Anybody buy ice cream at Walmart?

[Guinevere]

I buy nothing at Walmart. For ice cream, I shop locally, one serving at a time. Or I make my own. Fabulous ice cream is super simple and ice cream makers are not terribly expensive. Soft creamy vanilla with real VT maple syrup a d a sprinkle of toasted pecans is my go to.

[Jarlaxle]

Can you virtue-signal any harder?

[Jarlaxle]

That’s odd tho say the least given the content of the usual “cheap” insulin.

It seems random. He's gotten it from India, Israel, Spain, Hungary, and (of all places) South Africa.

[Sue U]

WalMart insulin is human insulin made with recombinant DNA technology, which is the "old" style insulin. Now most insulin-dependent diabetics use human-analog insulin like Humalog or Novolog. And although it's still available, I don't think anybody uses pork- (or beef-) derived insulin anymore, that's absolutely ancient.

[BoSoxGal]

When I had money I had the luxury of being a snob about Walmart, but before that and afterward, poverty forced me to make concessions. I really don’t like their business model and wish I could boycott them, but I’m just too poor. (Sickening how poverty forces poor people to contribute to the misery of other poor people like the Walmart employees on public benefits.)

Walmart’s old school insulin sells for $24.99/vial, which is cheapest around. I used that insulin to keep my beloved Little Bear alive for two years after she fell diabetic - I could not have otherwise since Vetsulin is hundreds per month. Hundreds of thousands of human diabetics survive on old school insulin from Walmart, because they don’t have insurance or can’t afford the copays for the better modern insulins that their endocrinologist wants them to be taking.

I hate Walmart, but their very low cost prescription list of major generic pharmaceuticals is a lifeline to millions of poor Americans. Does this absolve the Waltons of their many sins? No.

[Econoline]

As far as I can recall, I have only purchased a total of 3 items at Walmart, ever: a padlock, purchased at 1 am in Denver (to secure my externally mounted-mounted spare tire before a long 2-day drive back to Chicago), a bag of popcorn purchased at ~3 am somewhere in Iowa (to munch during the long drive back to DeKalb), and a car battery (highly rated by Consumer Reports and manufactured by Exide but available at Walmart under their own brand name at roughly half the price of a similar-spec battery elsewhere), purchased locally. I felt guilty about the last one, but it was for a car I was selling, cheap, to a person with very limited income and I would have felt guilty if I gave it to her with a worn-out battery.

[dales]

I used to go to Walmart to purchase ammo.

That was years ago when one could purchase ammo there.

[datsunaholic]

I've had to buy a few things at Mal*Wart. Need a new SDHC card for my GoPros in Chelan on a Saturday night (for boat runs starting at 8AM Sunday)? Kinda the only place in town (plus it was, at least then, a 24-hr store). Local one here closes at 10pm so no point in going there, as they've got nothing I can't get elsewhere. Besides, it's a MAGA-hat magnet. I'm sort of surprised it's not a 24-hr store here, though my town still sort of folds up the streets. Almost everything is closed at or before 10PM except the Safeway that's open until 1AM. Which is odd since US2 runs right through it. The only 24hr businesses are Dennys, Taco Bell, Starbucks and the gas stations.

[Bicycle Bill]

I've had to buy a few things at Mal*Wart. Need a new SDHC card for my GoPros in Chelan on a Saturday night (for boat runs starting at 8AM Sunday)? Kinda the only place in town (plus it was, at least then, a 24-hr store). Local one here closes at 10pm so no point in going there, as they've got nothing I can't get elsewhere. Besides, it's a MAGA-hat magnet. I'm sort of surprised it's not a 24-hr store here, though my town still sort of folds up the streets. Almost everything is closed at or before 10PM except the Safeway that's open until 1AM. Which is odd since US2 runs right through it. The only 24hr businesses are Dennys, Taco Bell, Starbucks and the gas stations.

Was it a 24-hour store before the pandemic?  I know there were some that weren't 24/7/365, but that was usually due to local restrictions rather than WalMart making the decision themselves.

-"BB"-

[Guinevere]

My Mom occasionally shopped there and the last time I was in one, was to take her.

And its not snobbery, or virtue signaling, its a conscious choice to spend my hard earned dollars a certain way - to support small local businesses - and also to eat healthily. My dollars, my choice. Everyone else has to make their own choices, based on their own circumstances. I do not judge anyone who shops there from need or circumstance, I understand it fills a gap.

PS - a true conservative would recognize the value and importance of small businesses to the economy. And also the value of healthy eating (and preventative health care in general), which ultimately reduces the cost of health care borne by all. But we know clearly who is a real conservative and who is an unethical uneducated cultist.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I too will not go to Walmart unless I have to, and like BSG I use them for my cat's insulin. $25 for a month instead of around $200. Apart from that the only thing I have bought at Walmart that I can recall is a pair of steel toed boots because I found out at 10 PM that the site I was going to at 7 the next morning required them.

It's illogical really. My objection is what Walmart has done to town centers and small businesses; but I don't have the same compunction about shopping at Target or Kroger or Lowes/HD.

[Gob]

If you use insulin or medicine to manage your diabetes you're entitled to free prescriptions, but if you’re under 60 and living in England you must have a medical exemption certificate before you can claim them. Prescriptions are free for everybody in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

[Crackpot]

An odd thing I have heard about Walmart is their prices vary based on the market they are serving. According to a friend who shops there he won’t go to a Walmart by me because it is more expensive than the one about 5 miles west in a less (but not much less) affluent area. If true I wonder about the implications

[datsunaholic]

Was it a 24-hour store before the pandemic?  I know there were some that weren't 24/7/365, but that was usually due to local restrictions rather than WalMart making the decision themselves.

-"BB"-

Nope. Never was.

[BoSoxGal]

[Sue U]

Almost everything is closed at or before 10PM except the Safeway that's open until 1AM. Which is odd since US2 runs right through it.

I'd say that's odd; must make shopping a bit of a challenge.

[Long Run]

On the other hand, food deliveries are a snap.

[ex-khobar Andy]

C7DE0410-18EA-4CC1-92C2-C70484A69599.jpeg

I assume that Bernie did his homework and those are apples and apples.

I do know that when I lived in Saudi Arabia and drugs were in no way subsidized to foreigners, I found that some maintenance drugs my wife was on were about 30% or 40% cheaper than the price listed on the slips we got from the pharmacy here in US which, I was told, is the price paid by the insurance company.

PS after I hit submit, I saw that BSG's pic did not post over from the quote. Normally you quote something and the pic appears in the quote: I'm not sure why not this time.

[BoSoxGal]

It’s an inline attachment- seems like those don’t always quote properly. Or maybe they’re always unquotable? I’ve only started using this method recently.

[Long Run]

Yes, something lost in the translation.