It's not just Walmart. Just like slab city or other places, it used to be families camping or snowbirds or travelers. The people that are doing this crazy stuff are primarily the mobile homeless.
We were at the Fort Mohave AVI casino where they have a nice large illuminated dirt lot. There was one 1960's looking FW with trash all over around it. Not just a little but piles of stuff. The long haired shirtless guy came knocking at my door admiring my torquelift steps and said his wife keeps falling on their pallet step. I thought oh geez now my steps are going to disappear.
I looked over at his fw and said why don't you use your step is it broken. He said no I don't have one there's some kind of metal bracket on there. I went over and looked at it and folded the step out and he was amazed didn't know there was a step there so they were walking on pallets and boards.
So now I'm getting more questions. He said he couldn't pump water they had no running water so he was trying to remove the pump I started looking at it and ask him if it ran. He said he never heard anything I said did you turn the switch on he didn't know it had a switch so I went inside turn the pump on it started to run so I hook the hoses back up.
He then said that someone gave him the fifth wheel and when he went to pick it up the sewer hose was packed full and the toilet was still full to the top with waste. He wanted to know if I could tow it across the street to the campground to dump it because he had no way to tow it.
I told him no my hitch was completely different because it slides there's no way, it's impossible for me to tow it. He was driving and equally ratty very old Class C that was falling apart. He would take the battery out of the Class C to use it to start the old Honda 3000 generator. They had to run the Honda generator to turn a light on inside the camper.
Our friend who was camped near us asked me why I was over there with that guy I said so that he wouldn't come over at night and steal my stuff. Buddy said oh geez I'm putting my Honda away tonight. I told him good idea.
He was drunk one day and gone some days so he worked a little here and there. His wife was very nice and thankful for my help. They all aren't bad people they are just the ones who have enough resources to still have a car or van or RV.
From Florida and south Carolina to socal to Denver I see them and talk to them often. I noticed it right away when we started traveling 5 years ago. It's not mom and dad and the kids in a lot of places. There are a lot of RV parks that are pretty much full of live in because it's cheaper than renting. It's good for the park because the income may be less by the month but it's steady.
Everyone is not going to college or getting enough skills so they end up in a job market that's paying $10 or so an hour. You can't live on that. Throw in medical issues or unforseens and they are in trouble. They can't survive while boondocked out real far so they are often in Walmart etc.
