walmart.. world's greatest chain of convenience stores

okok.. taking a break from my assignment..
(warning: longest ever post)

well today, i went for a 'short' trip out of berkeley to oakland.
was there for 3hrs i think.. finally visited Walmart!
this is the chain of stores which hit No1 of Fortune 500 for a few years..
meaning this company actually earned more than companies like Exxon-Mobil, Citibank, etc..
think abt it! convenience stores leh.. how much sales can they bring in!?

hence i went in hope of finding something special or very very unique...

so i begun the trip with a 20 mins walk to the Berkeley BART station (like MRT)..
weather was very good today!.. blue sky.. nice temp.. not too dry...
(too bad did not have my camera..)

then it was a 25mins train and 15mins bus ride to walmart!
(point to note: i did this after research online.. americans just take their cars with GPS and drive out .. grrr.. if i am staying here for a while, first thing i do is to buy a car!)

hm.. well.. finally I reached this WALMART in oakland..
i was expecting some 5-storey mega-mall with everything from cars to carpets..
but no leh.. it was the usual flat big building..
akin to the expo.. (most shops or malls in usa are like the expo.. flat and one storey tall)
so this WALMART is like a permanent exhibition in two of the expo hall..

nmind.. so i tried to go in.. but no.. i was blocked by the security.. why?
becos the power just went out! my gosh! i spent like one hour to get there... then this happened..
grr.. they were saying that it would need 2 hours to fix .. wah lieu!
there was a bunch of impatient shoppers outside as well... some just gave up and went to their cars n drove away! .. wah lieu.. i could not do that leh..

so luckily.. again.. typical of a american shopping area.. there were a few more shops..
i went into a game store .. played PS2, XBOX360, PSP.. till i saw the shoppers going into walmart again..

hence i went back into walmart!
on second impression, it was the same as Safeway (supermarket as well)..
rows of aisles.. lots of stuff ...
but as i go along.. i started to realise that wat walmart did was actually something like taking apart a cheaper version of takashimaya and spread the departments over a large area..
no escalators, no narrow corridors.. :)

but there were more than meet the eye!.. i actually found sections for clothes, shoes, car tires, gardening (with plants, landscape props, etc), fishing equipments (poles, thousand types of lines and baits), etc...
woah.. this was really the different part... really lots of stuff.. i heard in some states their stores are even bigger, with fresh food and so on..

but then i did not see a big crowd leh.. n the corporate tagline was "always low prices. always."
so i dun see how they can earn so much... maybe it is really true that the volume compenstates for margins .. hm.. still ..


things i bought:
1) a rug for my room (no more cold floors in the morning! :) )
2) a big display radio alarm (found that my handphone cannot function very well as a alarm clock.. anyway.. it is always good to have a big clock in a room.. )
3) battery charger with 4 batts (much cheaper in the long run.. aa batts cost $1 dollar each.. rechargable is like $2.50)
4) a mega big plastic box ( have been looking for one ... to put all my stuff in and hide in a corner)
5) some snacks like reese peanut butter chocolate and orea (hehe.. ok.. will watch my waist)

anyway.. i happily paid with my brand new local credit card and walked out of the store ..
ok.. I was supposed to be quite a sight cos of the mega big box .. however.. there were more interesting pple
i.e. bikes can be carried onto the trains and buses...
i.e2. homeless pushing shopping carts all ard...

anyway, when i reached my room.. i was sweating like in singapore.. cos i had to walk the same 20 mins back to my hall!!! hehe..