Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I avoid "Made in China" at all costs. So, I avoid Walmart. 

My wife goes there once in a while, to get the same types of things. Not food, but sundries, cleaning supplies, etc. I'll go once per year, to the RV section, to get boat supplies. It's about 1/2 price compared to West Marine.

When we go, it's at 7AM. Calm before the storm.

In looking up the populations of the towns in the area, it appears the cutoff for "having a Walmart" is 7.5k. Every town that has a population of that or higher has a Walmart of their own, even if they already border another town or two that has them. Every town of 7k or fewer does not have one, even if they are over a hundred miles away from the nearest Walmart.

It seems like the sweet spot for a small town is right about 3.5k to 5.5k; big enough to be self sustaining for the most part, and not under any immediate threat of "getting a Walmart."

The town I live in has a WM Supercenter with a population of about 2800.  Now it’s right on the border of the neighboring town that has around 8k people but the store sits within our city limits.

There is another little town about 30 minutes from here that has a WMSC and it’s smaller than the one I live in.  I’m guessing it isn’t so much the population of the town in which it resides as it is about the population of the surrounding area. 

It's great to have a plethora of options.  Each of can choose which blend of price, service, and quality we want in shopping.

Taking the shit downtown. Nice.


A man was killed and a woman was injured after they were shot while in a car near the Wabash Avenue bridge in downtown Chicago early Sunday, according to Chicago police.

Around 2:30 a.m., officers were waved down by two people in a car who needed medical assistance after being shot in the 300 block of North Wabash Avenue in the Near North neighborhood, police said.

I was expecting an article about someone having a run in with a sidewalk pooper. 

The town I live in has a WM Supercenter with a population of about 2800.  Now it’s right on the border of the neighboring town that has around 8k people but the store sits within our city limits.

There is another little town about 30 minutes from here that has a WMSC and it’s smaller than the one I live in.  I’m guessing it isn’t so much the population of the town in which it resides as it is about the population of the surrounding area. 

Well that shoots my theory all to Hell. 

Around here there are three towns in a row that have one; St George (90k), Washington (30k) and Hurricane (20k). The one in the middle borders the other two. The rest of the burbs are under 7.5k, so they have to pick the closest one and go there. The hub of the next county north, Cedar City, is 30k, so it has a Walmart. Mesquite, NV (20k) is the next major town southward; Walmart. Out in the boonies, there is a Walmart in Richfield, UT (8k) and there is one in Page, AZ (7.5k). The next one will probably be Moapa Valley, but they are only at 7k right now, so they don't have one. Even with a Satellite town contributing another 1k, and an Indian Res contributing some more on top of that, they don't get one. They have to leave the northern shores of Lake Mead and either go 30 miles to Mesquite or 40 miles to Las Vegas, if they want to shop at one. All the other towns in that region are smaller than Moapa Valley, so they don't get one even if they are hundreds of miles away from the nearest Walmart, and it doesn't particularly seem to matter if they have a few satellite communities that bump them over the number. 

Now I could have expanded my data region in order to include greater Las Vegas, and that would have added a lot more data points, but I don't really have all their suburban boundaries memorized. They don't even really have suburbs in the traditional sense. It is difficult to tell where North Las Vegas ends and Las Vegas begins, for example. Also the Las Vegas strip is not actually in Las Vegas, but it is contained mostly in Paradise, and even spills over a little into some other suburb. You won't see the term "Paradise" anywhere on the strip; at least not as any sort of indication of your geographic location. 

If instead of going to Vegas, you turn north on the Great Basin Highway, you will make it across the entire length of the state without ever encountering a town over 7k or a Walmart. Twin Falls Idaho would be the first town that you would came across with those two descriptors.