Decision Time: Spend Spring Break at the beach or... WalMart!?!

[SzczerbiakManiac]

College student lives in WalMart for 41 hours (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/29/walmat.spring.break.ap/index.html)

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Here's the truly stupid part.
Tiring to the point of hallucinating, Bartels said he decided to go home before he was thrown out.

He considered the project a failure.

Then, The Des Moines Register, which had been contacted by Spaulding-Kruse, called to ask him about the experience. Once the story ran, TV networks began calling.

He also talked with a book agent, has been contacted by New Line Cinema about a movie concept and did a radio interview with National Public Radio.

Bartels told The Associated Press he has decided the stunt wasn't such a failure after all.:rolleyes: "Wow, he hung out at a store for two days??? AMAZING!"

I really don't find this impressive at all and agree with the kid's earlier assessment - failure. Now if he'd stayed for at least 4 days, then we're getting somewhere. Anyone can stand around and look at stuff. The real story is in finding secluded spots to take quick naps so he could survive. Apparently he sucked at that.

[innerSpaceman]

Big freaking deal. The only Wal*Mart I know of never closes, so how hard would it be to stay there forever?

[Ponine]

That was the point though, wasnt it? He tried to stay in a 24hour Wal-mart, but towards the end, was terribly tired, and was starting to get recorgnized and decided to cut his losses.

[Alex]

Hell, Wal-Mart actively (though quietly) promotes itself within the RV community as a place to crash for a while. In the areas of bigger cities they tend to ban it (because they accumulate permanent parking lot residents) but in most parts of the country you are perfectly welcome to park in their lot and crash for a day or two. As long as you don't misbehave I'd be really surprised if they really care if you're actually in the store for a couple days.

[innerSpaceman]

Sorry. I didn't read the link. I had supposed to the stunt was to stow away without detection. If the stunt was simply to stay awake, why was Wal*Mart a necessary part of the equation?

[€uroMeinke]

Eh - not impressed at all

While I was in college I squatted with a friend in an MIT student lounge for a week.

Also, in a seperate experiement I stayed awake for 111 hours - for me hallucinations didn't begin until day 3.

Kids today - no imagination and wreckless disregard for their well-being

[Alex]

Yeah, I stayed awaked for around 78 hours at Boy's State when I was in high school. Once I realized most high school kids didn't understand the house edge in blackjack I was more than happy to deal without pause.

[tracilicious]

Also, in a seperate experiement I stayed awake for 111 hours - for me hallucinations didn't begin until day 3.



Why did you stay awake for 111 hours?

I'm with CP, if he had done it without getting caught, I'd be impressed.

[€uroMeinke]

Why did you stay awake for 111 hours?

It was finals - so I had a couple consecutive all nighters to get my papers done - then I just wanted to see if I could make it to the weekend and a particular party.

I did it - but had several bizar hallucinations along the way - including going to class - sitting in front to keep awake, and then watch as my professor split in two, with the professor on the right growing facial hair and then making and wearing a paper hat. The professor on the left continued to lecture as if nothing was going on. I however, was rivited in amazement at this feat.

The dark fuzzies on the outside of my peripheral vison also seemed to grow bigger and more menacing as the days wore on.

[tracilicious]

Wow. I wish I could stay awake fro that long. That sounds cool.

[Ponine]

Sorry. I didn't read the link. I had supposed to the stunt was to stow away without detection. If the stunt was simply to stay awake, why was Wal*Mart a necessary part of the equation?
No sweat, I'll give you the high points

Bartels, 20, an aspiring writer and Drake University sophomore, thought he'd spend a week in a Wal-Mart as a test of endurance, using it as the premise for a magazine article. His college adviser liked the idea.

"I just intuitively thought, 'This is brilliant!"' said Carol Spaulding-Kruse, an associate professor of English. "I wasn't quite sure why, but it just sounded like a really good idea."
.....

He bought meals at the in-store Subway sandwich shop, but was able to catch only brief naps in a restroom stall or on lawn chairs in the garden department.

Other shoppers and employees didn't pay much attention until the end of his stay, he said, when it appeared some store greeters began to take notice -- pointing at him and whispering.

A shift manager approached him and asked him if he was finding everything he needed.

"He said, 'Didn't I see you over by the magazines, like, five hours ago?' I told him, 'Maybe,"' Bartels said.

Tiring to the point of hallucinating, Bartels said he decided to go home before he was thrown out.

I'm still wondering why anyone thought this was a good idea.

[Capt Jack]

yup. did a 100 hour shift in my first job in computer ops. the entire staff had contracted the flu and in the process and time and time again reinfected every person we employed.
except me. so, I volunteered to stay until a healthy person came to relieve me. no one bothered to check to see if that ever happened...since most were home sick.
so...I worked until relieved....went home and passed out trying to untie my shoe. woke up 17 hours later..........with the flu. but with one hell of an overtime check.

truly...no good deed goes unpunished.
(and yes, about 3 days in, the halucinations were........impressive)

note: I did however employ various 'materials' to enable me to stay awake that long and would grab the occasional nap between reloading paper into the printer.

[€uroMeinke]

note: I did however employ various 'materials' to enable me to stay awake that long

Caffine (in multiple delivery systems) and cigarettes got me through it

[Capt Jack]

uh...yeahhhhh,...thats what I meant. sure....caffine ;)

[Ghoulish Delight]

I went 48 hours, with a cold, whacked out on a combination of decongestants, albuterol inhaler, tea, and 2 liters of Mountain Dew. I wrote a 15 page final paper that I have no real recolection of writing (other than the part where I appologized in the middle because I was whacked out on a combination of decongestants, albuterol inhaler, tea, and 2 liters of Mountain Dew). I then went to a final exam. I don't remember which (econ maybe?). No idea how I did, but I got an A on the paper. I read it a year later, it wasn't too bad.

[innerSpaceman]

Caffine (in multiple delivery systems) and cigarettes got me through it

pffht, amateurs :rolleyes:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Hmm, hallucinatory no-sleep swank party...Tiki and 'Tini 'Till Dawn and Beyond?

If we started on a Friday night it could get pretty gnarly before people had to go home Sunday night.

Of course the NYE party is nearly the same. Only a few hours of sleep there, and the party just keeps on rolling. :cheers:

[€uroMeinke]

pffht, amateurs :rolleyes:

Perhaps - but lack of sleep induced hallucinations were far more vivid that most of those I've experienced through other means

[innerSpaceman]

I'll see your sleep-deprivation hallucination ... and raise you one drug-induced, sleep-deprivation hallucination.

[Alex]

No idea how I did, but I got an A on the paper. I read it a year later, it wasn't too bad.

Don't be surprised if the paper was never read. I found that grading things unread wasn't particularly uncommon as I went through school. Twice in grad school I finally got the balls up to test it when I thought the instructor wasn't grading on much more than expectation. Both times in the middle of long papers I said essentially "At this point I don't expect you to be reading so the next seven pages or so of this paper are just some article I copied and pasted from DIALOG. Mostly it's here to fill out this paper to the required length for the assignment." I made sure to cite it fully so that while I could get in trouble I wouldn't be kicked out for plagiarism. Tacked on a couple pages at the end with the conclusion of my paper (and the papers were fine except that they were shorter than required) and turned it.

Both times I got decent grades without comment.

[Kevy Baby]

My personal best was one night with about three hours sleep followed by three nights of no sleep (too lazy to do the math). Coke (A-Cola) and Zingers* got me by.


*Zingers because I was living on campus and forced into a meal plan. If you didn't use your weekly allotment, it went away forever - no refund. So when you saw that you were going to have extra meals left, you took the a la carte equivalent and stocked up on snack foods. Zingers were always a popular choice. And I haven't had one since I left the dorms 15 years ago.

[Alex]

I hadn't noticed the exact time given. 41 hours.

I'm still regularly up that long for no particular reason. I was up for about 45 hours straight when we came back from Japan. Nothing even close to hallucinations (nor any on my 78 hours).

Kids these days really are wimps.

[Mousey Girl]

I'll see your sleep-deprivation hallucination ... and raise you one drug-induced, sleep-deprivation hallucination.

Ditto. I once, towards then end of usage, had one about bugs. To be specific those annoying little weevel bugs that infest flour and cereal (stupid older sister ate bugs TWICE). In my halucination they were crawling up the walls around my bed. They were everywhere. I tweaked out trying to get rid of them all. When I finally slept, I awoke to find my room smelling like bug spray and the rat cage was in the hallway. There was not a corpse to be seen.

[Gemini Cricket]

During a cross country trip, my friend tried to stay in a Wal*Mart parking lot in his RV overnight and was kicked out several times by WM security. He tried at least 4 or 5 different ones in different states. No dice.

[Alex]

Over the years I've probably slept in the parking lots of two dozen WalMarts across the country, at least one was in a thoroughly urban area (Okalahoma City) and at none of them was I the only one doing so (I'm always in a car, not an RV but there were always plenty of RVs there).

Santa Rosa, I think, was in the news last year for forcing WalMart to stop letting RVs park in its lots or they'd ban it statutorily.

Here's an article (http://www.amiba.net/pressroom/RVers_like_Walmart_9.11.05.html) on how free RV parking at WalMarts is having a negative impact on RV parks. It includes this paragraph including comment from a Wal-Mart spokesperson:

Most Wal-Marts provide only space for the R.V.'s to park, not electrical hookups or dumping stations. The company says its invitation to R.V.'s, which has been in place for decades, is not predatory competition. "It is very simply an extension of customer service," said Sharon Weber, a spokeswoman.

There is a book called Wal-Mart Locator RV Guide (http://rvbookstore.com/shop/detail.aspx?m=2&p=379) that lists all the Wal-Marts, has pictures and maps, and detailed driving directions. And a pamphlet (http://rvbookstore.com/shop/detail.aspx?m=2&p=205) that lists the 350 (out of more than 4,000) or so WalMarts that do not allow parking.

Maybe your friend had the bad luck to only try it in municipalities that have banned it.

[Gemini Cricket]

I know one was in CA and one was in Idaho. I'm not sure about the rest. The security guard turned away a number of RVs. He said something about 9/11, if I recall the story correctly.

[Alex]

When was the trip?

If they banned it after 9/11, it must have been a bit delayed and short period. Lani and I road tripped to Marceline, MO, for their Walt's 100th Birthday celebration a week after 9/11 and slept at least once in a WalMart parking lot during that trip. (We went through Vegas on that drive and I have never seen the town so dead. We probably could have rented a floor of a Strip casino for $100.)

[Gemini Cricket]

When was the trip?
Let's see. They left Monterey in June 2005 and were gone for two weeks. Each Wal*Mart must have different rules.

I spoke to a manager at a Wal*Mart in Salinas, CA last year and he said he hadn't even heard of WM doing that.

[Ghoulish Delight]

When was the trip?

If they banned it after 9/11, it must have been a bit delayed and short period. Lani and I road tripped to Marceline, MO, for their Walt's 100th Birthday celebration a week after 9/11 and slept at least once in a WalMart parking lot during that trip. (We went through Vegas on that drive and I have never seen the town so dead. We probably could have rented a floor of a Strip casino for $100.)Or it could have started later. Many "security" measures were implemented well after 9/11 while the implementers still invoked 9/11 as their excuse.

[Alex]

Except that I've slept at WalMarts many times since 9/11. As recently as a year ago and all the RV Web sites consider this a current practice and as recently as four months ago a WalMart spokesperson is quoted defending the policy against criticisms of the policy.

There are definitely specific WalMarts where it is not allowed (less than 10%). I pointed out above where you could get a guide that listed all of them (as of mid-2005). But if someone has had no luck in parking at WalMarts it is through bad luck in the specific stores, not because WalMart doesn't generally allow it. From the best of my knowledge as a fringe watcher of the RV community sites, there has never been so much as a state-wide ban on WalMart parking (let alone a chain wide one). If there had it would have been as big news for those communities as if Disney announced the closure of DCA would be for all of us.

Here's (http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4348696) another article on the practice and the conflict between those who like it with those who live near WalMarts that don't.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Except that I've slept at WalMarts many times since 9/11. As recently as a year ago Ah, I see. Your posts made it sound like the week after was the last time that you did.

[Not Afraid]

Gee, where are you going on your vacation this year?

Walmart. They let you park for free!

[Alex]

Or: "Miami, and we can stay three days longer because we have no lodging expenses if we park at WalMart!"

Personally, I doubt I'd ever use WalMart parking lots for a multi-day visit somewhere. I like them because they allow me to drive until midnight, start driving again before dawn, and not have to pay $25 for the privelege of peeing in the middle of the night.

But boondocking is fun too. One of my great memories is a cross country drive with a friend in college where we trespassed to steal a shower (getting clean, not physically stealing a shower). Nothing more exciting than doing something technically illegal where you'll be naked if caught.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Nothing more exciting than doing something technically illegal where you'll be naked if caught.

Meeeemorieeeees.... light the corner of my miiiiiiiind...