Shopping at Walmart

Tonight, I was on a mission. The two things I needed to get were silver hoop earrings and Kashi granola bars. I had done some research online to see where I could get the Kashi bars for the best price. Since Stop & Shop sells them for $4 and Walmart for $2.50, that was enough of an incentive to get me to drive out to Framingham/Natick after work. On the way, I decided last minute to go to Target instead of Walmart. To put it bluntly, I hate Walmart and haven't been there in at least two years. Why? The parking lot and the store are always packed with the rudest people on earth. Literally, I just hate Walmart shoppers and the long lines. I find that Target is usually much cleaner, brighter, has shorter lines, better merchandise and the same cheap prices.

At Target, no surprise, I spent much more than I had originally planned. In the sign of the times, I actually ended up by more grocery type items than I usually do since it's just so much cheaper than a grocery store (Yoplait yogurt - $.50! Cake mix - $1.00! Pudding - $.82! And in case you're wondering, I'm making a trifle this weekend, hence all the junk food). I even found a new Kashi fruit and granola bar (Chocolate and Raspberry) to try. But I struck out on the Kashi bars I needed to replace from Andrew's stock and the hoops. The hoops in particular are driving me nuts. I have literally bought three sets of sterling silver hoops from Target in the past year. Somehow, I've bought a slightly different set each time and now I have three single hoop earrings with no match and Target seems to have stopped selling silver hoops in the size and the width I prefer.

Walmart was only a few miles away, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. And I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, it was a Tuesday night during February vacation, which means that it was pretty uncrowded. But the store just seemed to be brighter and better organized. I was pleased to find that Walmart did carry the Kashi flavor I was looking for and grabbed four boxes of it off the shelf (the guy standing next to me gave me a weird look but hey, these things are that good!) I was also happy to find out that Target is actually cheaper than Walmart on a lot of grocery items, with butter being one of the only exceptions. I was in and out in a breezy 15 minutes, considering I walk the perimeter of the whole store. And I found the jewelry counter worker and the cashier I had to be very nice and polite. I don't mean to sound snobby or elitist, but I was genuinely surprised by how much nice Walmart has gotten, perhaps because of the rebranding effort they launched last year? Regardless, I may be visiting them more in the future. Just not around Christmas or the end of August when people are in back-to-school mode.