Big car at big store - the Walmart Cadillac

Expensive cars and trucks at Walmart Super Center 2/2021
 

Mid-morning on a cold day early in February, there were maybe 60 cars scattered through the parking lot. Interpreting the demographic profiles of Tuesday morning shoppers based on the cars and trucks they drive is a very imprecise and impressionistic exercise unless there is a way to get to know the drivers themselves. But for the purposes of stretching a few analytical muscles, there is no harm that comes from guessing at some of the forces at play now 11 months into the Trump Virus (pandemic scourge of USA and world-wide).

Walmart presents itself in its origin story and present-day marketing in such a way to appeal to shoppers seeking the most product (or service) for their money. The overall vibe is "buy in bulk," "choose in-store brand," and be unpretentious, although there are selected name-brand items also sold under the same roof. So if bargain prices and budgeting are uppermost among many of the shoppers, at first glance it seems out of place to see a new-looking car, particularly one that is more expensive that a modest or basic model: the Cadillac line of GM (above), or a European car, for example.

There must be many ways to interpret this scene of a pricey car (in 2020 MSRP of $75,000 -about the same price as an older house of 1500 square feet in the town) whose driver relies on Walmart for some of the products to use at their home or business. Here is a list of a few possible explanations, in no particular order. (1) Lottery or raffle contest winner - modest or big jackpot (at least one big winner lived in this town more than a decade ago). (2) Recent inheritance of financial assets or the vehicle itself. (3) Factory employee with discount or other incentives to allow purchase on easy and advantageous terms. (4) Budget-conscious shopper has saved enough money over the decades to finally purchase a car of her/his dreams (i.e. it is thanks to big-box retail stores like this one that the owner was able to buy this car. (5) The car is borrowed, is a rental,  is used for business, or was taken with a 3 year lease agreement such that the sight of an expensive car's driver shopping for inexpensive groceries is not anomalous after all: the appearance of great wealth is not actually true. (6) The car was bought or leased pre-Covid when income was good, but now with livelihood cramped or ended by the pandemic the once proudly owned transportation seems extravagant, but still it functions for transportation all right. (7) As a strategy for conserving a little wealth for someone seeking to qualify for Medicare to pay for nursing home, assisted living, or memory care, one's house and one vehicle are not calculated in the personal wealth inventory. So pouring some savings into a car that is premium price is one way to hold onto a little more owned wealth.

Whatever the real-life context that make possible this picture of a high-priced car parking at the budget-friendly Walmart Super Center, it is clear that there are many explanations that could apply alone or maybe even in combination. By contrast, though, most vehicles are modest and much less eye-catching. A few may look in very decrepit condition on the outside, but be maintained to a high standard on the inside. A few may be in the new years of their lifecycle. But most cars and trucks are somewhere between shiny and new on the one hand and falling apart on the other hand.

Early July scene mid-week along highway M-115 in Cadillac, Michigan at William Mitchell State Park.

To join the others under the trees and walking distance from the two lakes that straddle the isthmus most people buy, borrow, or rent a camping trailer or RV (recreation vehicle). The section reserved for tenters (people sleeping under nylon or canvas) is relatively small and hard to see by comparison to the wheeled, portable living spaces shown here. The convenience of having a familiar place to sleep, cook, and take care of some personal grooming gives campers reason to haul their trailer north from time to time on the weekend or for whole weeks at a time. It is hard to beat the feeling of certainty and security with light, heat, water and electricity all in one place, especially when the outdoors is less than glorious. And yet there is the view that your means will affect your ends; that is, the manner in which you conduct your life affects the kinds of things that are visible or audible in your experience. By analogy and using the "life is a journey" metaphor, the person traveling on foot v. noisy motorbike v. biplane v. jumbo jet will all have different experiences of a place. So too of camping - the more gear that separates you from the elements, the less of those textures and rhythms will you perceive. Thus to live in or a few steps away from a camper which is neatly parked next to other ones is bound to be a different experience to living out of a tent with few tenters nearby.

mass migration on Memorial Day 3-day weekend

The busiest roadways in USA are the end of May (the northbound stream of cars on M-115 near Cadillac on Friday about 2:30 p.m. pictured here) for the 3 day weekend of Memorial Day; the traditional end of summer vacation season on the 3 day weekend of Labor Day (itself the first Monday of September; and the 4 day weekend of Thanksgiving (3rd Thursday) in November.
The urge to spend some happy hours among those one knows best, whether relatives or friends or both, drives people to their cars. For most people the roadways are the single biggest risk factor in their lives. And being more heavily trafficked on the start and the end of the holiday weekends, the danger is that much higher. In the recent decade or two the state police in Michigan, together with volunteers, have offered coffee at the highway rest areas to help ward off drowsiness or at least to demonstrate to those stopping that the problem is worthy of care. This widely dispersed pattern of social bonds comes from the ease of transportation, personal or by commercial services of rail, ferry and motor coach. So for the past 150 or more years, to pack up and visit others for a weekend has not been out of the ordinary. But in the grand scheme of human experience, it is not the norm, either. It would be interesting to peer into each of the cars in this stream to know what fills the compressed social space: silence, audio book or music or talk radio, conversation, cellphone or other mobile devices, print materials occupying the minds of those aboard? Multiplied across all the highways filling up in the afternoon of the holiday, the sum total of engagements is likely staggering.