Something I've noticed about Pleasanton residence and Walnut Creek (San Francisco: middle-class, credit card)

[Nella925]

Well more so about Walnut Creek people...Now let me start by saying that I am not holding these findings to be true, just want some other opinions on what I am going to say........

I live in Concord and have worked at a retail store in Walnut Creek for over a year. One thing I just can not stand about walnut creek is the people.
Why do the people tend to be so snotty and think everyone should work extra hard to please them. Now I do not care if you have a lot of money or not, it does not mean you should be treated differently than the rest. A lot of the people that I work with feel the same way. We just tend to not like the people in Walnut Creek.
The overall impression I get it:
They think they are better, even better than san francisco
They dont go anywhere outside of walnut Creek because its not good enough except possibly pleasanton
They tend to not want to be associated with Concord or Pleasant hill, even though they share borders with both cities.
They expect you to be their personal shoppers and bend over backwards to please them even though its not your job to do so.
The one I get the biggest laugh about is how they are scared to go to Concord because they think it is the ghetto (well, actually some people on here think the same exact way, what a shame).

Now Im certain some of the things I listed can definitely go for people in Pleasanton as well, stereotypically. But I've even heard people from Pleasanton say that Walnut Creek is ghetto and poor. Haha. But I do not go to pleasanton that often, so I cant say much on that.

But the reason I felt so compelled to post this is because people on here tend to make Walnut Creek sound like heaven when really it is NOT that great. It would be much better if SOME of the people's attitudes were better.

So people who live in or who are very familiar with either area, what is your opinion on the people overall???

[sav858]

Many of those people in Downtown Walnut Creek DO NOT live in WC and are not from there. WC doesn't have the demographics itself to support all those high end retail shops. Many of the people there come from Alamo, Danville, Blackhawk, San Ramon, and Lamorinda. And those areas are wealthier and more stuck up than WC and the bring that crap with them. I found people from Alamo, Danville, and Blackhawk to be the worst.

WC has become fairly trendy or whatever over the last 5-10 years, so you get a bunch of douchebags moving there thinking they're all that b/c of where they live now. I grew up in WC and whenever I go back home and we go out to the bars, I can't help but laugh and be sickened by what I see sometimes. All these yuppies trying so hard to be so cool and "sophisticated" while me and the native friends just think these people are tools. The worst is that new "1515" bar/lounge BS.

I'll admit though people in WC do look down on Concord somewhat. It was that way when I was growing up and it is like that now. Me and my friends used to hit up SunValley Mall all the time and the Brendan Theaters b/c WC had the worst theater for the longest time, so while people may have talked crap they still went there. Maybe not as much anymore since WC has more stores and a real theater now. I never felt that we looked down on PH though, maybe a little but nothing like Concord.

WC has always been somewhat pretentious and with all of the new development over the last 10 years and all of the high end retail it seems to have gotten worse. People who are actually from there and have been there a while or were raised there are not as pretentious and full of themselves as newcomers and those living to the south and west of WC in those wealthier enclaves.

You take the good with the bad. WC is a great place to grow up and I am glad I was raised there. It's my hometown and I'll always love it but it does have an air of superiority to it and some pretentious, stuck up people unfortunately. But not all are like that, just some.

[Nella925]

thanks for your input!
I usually am on the register at work as well and have to check I.d. and I always look to see where people are from....and like you said a nice chunk of them are from alamo, laffayette, and orinda...
I used to like going to walnut creek when I was younger, which is why I was okay with taking the job in WC....but it has really changed/ or maybe I just did not notice this until fairly recently.

[clongirl]

Funny you talk about this from the employee's perspective.. I was recently at the Macy's in Broadway Plaza and thought that the salesperson was a complete b***h. I was looking in the perfume section and geez, the look I got for spraying a sample! And even worse.. I was actually in there to purchase perfume, so I wasn't just being a sample addict!

I'm not sure you can generalize about the residents themselves since there's not really any way of knowing where everyone is from when they are out shopping. I used to think that there were plenty of snobs down in Union Square when I lived in San Francisco.. But I realized that most of the department stores and boutiques (ie. Neiman Marcus, Sacks, Bloomingdales etc) were all catering to a certain clietele.

Perhaps this is what is going on around your place of employment? I can tell you this though, Pleasanton is no different. I've had those kinds of experiences down at the mall there too! Sadly, snobs are to be found wherever you go!

All the new money in the Bay Area over the past 10-20 yrs has really gotten to people's heads and there's a lot of showing off now days (even though most of it is an illusion). A lot of people have an entitlement complex but I'd say those days of easy money, and credit cards are coming to a close and people will be a lot more wiser in the future about it! Maybe people will come out of the economy's woes a lot nicer when they have to shop at TJMaxx for their clothing!

[City Boy]

LOL I work in Walnut Creek and there are alot of rich shoppers in Broadway Plaza with their Valet Range Rovers and Lamborghini's Yes I seen Lamborghini's Valet Parked in front of PF Chang's. Kind of funny. PF Chang's? Ok. But yes for the most part Walnut Creek's downtown reminds me alot of a mini,Cheaper, less pretentious version of Rodeo in LA.

[Nella925]

Originally Posted by clongirl

Funny you talk about this from the employee's perspective.. I was recently at the Macy's in Broadway Plaza and thought that the salesperson was a complete b***h. I was looking in the perfume section and geez, the look I got for spraying a sample! And even worse.. I was actually in there to purchase perfume, so I wasn't just being a sample addict!

I've had similar experiences at other stores in that shopping center. Although where I work is not upscale, exactly. So they're not exactly catering to those types of people, but I'm sure thats all they get because of the other stores. But I am in no way saying ALL people are like this, this is just what I've noticed overall.

[hsw]

Generally, the bigger and/or smarter money crowd tends to be low-profile....relatively decent humans who've done well in their careers and who have little to prove/advertise...

Doubt many big/smart money people choose to live in any of the EastBay/Marin suburbs like Orinda or Tiburon...which are essentially aspirational middle-class suburbs pretending to be wealthy....

Most of big/smart money in SF region lives in either SF's PacHts or Woodside/Atherton/PaloAlto (and prob winces at thought of heading into bridge&tunnel Podunk in EastBay/Marin)....but doubt truly big/smart money spends much time shopping in UnionSquare or at Stanford either....

[sav858]

^wow, you always amaze me with your pretentious BS. Surprised there was no mention of LA's Westside or Greenwich, CT.....

[Luke9686]

The "rich" people in WC and others are probably only credit rich anyway. They have everything yet own nothing.

Not sure if HSW was joking or not but you'd think the "smart" money would live where it's more economical and less trendy. If I was a millionaire I would live in BFE the middle of nowhere. What could you say than? I'd be a redneck I guess.

[rickca]

I agree its unfortunate the way a lot of people act in the Bay Area.. I have relatives who live in Walnut Creek and are exactly the douchebag types that you describe.