The last two posts in reference to the Walmart in Whitehorse are not exaggerated comments either.....
The first time I seen the new Walmart in Whitehorse was in 2008, as I was experiencing a 10 year gap with my last visit in Whitehorse at that time in 1998 and seen the newer growth of commercial property along the Chilkoot Way - Quartz Road area.
Don't know when it officially opened, I think I first heard about the new Walmart store around 2003 or 2004-ish when someone mentioned it to me.
Upon my experience visiting Whitehorse and shopping at Walmart in 2008 and 2009 during those times, it was big on the overnighters full of campers and such which is understandable with the geographical area and streamline of summer traffic passing thru Whitehorse as it just looked like a typical Walmart parking lot with parked vehicles and RV's.
Fast forward to 2010 upon stopping there it was the same when I proceeded southbound, no big deal.....Three weeks later upon returning northbound when pulling in the parking lot, I was like what the h---- happened to this place as you could not find a spot anywhere to park in (had to go to adjacent Canadian Tire parking lot to park) as all of a sudden the Whitehorse Walmart turned into a full blown refugee camp as I couldn't figure out why the big change until someone walked up to me noticing my Alaska plates on my rig and asked me if I was heading north and which route I was taking....
I was informed the Taylor Highway was washed out in four places and permanently closed as the Top of the World Highway was open but the border was closed....
I did tell the lady I was enroute on the Alaska Highway heading home as I drove the Taylor Highway via Top of the World and Klondike Highways while heading south and asked when the road closures happened as she stated around a week or so ago which is why all the RVers had generators running, trailers unhooked, power cords strung out all over the parking lot, bbq's blaring, etc. as all the private and gov't campgrounds in the region were full as there was no other resources to turn to in the Whitehorse area at that time which was fully understandable....found out I drove thru 10 days before the Taylor Highway washed out big time.
Every year since 2008 I have seen the Whitehorse Walmart, I can vouch that since that 2010 incident it has been pretty much a refugee camp ever since, but not as many RV's and vans during the summer of 2010 in comparison though.
I would say 2014 is where the more yearly rounders and squatters tend to been more noticable to me with the shread-o-matic tarps bungeed over the trailer roofs sitting on outriggers, power cords laying everywhere for their generator hookups, at least two broken down vehicles sitting on jackstands waiting for parts to arrive, etc.
My last visit shopping there in 2017, this Alaskan asked me for a cigarette which I do not smoke, running a brief conversation with me as he had a broken down 4wd Ford F350 extended crew cab truck while a nice Yukon Samaritan let the guy borrow a transmission jack so he could finish dropping the entire transfer case and transmission out of the truck !!!!!!
.....and I mean a puddle of oil, nuts and bolts and brackets and everything sitting there on the asphalt....At least the guy brought tools and a cheater bar with him to do the job.
Meanwhile his buddy was coming to the rescue as he lived in the crew cab for almost a week while enroute to Skagway with no extra money onhand after paying the tow truck driver to drop the truck off at Walmart, as his buddy was on the way hauling a replacement transmission to swap in.
Most municipalities will not put up with this, however there are many hardships in the Whitehorse area as the Walmart parking lot does help with those in need in some regard, although the change of ordinance was mentioned on more than one occasion before to disallow the practices.
As a visitor, that still does not deter me from stopping there to shop and such or even perhaps getting a few hours of shuteye as I never had any problem with people there.
For those who are not familiar with the Whitehorse Walmart parking lot layout - it is not a huge parking lot compared to most Walmarts, as even though they do have an RV section (along the Quartz Road side - east edge of the parking lot and the back half - south side) it is still pretty much out in the open as there is no extensive isolated corner and such to really place an RV section as the parking lot is more like a total triangle layout, which makes RV's and trailers look like they are blending in with the general parking area for passenger rigs.
