I usually pay more to shop at Target rather than Wal Mart precisely because being in Wal Mart is miserable for about a dozen different reasons. I swear, they've even done something to the lighting in their stores in the last few years to make it worse. It's weirdly grey and dingy. I don't remember them being like that even 15 years ago, and it's not just one location, it's like some memo came down from corporate instructing them to make their stores feel as much like being in a county free-clinic waiting room as possible.
It's because Walmart isn't trying to compete with Target as a "browse around" store. They are trying to compete with Amazon, only it's self-warehouse work as well as self-checkout.
They do in fact purposefully keep their stores dingier then what the average big box store is.
To reassure value shoppers that a minimum percentage of the purchase price is going towards the facilities, thus making it self-evident that they are getting the best possible deal.
Whereas a better maintained store by definition cannot offer a lower price and still be profitable.
