5) The Wal-Mart Student

An American boy named Sklyer Bartels is the “hero” of this next story. As an aspiring writer and a sophomore at Drake University Bartels came up with a good idea for an article. He decided that as a show of endurance he would live in Wal-Mart for an entire week.

Bartels didn’t quite make it a week though. He chose a 24 hour Wal-Mart and stayed there for 41 hours in total which is still way too long to be in a Wal-Mart. He spent his time playing computer games, watching DVDs and eating at the in-store Subway, occasionally catching a nap on some garden furniture.

Bartels realised that store security seemed to be on to him, there was a lot of pointing and whispering going on, so he quietly left and chalked the experiment up as a massive fail. But it wasn’t long until literary agents and TV news stations were on the phone to him. Everyone likes a nice easy to understand news story after all.

(As an aside, if you call your son Skyler Bartels you’re asking for trouble and he’s not likely to turn out normal, so if he does end up living in a supermarket you only have yourself to blame – parents please take responsibility for your children’s names please).

6) Another Wal-Mart Wonder

This time we have a 14-year-old boy who made it through two-and-a-half days before he was ousted. The boy was supposed to be staying with friends but for some strange reason he opted for the nearest Wal-Mart branch.

This fella was obsessed with making it the distance though. He had changes of clothes so he wouldn’t be spotted so easily by security guards and built dens behind some isles so he could hide and sleep. The boy even created a small slit behind a drinks isle so he could take drinks without being noticed.

He was so concerned about being caught that he decided to never use the loo. So he wore nappies. It was the soiled nappies that eventually gave the boy away.

It’s unclear why this young Texan thought moving into a shop was a good plan, but I’m assuming his home life wasn’t all that much fun, the poor guy.

So before bursting into tears at the idea of yet another shopping trip, please spare a thought for those listed above. At least you don’t have to stop at the shop for a full 24 hours. You will get some kind of reprieve. And if that doesn’t help just remember some of the awesome outfits you might see whilst shopping. Some people have no shame at all, just focus on that and be happy.