All About WallyDocking!
WallyDocking includes a well lighted parking lot, usually 24 hour security, anything you may need is very likely in the store, and RVers have all that convenience for free! Is it any wonder the RV Park Nazis don't like Wally-Docking?
I call it WallyDocking, and it means spending nights on the road at Walmarts just about anywhere in the country!
Sam Walton invited RVers to spend the night at his Walmart parking lots many years ago. He knew a winning idea when he saw one and he knew RVers would be good guests and that we'd visit his store for our traveling needs. It's a win-win for Walmart and for RVers.
Wally-Docking is not a substitute for an RV Park at your destination where you'll spend more than a night or two. RVers Wally-Dock just to spend the night during the journey. We don't try to live at Walmart. We never abuse Mr. Sam's generosity by overstaying, littering, dumping, etc. on his parking lots. And we almost always buy something in the store. Personally, we seem to spend as much in the store as we'd spend for an RV park space.
Walmart's policy regarding overnight stays by RVers is this:
"While we do not offer electrical service or accommodations typically necessary for RV customers, Walmart values RV travelers and considers them among our best customers. Consequently, we do permit RV parking on our store lots as we are able. Permission to park is extended by individual store managers, based on availability of parking space and local laws. Please contact management in each store to ensure accommodations before parking your RV."
Contacting management does not mean to ask for the manager. RVers can simply go to the service desk - every Walmart has one usually at the front of the store - and ask. If you see several RVs at the far boundary of the lot, you can be pretty sure that store welcomes RVers.
I have personally stayed at Walmarts from coast to coast and border to border, and have found only a handful that do not permit overnight parking.
You will find Walmart stores that post signs saying "No Overnight Parking" that nevertheless permit RVers to do so. Those signs are usually the result of the local RV Park owners getting the local city council to pass an ordinance forbidding such parking so that RVers will have to pay them to stay in their lots. Those RV park owners - and the councilmen they have in their pockets - are the culprits I refer to as RV Nazis. In a free country, on private property, such stays should be the decision of the owner and the persons invited, not the government!
Another aggravating issue about Wally-Docking is the endless advise those on many RV forums are compelled to inflict into any thread about Wally-Docking. Of course RVers are not going to dump on the lots or trash the place or move in for days at a time. Wally-Dockers don't need a lecture every time the subject comes up. Those who abuse Wally-Docking are near-homeless types with nowhere else to go. Many of the locally inspired "NO PARKING" signs are posted so that local authorities can move such types out of the lot. And we don't need to be told not to put out the slides; that's a personal issue.
Be aware that Wal-Mart manages over 2.2 million employees and over 11,500 retail locations world-wide. That leads me to believe that they can manage their parking lots without the help of an RV forum "expert" telling the rest of us how to WallyDock.
So go ahead! WallyDock and save money!
The WallyDocker sign that I display on the back of my coach to thank Walmart for their generosity. I had this custom made in metal from an online retailer.
