24hr Superstores? (Austin, Mart: renting, mattresses, hotel)

[Aaarrrggg]

We're moving to Austin on Fri. Because we're bringing dogs and coming from the UK the flight is going to arrive pretty late; it'll probably be close to midnight when we finally escape the airport.

We should be able to get into the house we're renting, but its unfurnished, so we're not sure whether to stay there or a dog friendly hotel for that night.

The deciding factor will probably be if there is anywhere we can buy bedding in the wee hours of the morning? Are there any all night superstores in Austin?

[Mike78613]

Walmart Superstore has some furniture, but not like sofas. They do have some furniture like desks, kitchen table and chairs. They may have futons. Maybe just head to your local Walmart and get some sleeping bags and pillows (maybe food?) until the AM and do some shopping when retail stores open up for business.

[Aaarrrggg]

Ah awesome! So are all the Walmarts open 24hrs? If we can just nip in and grab a blanket or 2 and some pillows that would do us fine until the AM. We're going to be so tired after all the travel and stress I'm hoping we can just pass out on the floor... although there's going to be the excitement to contend with too. It will be interesting to see which emotion wins hehe

Edit: It looks like the 1030 Norwood Park Boulevard will be our closest.

[Trainwreck20]

According to the Walmart site, that store is 8am to 10pm, but it looks like they list all stores with those hours and have a disclaimer that "hours may change" and to call the store.

This store is open 24 hours (even though the web site says it is not):

Walmart Supercenter
12900 No. I-35 Svc Rd Sb
Austin, TX 78753

Edit: Just called the Norwood Walmart, and they said they are open 24/7.

[Aaarrrggg]

Oh wow, thank you very much, that was really kind of you!

Yippee, I can't wait to be over there with y'all (< see I'm sounding Texan already!)

[mark311]

On a side note, I'm not sure that I would want Walmart at midnight to be my first impression of Austin and the U.S. You might run into some odd people there at that time, especially at the Walmart on Norwood. This is just a fair warning.

Honestly, I would recommend that you stay at a dog friendly hotel for the night after flying for that long. It just wouldn't be right for you to go to Walmart right when you first get into town. I do go to Walmart myself to buy certain things, but I have found that things like bedding are often better to purchase from one of the major department stores or even Target.

I would personally just stop at a 24 hour restaurant like IHOP if nothing better is nearby and check into a hotel for the night. *Edit* I forgot that you'll have dogs with you so you couldn't go to a sit down restaurant. You should be able to find a fast food drive though to hold you over. My point is to just avoid Walmart (especially that one) at midnight as the first place that you go to here.

[Sushi4321]

Be alert when you are in that parking lot. Right across the highway is a not-so-nice neighborhood and there has been some incidents in broad daylight in the past. Can't just blame that neighborhood though as I think some of the riff-raff came from the smaller towns to the east

[wylkell]

I dont know, i think Walmart describes the US pretty fairly actually. A broad brush stroke, yes, but still.

They also sell self-inflating air mattresses, in case you dont want to sleep on the floor.

[captdbg]

La Quinta Inn & Suites are dog friendly

[AutumnFOG]

Originally Posted by wylkell

I dont know, i think Walmart describes the US pretty fairly actually. A broad brush stroke, yes, but still.

They also sell self-inflating air mattresses, in case you dont want to sleep on the floor.

I don't think so. Wal Mart is mostly for people who need to save money or have no other options. So what you get are generally lower income folks, college students, and people who just need to swing in at a strange hour and pick up something from a store.

Nothing against Wal Mart, though I wish they had different business practices, I'll still go there on occasion. But for all intents and purposes, the people I know, and myself, have chosen to generally avoid Wal Marts for smaller stores when at all possible.

Wal Mart, being at the top of the corporate chain, and having issues with the way they've treated employees as they have, we like to reward other stores whenever possible. Just remember, whenever Wal Mart starts selling something, from food to bedding to books, it makes it many times harder for anyone else to sell that same thing, because Wal Mart is such a capitalist machine.