Has anyone rated Walmart parking lot experiences?

We have overnighted several Times at Walmart. We have had no problems. Once on the Eat Coast, we were told that Overnight Parking was not allowed because of a City Ordinance. They told us of another Walmart close by, where we could park.

We have stayed on single nights on many occasions.We carry a Walmart Road Atlas that provides all National map info and Walmart locations and zip codes ( needed to aim satellite dish). Often if the Walmart is located in a resort area signs will note."No overnight parking." On a few occasions we told to park in the back with delivery trucks.

We discovered a bonus, parking directly under the mercury vapor lights will charge our batteries from our solar panels, as we watch TV. There are video cameras in all Walmart lots, we have never experienced any problems, it has been a very convenient way to stop enroute.

First trip out after retiring a narcotics detection K-9. Stopped at Wally world in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Dog had to go for a walk. Dog was officially retired, but try telling her that.

Before we completed the walk, we had two hard alerts. One for a MJ roach that had been discarded on the pavement. The second was a very hard alert complete with dragging me to the low hung blacked out vehicle playing loud hip hop music that had just pulled into the parking lot.

As I attempted to "praise off" the dog, which she was having no part of, two young men sporting dreadlocks got out of the car and looked at me with their mouths hanging open. I just smiled and explained that my "puppy" loves rap music. She runs to it every time she hears it. Have a nice day, fellas.

Come on, "puppy", your retired.................

Lakeside

I will admit it, I do stop at Walmarts when the distance is too great to safely drive in one day..

They serve a purpose, gives me a little bit of rest before continuing on..

Typically easy to find, easy to get to from many Interstate roads and pretty much everywhere.

For me, much faster than finding a open campground, then paying for a site, then finding the site then parking and then hooking up at a min electric (if I am paying for a patch of land I may as well use the amenities that I paid for).

As far as safety goes, no better and no worse than say a truck stop or even a rest area.. Walmarts do have cameras everywhere and even security folks but hey, anything can happen..

They do have lots of lights..

If you feel uneasy, then move on, there are more out there to stop at.

Noise, this is something that does bother me a bit I often sleep lightly when not at home, lots of cars, trucks with loud pipes and or loud music at all hrs of the night..

Used to stop at one regularly that was a race track until about 2 AM with folks burning tire.. Last couple of visits there were much quieter, makes me wonder if the Police cracked down or those folks grew up and moved on.

29 cent ear plugs typically take care of that problem for me and I sleep better..

We typically will get a few doughnuts when we pull in at night, then in the morning we can get moving quickly..

The only downside I have found is the nightly parking lot sweeper, typically 4AM and on.. Pretty loud.

Typically we pull in at 10 PM, leave about 6 AM, just long enough to get a safety break.

I work part time at Wal-mart. Some nights we may have 1 to 2 rigs parked overnight. Some night there are up to 5 to 6 rigs parked overnight. Most people who park overnight usually come in and buy supplies. Why should stores or truckstops ban overnight parking when most people will buy something from your store. Unless a city would ban overnight parking look at what the city would lose out in money coming into there city if the city would ban overnight parking.

Rating, 10/10 its convenient for an overnight stop and it's free. Not looking for an experience just a good nights sleep, haven't had a bad one yet. I use Walmart quite often as well as Ace Hardware and truck stops.

Veebyes wrote:
So, Walmart has a Yahoo group does it? Gotta love Walmart. It is the place we love to hate & can't stay out of it. Have a few possible Walmart visits in our next trip. So convenient to load from shopping cart straight inside the trailer.

No, Walmart does not have a Yahoo group but there are two privately owned Yahoo groups that are devoted to discussing and cataloging the Walmarts that allow overnighting. One is a free group and one requires a paid subscription.

Nothing wrong with staying at a Walmart or any other lot in my opinion. You have to expect noise during the night with other rv's coming and going along with trucks.
We always ask permission and buy a few items.
There is the odd one that we looked at and kept moving. If there a other rv's parked there then I feel it is safer.

Our trips typically have a mix of free and pay locations. We'll generally find an RV park of some sort when running low on water & need to dump, or it's just plain convenient.
Regarding WM parking lots: we've learned to pay attention to the surrounding area when choosing a spot. The Hood River WM is located alongside the freeway, which is at a 4-5 percent grade. We parked across the fence from the freeway & didn't think much about it until bedtime... Jake brakes downhill, roaring trucks headed up hill.... and general traffic noise at 65MPH. No one was over there; it was such a nice spot! We wondered why everyone else was parking on the other side, as far away from the freeway as they could!

So, Walmart has a Yahoo group does it? Gotta love Walmart. It is the place we love to hate & can't stay out of it. Have a few possible Walmart visits in our next trip. So convenient to load from shopping cart straight inside the trailer.