Exclusive Interview: The Down and Dirty On The People of Walmart

Author: Faith-Ann Young
Posted on: Friday November 6, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Filed under: exclusive, interview, people of walmart

People of Walmart - a user-submitted photo blog of the quirkiest, fugliest Walmart shoppers - is downright addictive. Sure, if you don't find mullets, camel-toes, or too tight spandex humorous, you'll gosh darn hate the site. But otherwise, you may appreciate the site as much the simple joys of mooning strangers or drinking cold Budweiser on a warm day. Who doesn't like watching train-wrecks in action?

Below we got the down and dirty on PoW from one of the founders, Luke Wherry.

1) How many people are involved w. People of Walmart? What inspired you to start the site? Was there a specific instance when you went to Walmart and said 'this needs to be chronicled'?

There are three of us who came up with the website. We were best friends growing up and have known each other our whole lives. We were living in South Carolina over the summer and needed some things at our local Walmart on a Saturday afternoon. We were walking through the dairy section and saw an overweight woman in a tight pink tube top, short shorts, stripper boots, and she had her child on one of those monkey backpack child leashes. A lightbulb went off. We went home, designed the site, and it was up and running within hours.

2) What's your favorite location for snapping picts?

We only took a few pictures to get the website started. All of our content is user submitted. Florida seems to have the most submissions if I had to guess.

3) How many submissions do you get daily?

About 300 to 350 every day.

4) When did you know you'd hit something really good with this site?

The first few weeks were slow. Then for whatever reason, our traffic went from a couple hundred a day to a couple hundred thousand a day. One day in particular we got contacted by Time magazine, CNN, and ABC News for interviews. Later that evening there was an article posted about us on yahoo.com's homepage. That day and even the day after, 'people of walmart' was the most Googled term on those two days, which is incredible.

5) Funniest submission ever?

The title of the picture on our site 'Need More Supplies'. It's the man that obviously had been huffing paint because he has it all over his mouth, shirt, pants, and shoes. (see below)

6) Top 5 Favorite post thus far?

1.Need More Supples (paint huffer)

Have I been huffing what? Huffing paint? What? Really? Where would you get that?…….Okay yes. Yes I have. It makes the cat food taste better.
Nevada

2.You Looking at Somethin'?

How cute and cuddly are those stuffed…….OH MY GOD!
Vermont

3.This Is Why America Is The Greatest Place On Earth

Yes you see that correctly. It is an old man with big supple delicious looking breast implants. Texas.

4.Jurassic Park

I'm not quite sure if Godzilla belongs on the dinosaur van, but since this guy included him, I'm glad he is at the very top where he belongs.....Godzilla.

5.Lil' Bow Wow

Parents, STOP THIS! Stop this now! Your kid is not a dog, get him off the leash. I don't want to hear that you are too busy to watch your child in public.

7) Ideas for follow up sites?

We just created www.youdrivewhat.com which is a site for all of those goofy cars that you see.

It doesn't have to be at a Walmart, but judging by all of the pictures I have received, a good bit of them may come from there!

8) Other sites you look at for inspiration?

The big inspirations before we started PoWM.com were definitely FMyLife.com and Textsfromlastnight.com. We liked how all of the content was user submitted and both sites are really funny.

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