Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Gowen on August 07, 2013, 08:52:41 PM
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I am seeing these Dollar General and Family Dollar stores open up in small communities and I think they are going to hurt walmart. There is one opening up near me. The community has about 5000 people living in it. The closest walmart is a 20 minute drive on the freeway, why drive that far if you can go 5 mins and get the few things you need? Walmart may get the weekly shopping trip, but these guys will grab all the little money.
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The name brand stuff they carry is okay, but I've tried some of the uber cheap never-heard-of-the-brand products and they suck royally. One that leaps to mind is cleaners... watered-down semi effective pseudo imitations of decent products. You end up spending more over time. The product might cost half the more recognizeable brand, but it takes three times as much to do the same job.
Flyswatters, toilet brushes, etc. Sure. Stuff that has a really important job to do? Pass.
Brad
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Doller General and Family Doller have been around a lot longer then Wallyworld.
They're not going to replace walmart.
Doller stores are pretty commen in rural areas. Around here BFE towns tend to be served by at least one Doller General, one Southern States, a gas station and not much else.
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I don't think they will replace walmart, I just think they are going to take a good chunk of money from them.
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I don't think they will replace walmart, I just think they are going to take a good chunk of money from them.
My point is more along the lines that Walmart took the cash from them in the first place.
Again, those stores are nothing new.
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"Dime stores"
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Amazon is going to take the big money from walmart. Dollar stores are going to take the little money. The only thing left is groceries, so it just depends how that shakes out with the smaller grocers.
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Walmart is 30 minutes away, there are now 3 Dollar General stores along that route. In my little town we have one gas station/convenience store, one crappy grocery store and a Dollar General. The DG tried to get the city to lease them more of the building they are in but city didn't want them expanding and offering more competition to the chain grocery store. DG bought a parcel just outside city limits and built a nice new big building. Whoops.
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The name brand stuff they carry is okay, but I've tried some of the uber cheap never-heard-of-the-brand products and they suck royally.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi156.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft33%2FAJ_Dual%2Fthirtyminutesovertokyo3_thumb_zpseb241ceb.png&hash=f966785aea7af47797fc6615637cc35f36bd4fff) (http://s156.photobucket.com/user/AJ_Dual/media/thirtyminutesovertokyo3_thumb_zpseb241ceb.png.html)
One of my favorite episodes...
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Probably due to growing up semi-poor and rural I always attached a stigma to dollar stores since we weren't poor enough for that and gov't cheese. Now? Dollar General can cover most of my food staple needs minus fresh foods, I typically shop there once a week, it's 9 miles from me, Wal-mart is 50 miles from me. My Wal-mart (or Martin's if I'm rich) runs thus get limited to once a month. No DG cannot sell me produce, change my oil and tires, sell me a gun, lawnmower, and beer in the same cart(Murica!) but it's close and covers a lot of my needs. If I tried hard local farmer's market and a couple of shops sell local meat, I don't have to leave nowhere to get by.
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I am seeing these Dollar General and Family Dollar stores open up in small communities and I think they are going to hurt walmart. There is one opening up near me. The community has about 5000 people living in it. The closest walmart is a 20 minute drive on the freeway, why drive that far if you can go 5 mins and get the few things you need? Walmart may get the weekly shopping trip, but these guys will grab all the little money.
I remember visiting my in-laws when they lived in Rolla, MO maybe 35 years ago. There was a Walmart in town that was about the size of a Dollar Store. That is what Walmart was in those days. They've gone from Dollar Store size to what they are now in the last 35 years.
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Walmart is supposedly getting back into the dollar store/small-footprint discount store arena.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/barbarathau/2012/11/06/dollar-chains-tap-smokes-booze-to-drive-sales-fight-wal-marts-small-format-stores/
Although I haven't seen one here yet, Walmart has just opened a few of the smaller grocery-only stores in the area. I think Dollar General's and Family Dollar's willingness to occupy any existing space that's available (Hardware stores that have gone out of business seems common around Milwaukee) makes them a bit more nimble. I presume Walmart has to source the land and build everything to their pre-determined layouts even for these small stores.
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DG seems very good at the low cost real estate game. Hard for WM to move into a small town where another store already is. Family Dollar not near as useful as DG, Dollar Tree is still a junk store found in the 'hood.
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DG seems very good at the low cost real estate game. Hard for WM to move into a small town where another store already is. Family Dollar not near as useful as DG, Dollar Tree is still a junk store found in the 'hood.
There might be ghetto Dollar Trees around here, but Wisconsinites are so notoriously stingy, there's several of them in nice areas. :rofl:
I will admit I make a run every two weeks for the $1 20oz Rip-Its energy drinks (Popular at FOB's in the sandbox, or so I hear), way better than paying $4 or more for the same sized Red Bull.
Cafffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnn. [tinfoil]
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Walmart is supposedly getting back into the dollar store/small-footprint discount store arena.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/barbarathau/2012/11/06/dollar-chains-tap-smokes-booze-to-drive-sales-fight-wal-marts-small-format-stores/
Although I haven't seen one here yet, Walmart has just opened a few of the smaller grocery-only stores in the area. I think Dollar General's and Family Dollar's willingness to occupy any existing space that's available (Hardware stores that have gone out of business seems common around Milwaukee) makes them a bit more nimble. I presume Walmart has to source the land and build everything to their pre-determined layouts even for these small stores.
I have yet to see the grocery only stores, we did have one of our Walmarts reduce their space by about half. It is really weird to go shopping in since you can only use the left entrance to get into the store.
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[we did have one of our Walmarts reduce their space by about half/quote]
In Billings, they just "remodeled" and now have about half the shelf space and inventory, and much wider aisles. ;/
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Hmmm, never been in a Dollar store.
Do they have really weird people in them like Walmart- especially after midnight?
Its one of the reasons I like shopping at Wlamrt at night- circus sideshow.
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Hmmm, never been in a Dollar store.
Do they have really weird people in them like Walmart- especially after midnight?
Its one of the reasons I like shopping at Wlamrt at night- circus sideshow.
Where I work the workers are weirder than the customers.
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Hmmm, never been in a Dollar store.
Do they have really weird people in them like Walmart- especially after midnight?
Don't think they're open that late.
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Hmmm, never been in a Dollar store.
Do they have really weird people in them like Walmart- especially after midnight?
Its one of the reasons I like shopping at Wlamrt at night- circus sideshow.
I had never seen a DG until a few years ago visiting my dad in a small town in Texas.
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We go to the dollar store for stupid disposable things, or for decorations for things like kid's parties.
Helped my son build a soda-bottle fish trap yesterday. Got the soda from the dollar store, since we were just pouring it out anyway.
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I go to ones for a few small things. Aspirin (since I have to take one each day) Why pay $4.95 for 100 at Wal-Greens (sorry Lupinus) when I can get 325 for $1.00 at DT/DG/FD? (Used to get 500 for a $1.00, but there ain't no inflatin' going on here.)
And yes, I mostly buy disposable/single use crap, occasionally some canned goods and school supplies.
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I remember visiting my in-laws when they lived in Rolla, MO maybe 35 years ago. There was a Walmart in town that was about the size of a Dollar Store. That is what Walmart was in those days. They've gone from Dollar Store size to what they are now in the last 35 years.
I don't remember Walmart stores being that small, but I do remember their ad campaigns which used to tout all the "MADE IN USA" products they carried.
As for the other cheap stores, my mother likes Dollar Tree because they carry greeting cards (birthday, get well, etc.) for $.50 - $1.00, rather than the inflated prices grocery and drug stores charge. Otherwise, what Brad said holds:
. . . Flyswatters, toilet brushes, etc. Sure. Stuff that has a really important job to do? Pass.
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8 years ago Wal-mart did $0 in groceries.
Now they are in the top 3 for Grocery sales (might even be #1)
My last few trips through Wal-mart I've seen these $1 bins of crap up by the check out lanes, seems like Wal-mart is going after the dollar stores.
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Kmart started out as Kresge's (SP) back east. The epitome of the "Dime Store" Now Kmart owns Sears. Stores/ markets change life goes on.
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you get a small thing for a dollar, you get three times as much for a dollar 75 at wally world.
However I will buy stuff there on occasion, you have to shop hard though to really beat wallyworld.
I am beginning to think I must look really weird, I go to wally world and see attractive women/girls all over.
I must be the ugly weirdo everyone is talking about.
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I am beginning to think I must look really weird, I go to wally world and see attractive women/girls all over.
I must be the ugly weirdo everyone is talking about.
Lower standards? ;)
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Kmart started out as Kresge's (SP) back east. The epitome of the "Dime Store" Now Kmart owns Sears. Stores/ markets change life goes on.
Youngster.
I remember when Woolworths became Woolco.
In the 1960s, the five-and-dime concept evolved into the larger discount store format. In 1962, Woolworth's founded a chain of large, single floor discount stores called Woolco. Some of these stores were branded as Winfields, after the founder's middle name. This was the same year as its competitors opened similar retail chains that sold merchandise at a discount: the S.S. Kresge Company opened Kmart, Dayton's opened Target, and Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store.
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Youngster.
I remember when Woolworths became Woolco.
We had a Woolworths that mom shopped at all the time.
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And some of my oldest childhood memories involve trips to Woolco along with Big Bear and Kroger grocery stores all in the same strip mall.
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I remember Woolworths, One of my favorites - preteen, but then they just closed up & disappeared about '65. I don't recall Woolco at all. Woolworth was always a step above Kresge in quality & selection. Besides, they had a lunch counter.
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I have a shotgun that I think my mom said that my stepdad bought for her from Woolworths =D
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Walmart has a well-earned reputation for being rundown with poor displays and empty, mislabeled shelves. Dirty stores are an insult to customers. Sloppy shelves imply a fundamental lack of respect.
When the only competition was a hodgepodge of inefficient local stores with much higher prices, customers were willing to suffer a little abuse. Now that companies like Family Dollar (FDO) have closed the price gap it's becoming apparent that shoppers prefer to spend their money in tidier, less confusing places when given the choice.
I just ran across this here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/3-reasons-walmart-empire-collapsing-164315981.html
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Walmart has a well-earned reputation for being rundown with poor displays and empty, mislabeled shelves. Dirty stores are an insult to customers. Sloppy shelves imply a fundamental lack of respect.
When the only competition was a hodgepodge of inefficient local stores with much higher prices, customers were willing to suffer a little abuse. Now that companies like Family Dollar (FDO) have closed the price gap it's becoming apparent that shoppers prefer to spend their money in tidier, less confusing places when given the choice.
Someone has clearly never been in a Family Doller. ;/
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Is there anyone here being forced to shop at only Walmart? So help me God let me know. It's one thing for them to have insanely good prices on everything but to actually force people to give them their money!? Outrageous!
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Walmart empire is collapsing ???
Well, they say the Sun only has about five billion more years to go. =|
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Walmart has a well-earned reputation for being rundown with poor displays and empty, mislabeled shelves. Dirty stores are an insult to customers. Sloppy shelves imply a fundamental lack of respect.
And I remember when I was in business school in the late 90's, we studied the Wal-Mart computerized inventory and automatic ordering system as a marvel of just-in-time inventory success. Now, when I go to a local Wal-Mart, I am also struck by the number of items I am looking for that are out of stock. It is my perception that the local Targets do a much better job of inventory management.
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When I worked as a vender/merchandiser for a company, I would have to go into walmarts and do store checks on items. One of the first responsibilities was to check and make sure the items and tags were on the shelf. Night crew is notorious for pulling tags on items out of stock. Next if the product was out of stock, I was to go to the back room and find it and fill. Just because a product my be ordered by the computer, doesn't mean that night crew will fill it. Before every holiday, esp in summer, I would have to go on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to walmarts filling products, mostly for Kraft, but sometimes P&G. Companies have to pay a lot of money to 3rd parties, to check up on walmarts.
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Youngster.
I remember when Woolworths became Woolco.
I remember as a young kid when our local Woolworths had a grill that served some of the best hamburgers, fries, and milk shakes around.
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I remember as a young kid when our local Woolworths had a grill that served some of the best hamburgers, fries, and milk shakes around.
This. In spades.
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Fifty years ago Sears and Montgomery Ward's ruled retail empires.
Ward's is no more and Sears is barely hanging on by the K-mart thread (who are also barely hanging on).
Wal-mart has had it's day in the sun. Something is coming along to take their place.
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K-Mart was the first Walmart - so to speak. In the 60's and early 70's, you went to K-Mart for cheap Japan and China (Taiwan) goods. The clothes were garbage, sewn with monofilament line. Shoes were made of plastics. Their goods were at least as bad as are the goods from Walmart today. I was in Walmart last night looking for something and ran into my boss there. I couldn't find what I wanted and he suggested K-Mart and that K-Mart's stuff was pretty good quality. I had just never heard anyone refer to K-Mart as better quality before.
We have a K-Mart in town but I've been in it maybe once in 10 years. After going in, I remembered why I had only been there once in 10 years.
Off-topic but I had to go past the sporting goods department. They sell hunting clothes, gun cases, and other gun-related items but no guns and no ammunition. Why would anyone buy hunting gear from a store that doesn't sell hunting gear? Or at least not a full or even reasonable set of hunting gear? I'd go to Dick's Sporting Goods for my hunting gear before I'd go to K-Mart... and I would never go to Dick's unless they were the last sporting goods store in existence.
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Off-topic but I had to go past the sporting goods department. They sell hunting clothes, gun cases, and other gun-related items but no guns and no ammunition. Why would anyone buy hunting gear from a store that doesn't sell hunting gear? Or at least not a full or even reasonable set of hunting gear? I'd go to Dick's Sporting Goods for my hunting gear before I'd go to K-Mart... and I would never go to Dick's unless they were the last sporting goods store in existence.
Michael Moore badgered Klunk-mart in to dropping guns (post Columbine?). That's when I stopped going, other than to tag along with wifey. The local one folded last year.
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Before Walmart, Dads cheapo place to pick up guns was Roses, which was another of those everything stores.
They got out of selling guns about the same time as Kmart, IIRC, but I don't think that made much effect on their bottem line. The local one was already on the way out at that point.
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I stopped at Wal-Mart today on my way to the library. I was looking for three items, none of which were in stock. One of the items was a box of asssorted band-aids. The shelf must have had 20+ SKU slots for various permutations of band-aids, and only three of those slots had any items in them. Same thing for buying a toenail clipper; the item I was looking for was gone, and there were more empty slots for grooming implements than full ones. Every time this happens, I think a little more about buying more stuff via Amazon.
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I stopped at Wal-Mart today on my way to the library. I was looking for three items, none of which were in stock. One of the items was a box of asssorted band-aids. The shelf must have had 20+ SKU slots for various permutations of band-aids, and only three of those slots had any items in them. Same thing for buying a toenail clipper; the item I was looking for was gone,
You got a Buck knife, don't you?
and there were more empty slots for grooming implements than full ones. Every time this happens, I think a little more about buying more stuff via Amazon.
My wife was amazed to find that one could buy toilet paper on ebay for good prices.
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I stopped at Wal-Mart today on my way to the library. I was looking for three items, none of which were in stock. One of the items was a box of asssorted band-aids. The shelf must have had 20+ SKU slots for various permutations of band-aids, and only three of those slots had any items in them. Same thing for buying a toenail clipper; the item I was looking for was gone, and there were more empty slots for grooming implements than full ones. Every time this happens, I think a little more about buying more stuff via Amazon.
You know, I was almost going to post about how the walmart here is usually well stocked and we must just have a good one, but then I remembered that I had to skip stocking up on Aveeno body wash because they were out and it wasn't the first time. :/
However, the walmart shopping list generally consists of stuff that would require trips to CVS (which is more pricy) or one of the upper scale grocery store (blerg)
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Walmart stores GM's and DM's supposedly have a lot of autonomy in how and what they order, and if they do a good job, and what they order goes off the shelves and makes WM $$$, it supposedly shows up in all their fancy JIT inventory and tracking systems in Bentonvile. And it's why sometimes you'll read of amazing stuff showing up at Walmart, like people bragging that their local WM's gun counter is almost as good as a dedicated gun store or sporting good's store (in long guns and ammo anyway), because the Sporting Goods DM is a gun nut and keeps it stocked, or like I read on some other forums that oddball stuff for ANY big-box store, like Mountain House survival food buckets being in the bulk/seasonal/institutional aisle because maybe the DM there is a survivalist/prepper, or was at least reading up on them...
However, the converse is true too, if the GM or DM is a slouch and not keeping on top of things, or requesting alternatives if some mfg's stuff runs out, like switching to Curad or Equate generics if Johnson & Johnson are not getting enough Band-Aid's, or switching to Oster if Whal isn't getting enough men's trimmers in, stuff will go AWOL from the shelves.
And I'm not sure how well Walmart's systems work at "proving a negative" if the overall store or department's health is "okay".
Around here, the Walmarts seem well stocked, for a Walmart. In the Super Walmart, the grocery section is limited and still smaller than a dedicated supermarket, the clothing and housewares a bit smaller than a large Target's, toys seem about even-Steven, but the Sporting Goods, and Hardware/Auto section are obviously much larger than Target's.
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Michael Moore badgered Klunk-mart in to dropping guns (post Columbine?). That's when I stopped going, other than to tag along with wifey. The local one folded last year.
When we first moved to Montana, there was a K-mart right at the north edge of Billings. We and apparently a lot of folks from the next little town would do a lot of shopping there and avoid driving into Billings proper. Then they closed down that store. We hardly ever go into the remaining Kmart, but it is a good place to avoid crowds ;)
Time wise the closing would have roughly corresponded to post-Concubine =|
There are two Walmarts now, but the one out on the north end a couple miles from the old Kmart seems rude and/or poorly managed. The other one in spite of being on Big Box Row is still small town friendly. Anyway after moving to the hills we come into the city on a different highway.
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This. In spades.
Me too was huge treat for us kids. Heck so was mcdonalds back then
damn phone
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We lost our KMart years ago. On a positive note, the old building is currently being torn down and will be replaced with a Cabelas.
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DG & FG are just doing what WM did 30 years ago....bringing needed products to rural areas for prices better than the local grocery stores & pharmacies. And it's easier to get in and out of a DG/FD when you're in a hurry than going to the WM Supercenter. If I need a few things quick, I go to DG or FD. If I'm doing the weekly/monthly shopping, I'll go to WM.
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Me too was huge treat for us kids. Heck so was mcdonalds back then
damn phone
The first Wal-Mart Supercenter was built in Washington, Missouri, where I went to High School. My friends would go there in the evenings, just to hang out.
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The first Wal-Mart Supercenter was built in Washington, Missouri, where I went to High School. My friends would go there in the evenings, just to hang out.
Wow, that's a really sad story. It brought tears to my eyes.
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Wow, that's a really sad story. It brought tears to my eyes.
Yeah, I used to go to work after school - just to hang out.
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Yeah, I used to go to work after school - just to hang out.
and it was an uphill walk both ways!
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and it was an uphill walk both ways!
In the rain!
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And in the snow! Carrying our mush sandwiches in a tin lard bucket!
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And in the snow! Carrying our mush sandwiches in a tin lard bucket!
We didn't have mush to eat. :lol:
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We didn't have mush to eat. :lol:
So you whittled your own from a stick.
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We didn't have mush to eat. :lol:
We didn't have lard, either. We was so dirt poor, dirt was richer 'en us.
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We didn't have lard, either. We was so dirt poor, dirt was richer 'en us.
We was so poor, we couldn't afford to pay attention :lol: