When I lived in the Seattle area, the Wal-Mart was a pit. The women’s clothing section looked like a sloppy teenaged girl’s bedroom. i.e. clothes all over the floor. This was in Renton.
But Wal-mart was one choice shoppers had out of hundreds. i.e. only the riff-raff shopped there. Which is why I only went there a couple of times and never actually bought anything. It was just too depressing.
I now live in rural Kentucky, where they are really the only modern choice. This means everybody shops there. And guess what? It’s a very nice place to shop. It’s clean. The people are friendly. The staff speaks English fluently, etc.
Re your 3rd paragraph: Same here in central PAlabama.