount WILL work there. The employers will be able to hire more employees overall, resulting in less of a load for each person involved in whatever duties are in question.
    • xSTALLiONx, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8Wake Up People! This was a staged digg story (ie. Propaganda) for Wake-Up Wal-Mart. If you live in on the East Coast, the people just don't care. Look at your streets, they're full of litter that people have dropped. Therefore, those same people will be trashing your local Wal-Mart. I'm sick of seeing the group "WAKE UP WAL-MART" posting lame propaganda to digg and other sources.

      There is no revolution. People have seen the funny South Park episodes. They know they only get paid $8-12 to work at Wal-Mart. Most of the US things $8-12 is above minimum wage and you should be glad to get paid that much. In addition, all of us love the cheap ***** you can find there. It gives us more money to spend on other things.

      (P.S. If you do a google search, you'll notice the group told its members to digg up this obscure flickr photoset.. :) I found you suckas!)
    • dpcamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i think this is half walmart and half the consumers fault..
    • gamechic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 I have to say, a mess like this only encourages more vandalism and blatant disregard. Though not ALL Wal-marts look like this, I've definitely seen a good number of them that are close. And every time I go, I shudder and think: "Never, again. I don't care how low the prices are, I feel like an animal in this store". Target...not so much.
    • voteforblank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder when the General Manager is getting fired!
    • zizzybaloobah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@kd1s: "keep shelves faced off"...

      Now I know who to blame when I go to the grocery store and grab a jar of product X, only to find out it's really product Y because somebody 'rearranged' the jars so the shelf didn't look empty. I HATE THAT! (and yes, I meant to yell!)

    • ninefourchevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ xSTALLIONx:

      "Wake Up People! This was a staged digg story (ie. Propaganda) for Wake-Up Wal-Mart"

      You couldn't be further from the truth. The author of this story submitted the Flickr set to many Wal-mart related blogs and sites, including 'Wake-Up Walmart'. They happened to like it alot. As did several others. There is no connection whatsoever between the author and 'Wake-Up Wal-Mart'.
    • themastersb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Some person recently ran around a Walmart near me throwing, pushing, and opening a lot of items in the store and taking pictures of the detestation afterwards.
    • gonzoradio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@xSTALLiONx
      What, do you WORK for Walmart or something? Trust me, no one needed to stage this crap. I've lived all over the US, and just about any given night (especially weekends), this is pretty much how WalMart looks - like a horde of freakin' Huns came through on a provisions raid.

      Blame whomever you like for the chaos - the customers, the workers, the management - but don't even bother pretending this is an isolated set-up for pro union folks or political causes. Think Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation, and the one with the clearest evidence, is that WalMart is trashy, period. Even its core customers are starting to get sick of it. Why do you think its year-to-year sales per store are declining?
  • gweedoz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+42Yikes, that was pretty horrid. You should send something to wal-mart corporate so some heads will roll.
    • aywwts4, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Something tells me this store must be being closed or something, I would think no matter how bad the local management is, Bentonville HQ would keep sending out fresh shipments of goods and produce, but this store is almost empty of everything. the other side effect being employees must be laid off and the remaining workers have a "why bother" attitude.
    • swiftekho, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2It's obvious this is RIGHT before restocking, it's probably 3-4am in the morning when the least people are working, and if you look hard enough anywhere, you'll find a "filthy *enter franchise here*"

      It's a matter of
      - How hard are you willing to look
      - At what cost (this guy probably lost sleep and life trying to figure out their restock/employee schedule)


      If you go in to any retail store like this and they haven't restocked in a while, it will resemble this... Odds are as well this store was going in the red and had a close out sale...
    • sparkrainfir, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4cooperate knows about it, poor work ethic starts from the top.
    • dggeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Something tells me this store must be being closed or something"

      That's a good theory. When I saw the pictures I figured this must be the aftermath of that weekend right before Christmas. Everything practically wiped out and nobody with time to clean. The place looks deserted. I don't care how filthy or sparsely stocked a Wal-Mart is. You're going to tell me there's nobody there at 8:30 (am or pm)? I don't think so.
    • Jerim, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Of course, write a letter so everyone gets fired. Corporate pays low wages with no health insurance, understaffs on all shifts, and uses termination as a motivator to get employees to pull double shifts or to come in on a day the employee scheduled two months ago to have off to attend a family event. So clearly the problem here is the employees.

      I worked for Wal-Mart in my younger days while going to college. I have never seen a store as bad as that. Either the store is full of lazy idiots (unlikely), or more likely, they are just tired of taking corporate's crap, and have decided to treat the job the same way they are treated. Yes there may be a better way to solve an issue, but this is just what happens when all a business cares about is finding the lowest wage earner and then abusing them. I see this as no different than going on strike.

      Where I live, no one except managers make over $8 an hour at any Wal-Mart in the area (You might have the occassional cashier who has been there forever who peeks just over $10 an hour). So I don't really know where this $12 an hour stuff is coming from.
    • RiemannLebesgue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I live right near this Wal-Mart. I have not heard anything about it being on the list to be closed. That still wouldn't excuse stuff thrown all over, moldy produce, etc.

      Also,we have many other grocery and department stores in the area that are kept spotless, so please don't go thinking the area is trashy. I can confirm though that this Wal-Mart does look like this a lot.
    • homestar2525, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2How do we know this guy didn't just go around knocking ***** over and taking pictures? Just a thought.
  • BAmbrose, on 10/12/2007, -49/+23as gross as that was, why would you go in a Wal-Mart anyways? Every time you shop at Wal-Mart, a kitten dies...
    • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -11/+71Every time you don't think for yourself, you get 5 more years of being a virgin.
    • ekleinunt, on 10/12/2007, -24/+2@ BAmbrose
      If I could digg your comment up more than once I would.
    • Misos, on 10/12/2007, -18/+4"Every time you don't think for yourself, you get 5 more years of being a virgin."

      Of course, promiscuous chicks dig thinkers, not asses with riches.
    • okokitsme, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2@Misos: They do. Look at Woody Allen ;-)
    • gonzoradio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@ Broomett -
      And shopping at Walmart = thinking for yourself?
      Riiiiiiight. Just go on thinking, then.
      Hint: Shopping at Walmart doesn't do much for your sex appeal, either.
  • xxBondsxx, on 10/12/2007, -21/+5wow what a find... still a lot of the photos were blurry try better next time

    man this place looks like the apocalypse hit and left the whole place deserted....

    quite depressing actually
    • Computer5000, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Haha, you give such sound advice. "Try better next time." How very helpful of you.
  • spiffyfitz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19Ugh. I've been to Wal-Marts that aren't that nasty, but some are pretty close to it. I hate Wal-Mart and they're building a "Supercenter" one less then 300 feet from my house now. I'm going to be dropping bad comments in the comment box all the time. (That's right, I'm *that guy*)
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Why don't you just not go..? I've never been inside a Walmart store once my entire life, and it always bothers me how people speak about how much they hate the store and yet they keep going back to it..
    • Sippi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9mrASSMAN,
      Some people live in towns where thats is the only option, so they do not have a choice on where to go.
    • Jerim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13@mrASSMAN

      I am happy that you don't have to visit a Wal-Mart. However, for most of America, Wal-Mart is the cheapest place to shop without visiting second hand, or dented can stores. Wal-Mart caters to the lower to middle class. Sure, if we were all upper class, and driving BMW's then we could afford to shop at finer stores.

      I have a friend who only goes to a more expensive market in town. He is a bit snobbish, making fun of those who go to Wal-Mart. He is also pretty well off, and just can't understand that not everyone has his type of money.
    • ogden, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I worked at a walmart after college ...

      First off, if this store is in a poor neighborhood then the customers will trash it. Poor people don't have respect for *anything*, That's a good part of the reason their poor. This isn't just restricted to Walmart.

      Second, Walmart generally doesn't start cleaning up until 10pm-12am. That's when the overnight people get in. They work all night to clean up and fix all the ***** everyone has done to the store. It's the most thankless and worthless job in the history of man. If it looked like that the *NEXT* day then something is wrong.

      Perhaps they don't have enough people (it would not be uncommon for 5 or 10 people to all quit at the same time). Perhaps their is a supply chain problem, Walmart keeps *VERY* little product on hand at all time. If the trucks stop coming for a couple days -- the place empties out quickly. Lastly, Walmarts ERP system is one of the most sophisticated in the world, and it is not without its own quirks and it is frustrating as hell. The computer decides what product to send you, based on god knows what. There's nobody you can call to ask for something, say you have too much of something, or too little or that a customer has asked for something. You simply get what you are sent. When it works this is great -- it predicts your needs before you even know about them and thus allows them to hire idiot managers. However, when it goes bad, it goes *VERY* bad. I worked in the shoe department and the computer shipped us just too many god damned shoes. We had an entire stock room full of shoes, and an entire shipping container full of shoes (a full sized container to, not a small one). And every day more shoes came. My primary job was to somehow every day make room for the incredible amount of shoes that nobody was buying. You'd go out to the floor and squeeze everything you possible could out there (this is the only part that makes sense). Then every day you'd re-arrange the entire stockroom to cram new boxes in. Then if you could make room you'd stuff them in the shipping container. And inevitably when all that failed, you'd simply do what the ***** ever with them. Throw them away, pile them, hide them, it didn't matter. Nothing that happens at a walmart matters :)
    • xSTALLiONx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3As a non-"lower to middle class" person, I still do the majority of my bulk shopping at Wal-Mart. The only upper class people who shop at upper class stores are STUPID upper class people who stumbled upon their wealth. Why pay $7 for a can of crushed tomatoes at an upper class boutique grocery store when they taste the same as the $2.50 can at Wal-Mart. Do it thousadands of times and you've got thousands if not millions saved over a lifetime.. to use for investments.
    • Shaw95, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@Sippi
      Good point. For a lot of people in smaller towns it's cheaper and easier to go to Wal-Mart. The bad side of this is that people stop supporting their local stores in lieu of convenience and price. That's a whole different subject though. As for this particular Wal-Mart, I find it hard to believe it's even open with shelves like this. It looks like a store that had to deal with some type of natural disaster (ie: hurricane or ice storm) and didn't have power for a few days. That would explain the rotten fruit, and the empty shelves. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure the corporate offices keep a close enough eye on their stores to know when things aren't up to par.
  • chakalakasp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Holy snikes. That's about as bad as I've ever seen a store get. Sometimes the Walmarts get alittle disheveled around 1AM when everything's getting stocked and polished, but, sweet sassy mollasy, that looks like something out of post-Katrina New Orleans! Something tells me they're going to get a visit from corporate tomorrow, seeing as this is already over on Reddit.
  • supernova17, on 10/12/2007, -1/+51This is why I shop at Target.
    • ogden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Target girls are hot to (at least here in california), the walmart girls are all snaggle tooth burnt out husks.
    • signal15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I also shop at Target. The Walmart near me is a total *****. The shelves are better stocked than the one from this article, but there is still just as much crap laying around. At night there are shady people hanging out in the parking lot AND in the store. I've seen people there at night having spray paint fights.

      Walmart sucks. Don't forget that they totally screw their vendors also. If you've ever worked for a company that did any business with Walmart, you'd know what I mean.
    • krazytom, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2@Ogden... Target GIRLS are hot? In your previous post you made it known that you're out of college. So congrats on diggin the 15 year olds!
  • wangaramus, on 10/12/2007, -7/+8I put a walmart in Ogdenville and New Havenbrook.
    • gfixler, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Brockway, Ogdenville, and NORTH HaveRbrook, dork.

      Oh wait... that makes me the dork. My apologies. You win.
    • soundboy64, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Monorail....
    • kenelbow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3MONO...D'oh!
  • jizzimmy, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1Oh em gee, Y2K.
  • hiney, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19How about some image stabilization.
  • Misos, on 10/12/2007, -8/+31Damn, I didn't know someone could take so many blurry pictures in a single sitting. Bravo.
    • theOster, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12yeah, i was wondering if they were out of tripods as well...
    • sparkrainfir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19i don't think his message is "hey look at my photography skills" but i could be wrong.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Yeah you think he was stopping to adjust his shot with every picture? No, he was taking as many as he could as fast as he could so he could leave. Quit being assholes.
    • Qwirk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2From what I recall, Walmart doesn't allow photography in their stores so I suspect the photographer was trying to be quick and sneaky.
    • ninefourchevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I believe Qwirk is right. I'm sure the author had to be quick as hell to get these shots without drawing the attention of the staff.
  • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Something does not sit well with these pics. And that is that there are FAR too many empty shelves for this to be real.
    • Margh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Right, because if they're so lazy that there's rotting fruit lying around in the produce section they must still have enough initiative to order in out of stock products.
    • kfconme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3my only thought (aside from conspiracy) is understaffed.
    • binarymelon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@Margh

      That's not how things work at Wal-Mart, they have a just-in-time stock system. When the computers tell the distribution center that they are low on something it sends out enough to fill the shelf. While it's not quite this perfect, basically when you pick something up off the shelf there's another one on the way to replace it. That's why these pictures seem so unbelievable. There would be pallets of merchandise spilling out the loading doors for the floor to be so bare.
  • ingoldsby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Wow - this looks like the store has been closed for a week an people have been scavenging.. Something out of a sci-fi movie.

    Who the hell is managing that place lol.
  • JBarnes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3WalMart employees on strike!
  • blindrob, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3-1 for wallmart
  • kfconme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3wow, i have been under management at a large retail store, and this is pathetic. something should be done about this. Thank goodness this guy/gal had their camera. scary!

    but like said earlier (broomett) it looks as if it was almost staged, i doubt there were THAT many empty shelves. either the manager is a shmuck, or it was intentionally made to look bad.
    • kfconme, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3this is funny b/c my aim name is: i own walmart

      ::waits for phish::
  • iloveyouguam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18was this their first time in a walmart, or in South Carolina? I thought it looked pretty clean. Question: Can a big pool of cleaning products actually be classified as "filthy"? just curious.
  • Scopitone, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6I thought those were Katrina aftermath photos but then I noticed that Wal-Mart is in South Carolina. Mystery - Solved.
  • mocherz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6haha its just like as if Beavis and Butthead were working there.
  • pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22There are two Walmarts near where I live and they are freaking horrible.
    There's filth all over the parking lots, dirty diapers, beer cans, liquor bottles, half eaten food, cups, plastic bags, you name it.
    There's nothing that they've forgotten to throw out in the parking lots. The smell of the parking lot alone makes you want to vomit. It's BAD..

    Then, when you get to the door, they're thrown down millions of cigarette butts. The smell of the butts is disgusting, I have to hold me breath as I walk through that gauntlet, not to mention the half dozen people standing around the entrance smoking, including several employees taking smoke breaks AT THE ENTRANCE.. Yeah, I have to go through their second hand smoke.

    I don't buy food there because if they can't keep the outside clean they certainly won't worry about cleaning the inside.
    I walked past the meat dept. ONE TIME and the smell was vulgar. That's all I needed to know about their hygiene practices.

    I only go to Walmart when I have no other options, like when I need some cheap $10 shoes every other year.
    I would rather sand paper a bobcat's ass in a phone booth than go into Walmart.



    Walmart here is revolting
    • xJudahx, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3And you support them. No option my ass, you are posting here, you have the internet.
    • kfconme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21"I would rather sand paper a bobcat's ass in a phone booth than go into Walmart."

      that is highly quotable.
    • sergiolopes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12"There's filth all over the parking lots, dirty diapers, beer cans, liquor bottles, half eaten food, cups, plastic bags, you name it.
      There's nothing that they've forgotten to throw out in the parking lots. "

      Well, that says a lot about people in your neighbourhood, right? I know walmart staff have to clean that up, but someone had to mess that up in the first place!
    • wh00dini, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4why do you keep going there then?
    • daza, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3wh00dini, did honestly not read his comment?

      "I only go to Walmart when I have no other options, like when I need some cheap $10 shoes every other year.
      I would rather sand paper a bobcat's ass in a phone booth than go into Walmart."

      He says he rarely visits Walmart, only on odd occasions ie. 'every other year'.

      I would tell you to RTFA, but maybe RTFC is more applicable.
    • kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Around here the Walmart parking lots are known as being havens for criminal activity. I kid you not.
    • pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ sergiolopes

      It's not *my* neighborhood. There isn't actually a walmart in my town. There are two walmarts in a neighboring city.
      It's a 10 minute drive to one of them and a 5 minute drive to the other one.
      Our town won't allow a walmart to build here, we value our few remaining small businesses.
      As to the neighboring city that hosts the two walmarts, well, that city is a ghost town, all the small businesses that were there are long gone because of walmart. And the city is a dead zone and has pretty much fallen to third or fourth world status.

      No one is happy about it but you can't bring the dead back to life..

  • Eggzb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13If I worked for Sam, I wouldn't give a ***** either. Locking people in the store at night. WTF is that?
    • cuoops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I worked at Kmart in the 80's and they would lock people in too. Every Sunday there would be 2 stock boys that had to come in at 4:30 or so and work. The manager would open the door, tell us what to do, walk out and lock the door. There would be a cleaning crew there too. Their boss was usually not there and they were locked in.
    • SinisterDexter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's actually normal procedure to lock employees in at night for overnight shifts. What, you'd think that they would leave the doors unlocked with no one manning cashwrap and minimal staff?
    • iamanalog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i worked overnight at Bjs for 3 years, and that's one store you'd want to lock up at night, we use to have tards sitting out side the store at 3 in the morning waiting to get in. bah.
  • willpost, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4All pets and chemicals sections look that bad underneath. You only see it here because the shelves aren't packed with new product to cover it up. When you finish facing the product in that section, your hands will have a layer of black, tar like substance on them. Health and beauty is the same, but at least you're not getting rat poison, drano, and bleach on your hands.
  • Lamtd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Just wondering... don't you have digital price tags in the US ? Or is it only in Wal-Mart that you can still see these kinds of paper-based price tags ?
    • kuchini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've never seen any store in Washington (state) to use digital price tags
    • wh00dini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A lot of places that I have been in NY/NJ/CT has digital price tags. Can't speak for other places in the US.
    • brainache, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5DOn't have them in the US or the UK as far as i know. Where abouts do they have them?
    • theOster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i saw my first store out in the middle of nowhere ct that had digital price tags - blew my mind.
  • MrSunshine, on 10/12/2007, -15/+7Disgusting how Flickr doesn't have simple forward and back arrows to go through the photos, only that terrible slideshow function.
    • smithy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25You mean the same terrible sideshow function with the forward and back arrows.
    • MrSunshine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Exactly, I want my arrows as a PNG/GIF/JPG image on a HTML-only page without fade ins and controls that move around.
    • MaiSacNjoMouf, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5That slide show has a forward and back button, and there are previous and next buttons when you look at the pics too....
      Have you ever actually seen flickr?
  • Orchyre, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Wow, just wow.
  • xJudahx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12You get what you pay for...
  • ursername180, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I wouldn't call it filthy, I would consider it quite... cosy.
  • goodkidyo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26apparently this was the original text that accompanied the flickr album:

    "It had been a long day so I drank a fifth of whiskey to calm my nerves. Then I realized that I was out of cotton swabs so I went to the Wal-Mart. Upon entering around 8:30pm, I was completely blown away by how disgusting this entire store was, I had to go out to my car and grab my camera. I then proceeded to coat the lens of my camera with a very light, even coat of Vaseline. I could not believe my eyes. This place was absolutely filthy. True Story."
  • stevecole, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2That was abominable and depressing...

    ...the photography, that is.

    If it's possible to misspell in a "photo essay", you have accomplished it.
  • lwalk80, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The store has to be closed or something or they are pics of post-Katrina Louisiana and they're now residing in SC. Sorry, I don't buy it.
  • sirajsalim, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Wal-Mart, should be a mistake or some serious reason other than less staff. Bottom-line - it's not good!
  • Ikean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Makes me think this is what a nice store would look like in Children of Men
    • j0hn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Support your local business. Don't shop at Wal-Mart.
  • truegodofwar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Wal-Mart, 28 days later.
    • icepick314, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4i was thinking exactly....

      looks like aftermath from zombie attacks...
  • sfacets, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2I hope the photographer is aware that under privacy laws he isn't allowed to take photos inside Wal-Mart without written consent... he's leaving himself wide open... and knowing Wal-Mart, they'll stop at nothing to guard their dirty secrets.
    • icepick314, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8i can see secret Wal-Mart assassin ninjas coming to his home right NOW....
    • computergod, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Sine when are you not allowed to take photos inside a public building? If you were previously banned from the store, the I could see how ti would be an issue.

      I'm from Canada though so I am not that familiar with the laws there.
    • mousky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3What privacy law would that be? I love it when people make ***** up.
    • lp66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Actually, it's not a public building. It's private property. Having worked retail (thankfully no more) we were required to kick out anyone taking pictures. And that was Barnes & Noble.
    • raitchison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If Wal-Mart sues the guy they risk drawing even more attention to the situation. I find it highly unlikely they will do anything to the guy but they will likely send a memo to all their stores reminding them to boot-stomp anyone they catch taking pictures in the store.
    • OMGWTFROFLMAO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Sfacet is right. That is private property. Get into an accident in a Wal Mart parking lot and ask the police to show up, they will tell you they cannot issue a ticket or fill out a formal police report because it is private property. Technically, you are not allowed to take and publish pictures on store grounds for this very reason. Their store, their land, they make (alot of) the rules.
  • tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10Not spilt cascade in the cascade isle?
    Not spilt Ajax in the dish washing detergent isle???
    No... the horror... spilt sugar in the sugar isle!!!

    Leftover/picked over veggies and fruit in the... veggie and fruit isle?

    come on people, its an open-market type of grocery store. For places that never close, i dont think its that unheard of that at the end of the shopping day (around 8pm) after everyone has came home from work and stuffed their SUVs full of all the good foods and picked over the crap they didnt want that the store would look a little run-down.

    i'd wager those same foods have been stored in places much worse on their way to the store in the first place.

    bottom line-- get the crap when its fresh. dont wait till 8:30 to buy groceries at WALMART (of all places) and think you're gonna get the cream of the crop. chances are you'll just get the "cream" cuz some other suburban mother already bought the "crop" after picking the kids up from soccer practice.
    • kfconme, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3this isn't just a case of "not getting the cream of the crop," this is crazy. obviously you haven't been to a supermarket lately, because they are always, and try to stay, stocked up and have everything convenient for the consumer. this, my friend, has nothing to do with a special pick of a certain product, this is total neglect from whom ever is in charge of this place. This could have been in any store, and it would be equally as revolting.
    • stuartpetty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I agree I'm from the UK so we have Asda who are owned by wall-mart, the store always looks like this at eight at night!!
      Anywhere that is busy gets dirty and untidy from time to time, you should see what a professional kitchen looks like after a busy "service" you would never want to eat out again!!
    • fireball74, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I couldn't agree more. Around here, we have 3 "new" super walmarts, and one older one. The had to open up the fourth one because the other three couldn't keep up with demand. I'd say from about 4:30pm to about 9:00pm are their busiest times, that's also their messiest times. I live/work at night, so I tend to hit walmart when they're stocking. You know, at 2:00am, all the shelves are nice and neat, all be it, fairly empty. Most walmarts only do cleaning a couple of times a day, and chances are, they hadn't yet.

      I think I'd probably look a little like those pictures if I'd been ravaged by 300+ customers (only if they're all hot chicks though).
    • Soldan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree... 8:30 is near shift change.. there are really no stockers working at that time.... ICS normally quits work around 6 or so...

      I recall that most often when I came on at 10:00 for the overnight I would have 300+ cases just for the laundry and dish soap isle. some stores have the truck unloaders do the stocking so it might be better for them...now that is one underpaid bunch of bastards... Middle of summer in a dark truck blows major chunks... fries thier brains....one of the unloader I knew ate a can of ALPO for $5 bucks then to top it off licked the wall in the smokers lunchroom.....ick..I think that was for some beer...



      ;
  • onovanday, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3savages.
    • dimsum05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I, too, find open cereal boxes in my local Wal-Mart.

      I've kinda grown into not being disgusted by it... it's just the way things are around this part of the city though...
  • PSPon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As filthy that looks, your pics really brings out the grossness in a nice way. Nice camera!
  • beatdown, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Somebody's getting fired
    • Sippi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yup!
      I just sent this to one of the main buyers at Wal-Mart head quarters. A buyers worst nightmare at Wal-Mart is having empty shelves with no products to sell. Add all the disgusting filth into the mix, and ***** just hit the fan in Bentonville, AR.
  • andrewbutts, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10What would the poster think of an open-air market in southeast Asia or South America? This store isn't filthy. It just looks mismanaged. The poster wouldn't have contracted cholera or typhoid from one of this store's drinking fountains, and hey, look, there aren't even any flies on the rotten peaches at this store. By global standards, this store is very, very clean.
    • kevsedg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Agreed. Didn't look at all the pics, but the place didn't seem that bad! Just understaffed for a shift. Oh no! Some washing powder has fallen out of a box.

      Maybe you yanks have very high standards. Come to the UK. Check out ALDI or LIDL... yes I am a cheapskate.
    • justinmt7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Agreed. I live in Japan, a civilized wealthy country and I don't have access to many stores that look even that nice (sure there's a few, but not near as many and as convenient as Wal-Mart). I grew up in the US and it's funny to see what people think of as absolutely unacceptable now. Funny stuff. When I move back to the US in a few years, it's know i'll be happy just to get what's in these photos!
    • ninefourchevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I disagree. These photos make a strong statement about the apathetic state of many Americans today. Many people don't care about the quality of their work anymore. It's not about how 'nice' or 'expensive' a store is, its about the level of dedication and care that people invest in their work, no matter what it may be. Perhaps even in open-air markets around the world, there is a higher level of pride being taken in the sale of their product, and the care of their marketplace... Especially when compared to what is being shown in this gallery. This gallery portrays complete disregard and apathy. At times it seems very few people take real pride in their work, and perhaps that is the real problem.
  • bryanedds, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Must... find... any... reason... to... hate... on... Wal-Mart...
  • remyz16, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I don't care how dirty the place is as long as I can still get a $2 case of soda and a bulk box of Slim Jims at three in the morning.
  • drk1t, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6 Get off your lazy butt and go shopping early in the morning after the night crew has it all cleaned and stocked. Be sure to take your camera.
  • SOhp101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know a lot of people were dug down for it, but I do agree that many of the photos are very blurry, but the point that the Wal-Mart is not properly cared for does get across.
    • stevecole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0As one of the photo quality complainers who was dugg down, thanks for the compassion.

      In my case, I'd rather not have seen this submission than try to decipher the photos -- it was literally painful to view, so I gave up. I'll wait for version 2.0.
  • nicklassa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9did they have any Wii's?
  • Vulcan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Look at the last photo in the series -- the one of the parking lot. The inside is disheveled, but there are no shopping carts loose in the parking lot nor collected into the cart corrals. Seems odd.
  • Reaganomicon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0What the hell happened? How could they let their store get that bad?
  • estacado, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's not dirty as in *****-dirty, it more of messy-dirty. As long as the place doesn't smell, it's okay.
  • marcool, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Arrfff Everytime there is a typicaly american social topic like that I am happy not to be american...
    You should see how good it feels not to have your problem... if only I was sure we are not going to suffer from your crappy and "not negociable way of life" (thank you Mister Bush Jr)

    It is so funny to think that several years ago everybody thought the US was 20 years ahead... and now it seems you are just 20 years late.
    • dkm201, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3lern to spell forener!
    • lnf69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Where are you from? This post and all the comments seem to point to how un-acceptable the conditions shown in the photos are to most Americans.
      Are you indicating that you are used to disgusting conditions in stores where you buy your food in your country?
  • sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My Walmart is one of the busiest around. Sure, it looks like the "who's who of mental illness meets disease of the week club" but it's definately cleaner than this.
  • redsolaris, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4lol how is that Walmart even vaguely bad? Just a bit of mess here and there. If you want a properly bad supermarket check out probably the worse one in the western world, kwiksave: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbman/sets/72157594482697548/

    enjoy!
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 153 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.