Kmart

Welcome to the most depressing shopping experience in the Tri-​Cities area.
First of all, I did not go there of my own free will. Ma asked me to take her there to find a pair of jeans. It’s not a place she normally frequents; in fact, she’s not been there in years, but we were in the area and decided to check it out.
This used to be one of those Mega-​Big Franken-​Mart things with a grocery store. Now the grocery store section is closed and the windows are boarded up. It’s on a big plot of land with an enormous parking lot … and the first thing I noticed was just how darn easy it was to park close to the entrance. There were only a handful of cars there on a Wednesday afternoon.
That’s because there were just a handful of glassy-​eyed trailer park zombies shuffling around with shopping carts inside. It was weird being in such an enormous retail space filled with so few people! I suspect the employees outnumbered the guests.
It was weird seeing the grocery store section walled off with walls that didn’t reach the ceiling so you could glimpse this vast dark area behind. The lighting inside was bad, it cast a sickly sheen on everything. The merchandise was cheap crap like you might find in the Soviet Union during the 70’s.
There was an enormous row of (10? 15?) check-​out stations staffed with two bored young ladies with neck tattoos, and the stations were covered with handwritten signs taped to them.
As we fled for the exit it crossed my mind that this may be a movie set for a John Waters film.
Eeek!