Heh heh! You have a point, Nicole! I'm certainly guilty of going to WM and coming out with more stuff than was on my list. But one of my reasons for going there (or to K-Mart or, when it was open, to Ames or Bradlee's or Jamesway) is that I make that shopping circle with a cart instead of a car.

I did live in a small town for 13 years that had everything within easy walking distance of my apartment: a post office, a Mom-and-Pop market, a Mom-and-Pop 5&10, a Mom-and-Pop discount movie theater, a Mom-and-Pop pharmacy that rented videos, a Mom-and-Pop chinese restaurant, a Mom-and-Pop pizzeria, a Mom-and-Pop family restaurant, a train station, a bus stop in front of the apartment building, and more. And my workplace was only 7 blocks away! Still had to drive to buy clothes and gas and farmers' market veggies, but that was about it.

The Mom-and-Pop market and 5&10 closed because of the deaths of one Mom and one Pops and the retirement of the surviving spouses. The chinese restaurant was closed because they were serving cat meat, and the family restaurant had a fire. The post office closed as part of government cutbacks. The Philly transit authority stopped sending commuter trains to that station because of their own economic woes (they kept the bus line, though). The movie theater and pizzeria are still there, and the pharmacy is still a pharmacy though it sold out to the Eckerd's chain. The workplace is still there, too... but they laid me off, I had to look elsewhere for work, and when I found it I moved elsewhere 6 years ago to (a) be closer to the new workplace and (b) get away from the respiratory irritants where I was living (the pollution from the street, the residue and fumes in the air from surrounding farms with farmers' markets, and the mold and cigarette smoke in the apartment building)!

Now I have to either walk too far to get into the current town with what Mom-and-Pop shops it has (not nearly as diverse!), or else drive. Sometimes I do drive into town and walk to some of the shops (notably the two thrift stores) and carry stuff back to the car, but it really is more convenient (and easier on my arthritic body!) to wheel one cart up to my car than to carry bags for blocks. Also, because of my respiratory problems, it's better for me to shop in one air-conditioned environment than to walk in and out of stores where the outside temperature and humidity are vastly different from the inside, and where I have to breathe auto exhaust fumes from the street. So there ya go, that's why I prefer the superstores and supermarkets (in addition to the discount pricing and the sales)!