People of Walmart and social norms

One of the most popular and passed-around sites right now is People of Walmart.

Go there and you’ll find new pictures posted every day of the absurd people and things others saw at Walmart, along with some witty caption for each post. People are dressed in ridiculous outfits, bring pet monkeys into the store, and decorate their cars with little plastic dinosaur toys. Most of it is funny satire.

What gets people riled up about the site the most? When they make fun of people who look stereotypically poor, uneducated, or uncultured. When the comments are anti-gay, or insulting to people with obvious physical handicaps.

It made me think of a lesson I learned from the service manager at a car dealership.

The dealership he worked at was split into two separate buildings next to each other: one Dodge, one Subaru. Since I was looking for a job he told me the difference between the customers at the two dealerships. Dodge customers expected their current car troubles to be fixed when they drove their car home from the shop. Subaru customers did not expect their cars to have problems.

On Black Friday I went into Walmart looking for one thing (ended up getting it somewhere else) and saw at least half a dozen people I could have snapped a picture of and sent to the site. But that’s who shops at Walmart.

I’m just waiting for someone to start a “People of Neiman Marcus” site at this point.