Aspies v.s. Walmart (The Horror!)

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When I walk into a store (Wal-Mart in particular), I instantly become disoriented due to being innundated with stimuli, be it the flickering bright lights reminiscent of captive suns, massive throngs of people milling about the mercantile Makkah, the infernal, monotonous beeps belched out by the scanners in the checkout lanes, or the tall shelves that seem to lean in, slowly closing in on myself as a lion in preparation of devouring its prey.

I have found that using headphones and listening to my music while shopping, looking anywhere but upwards, shopping during "off-hours" (hours during which there is an unusually small amount of people shopping), and having small objects to touch (among other things) have helped in limiting distracting and unwanted input.

Thank you. My husband is in the local meat cutter's union.

I have come to almost enjoy trips to Walmart. I pretend play that I am one of the Chernobyl biobots going in for as short a time as possible to get what I need and GTFO. It's verry merry berry eggsiting to scurry through the store and feel that wonderful sanity return as I eggsit into the parking lot and get into my nice quiet warm vehicle, while it is still warm from my arrival.

This reminded me of an old movie in which people would live in a VR simulation of life and were "infected" with a computer virus that destroyed their brains. Eventually the protagonist discovers that the food (which was produced by some government entity and bore a very bland label with the name "Nature Fresh" or something of the like) was the delivery system. If only I could recall the name of the film...

Yes. Wonderful invention. I just wish they would allow me to scan my gas card discount receipts through them without having to then hand said receipts to the self checkout attendant person. I throw out those receipts because I don't want even that small interaction if it can be avoided.

I went to a large grocery store this afternoon to pick up some items on my way home from work. Thought it would not be busy and that people would be home for canadian thanksgiving. Place was stacked to the rafters with seething humanity. Very nearly turned heel and headed right pack out to my car when I saw what it was like in there. I should have,. This was an hour ago now and I still feel tense about it.

there's only three places to shop in my town, walmart being one of them. of the other two, one is grossly overpriced, and the other is dirty and creepy. i shop in the high priced one for cheeses, and the creepy one for fruits and veggies and spices.....so walmart is where i go for most everything else.
i'm one of the very fast cart pushers. people who work there who see me ask me why i go so fast. i tell them that that speed is my slow speed, and they giggle. i go fast to get done sooner. i too get overstimulated with all the lights and people and so many choices to make and strange music playing and announcements on the loudspeaker.......and they just put in some miniature video terminals to promote products which are motion activated! >_< i really disdain those things, for i'm concentrating on what i am looking for and not getting sidetracked, then these things loudly spout advertisements for products that i do not ever use, and because they do advertize in such a way that annoys me terribly i will never buy.....
so i wear tinted glasses when i go shopping. the fluorescent lights are more tolerable, and people don't look me in the eyes as much, and the color (purple) soothes me. and i memorize the cashiers that i think are nice and get people through the line faster, so waiting isn't such a chore. the self-checkout machines and i do not agree.

Yes, I must say I hate Walmart. I like the variety and prices but walking into that place is like walking into pure American hell.

Thank you so much for this thread!!

I finally understand why my mom refuses to go to the supermarket (she says she can't stand the pressure of being there). It always frustrated me that she wouldn't go to the store if I needed something.

Now I get it. Interestingly enough, she recently went into a particular supermarket because it happened to relate to her main special interest. She was so nervous and felt extremely accomplished after doing it. The items she bought were extremely random, almost as though being in the store itself was so overwhelming that she didn't know what to get once she was in there. I'm going to be much more supportive of her now.

Walmart on a Saturday is a guaranteed panic attack for me, and yet my wife is always dragging me there, I will usually offer to stay home with the kids and let her shop in peace, they basically have nothing. Oh and another thing I hate more then anything is when we are there and my wife asks me what I want for dinner (whatever you want is fine with me dear, no I want your opinion honey ) the implication being that she doesn't have anything planned and we need to figure something out, right now, in Walmart hell.

I avoid Walmart not because of any sensory problems, but because they have basically been given carte blanche to discriminate against women without any fear of a class-action lawsuit. They don't have to fear any individual lawsuits either as long as they don't pay any of their workers enough to file one after living expenses. And they seem determined to pay as few people as possible enough to live on by not working anyone full-time!

One thing that frustrates me about shopping in general is when customers paying for their stuff ask barrages of questions to the cashier, argue over a coupon or even make small talk, with several people behind them in line! Also, since I like to move so fast compared to others, when some place like a mall is extremely busy, walking through there can feel like waiting in line!! !

Agreed. The bright, harsh, fluorescent lighting burns a hole in my brain! AGGHHH!

And like others have said, the sounds of everything there just compounds the discomfort. Whenever I shop there I go as fast as possible so that I can get out. If I had my own car I would go at like 2am so that it would be less of a sensory burden.

Earplugs, sunglasses, body armor, and a shopping list. That should counter much of the BS.

Earplugs for those spam-tv that are put up just about everywhere and useless chatter, sunglasses to reduce visual overload, body armor to be able to just push on despite overstressed shop maniacs, and shopping list to keep on track despite all spam and noise around.

A side note, perhaps polarized glasses or color filtered ones can block TV-sets?, especially the RGB color elements are usually LED which has a specific wavelength. So if optical notch filter is used it ought to be possible.

I hate shopping and put it off until I cannot any longer (today because I REALLY needed cat litter) This also means I have a built up list that is longer than if I went sooner. I wear earplug to deal with the noise (especially the evil announcement system of doom and pain). I keep my list in front of me and divided up into aisle the best I can, and I have pictures of items on my ipod if needed to reference which type of nnnnnnn I am looking for. The light bother me, especially how they reflect off the shiny floors and the metal shelves and the plethora of plastic wrappings. Thus I wear sunglasses when in the store (but they disappeared two days ago so I did not have them this afternoon and I left with a huge headache because of that). It would also be nice to not run into people.

If I had my way most of my shopping would be done at ALDIs as that is quieter and more sensory acceptable. Unfortunately it is 15 minutes away, and Walmart is less than a mile away, so most of the time I go to Walmart, especially as my list also has non food items on it such as cat stuff or hygiene stuff.

My mom works at Wal-Mart, which means we end up shopping there a lot so she can use her discount. I really hate it when it's crowded, and pretty much the only section that interests me there is the toy aisle (I always have to check to see if they've updated their array of plastic dinosaurs.) It takes about twenty minutes for me to start getting physically tired and worn out due to all the noise and people, which is definitely a problem when we take my sister clothes shopping there... she takes for freaking ever! I love going late at night when it's virtually deserted. When I finally move out, that's probably the only time I'm going to shop there.

Indeed. The fluctuating intensity of the sky lights and the size of the damn place make it hard to navigate. I always end up lost and confused in Walmart.

Same here, I've mentioned to people I've gone there with thats it's way to bright so are some grocery stores. I've not diagnosed, but I've noticed my pattern with ligting, one of my supervisors asked me why my lighting was bad in my office, I told him I don't like it too bright since I have two lights that can be on I just choose one.