However, there are at least 5 stores in the Metro area, two on 82nd Ave in Portland. And not very far apart, either. Visit the one at Eastport sometime (but not at night.) Its kinda like going to the fair.

And I see people dressed like the guy in that first picture every day on MAX.

Longview Walmart is where it's at. Neither of the 82nd Ave. stores can hold a candle to that fine establishment.

What. Just a nice cross section of the diversity of America.

If Neiman-Marcus wanted to open a store in Portland the powers that be would be wetting their pants.

Neiman's will never! open a store here!
Our demographic is way too low brow and now poor to boot!

Agreed. We're lucky we've got Saks and Tiffanys. But you aren't gonna see a Neiman Marcus (or a Walmart) within the city limits of Portland. And the city will be better without either. On the other hand, how about Giorgio Armani and its ilk?

It's scary to imagine what these people look like when they really kick back in the privacy of their caves.

When these folks sashay in Lloyd Center, nobody gets so snotty about their appearance. No need to be so without class, as some here seem to be. Hey, they're human too.

I spend most of my spare time up in the gorge roughing it on some very rough and primitive rural property. Say what you want about Wal-Mart, but the one in Hood River has just about everything I ever need, and at the very best prices. And I don't notice my fellow patrons being anywhere near as colorful as depicted on that website. Maybe the Hood River location is an exception.

I have to use the one in Salem sometimes for work stuff. It's kinda like a scene from Deliverance..

Say what you want but competition is great. Before Wal-Mart and their generic prescription pricing I was paying thirty five bucks a month for my statin drug. Now because all the pharmacies match Wal-Mart pricing I get my prescription at ten dollars for a ninety day supply. That is an eighty buck savings. Before that I never ventured to a Wal-Mart because I thought they were evil. I saw that on MSNBC you know. Well I went to a store recently and found it to by quite pleasant and the pricing and service to good. At least they don’t make you walk through a maze like IKEA does.

Say what you want but competition is great.

How do you start a business that competes with Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart owes much (if not most) of its success to deliberately and methodically driving out smaller businesses. Stories abound of entire towns stripped of small businesses and left with...a Wal-Mart.

Which, by the way, gets most of its goods from China and SE Asia.

Funny how "competition" works.

But you aren't gonna see a Neiman Marcus (or a Walmart) within the city limits of Portland.

Well, you won't unless you drive out 82nd a few blocks down from SE Powell, where there's a big old Wal-Mart more than two miles inside the nearest city boundary at 82d & Clatsop.

Of course, that would require someone who actually knew something about the east side of Portland.

"Say what you want ....
I was paying thirty five bucks a month ....
Now ... I get my prescription at ten dollars ....
That is an eighty buck savings."

That is NOT good on Walmerde, IT IS bad on pharmy/health monopoly.
It's not an eighty buck "savings" to pay regular price after YOU WERE TAKEN paying eighty buck RIP-OFF extortion prices.

Normalized costs is NOT the cure for health thieves. Prison is.

- -
"Say what you want about Wal-Mart, but the one in Hood River ...."

Woman beaten to death at China Wal-Mart: police, (AFP)

BEIJING — A woman in eastern China was allegedly beaten to death by five employees of a Wal-Mart store who accused her of shoplifting, a police report and state media said Tuesday.

sing it together:
... now bring your family down to the riverside
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
It's time we put the flame torch to their keep
(chorus)
Burn down the mission
If we're gonna stay alive

What I wanted to say. 'nuff said

"How do you start a business that competes with Wal-Mart?" No business is obligated to insure that competitors have an easy go of it. Any one is free to raise money, build a building, and sell stuff. If you can do that more efficiently than Wal-Mart, you will eat Wal-Mart's lunch.

I sometimes wonder why the general Portland vibe of smoke what you want, love who you want, get tatted up if you want, etc, does not extend to 'shop where you want'.