>>2049721
>Are you a fucking retard? Your Walmart is no less expensive than my Walmart. Your HD charges the same for a 2 x 4 as my HD.
Contractors do not buy materials at HD in these parts, as a lumber producing region you can go right to the mill as long as you are buying by the bunk, but they will not deliver unless you buy a trailer full and have fork lift to unload it. The local Builders supply is not much more expensive and will deliver. HD struggles to survive here, actually I am not even sure they are still open, only been there once. Never been to Walmart. Believe it or not, the entire country does not shop at the same few chain stores, the only chain I ever go to is the grocery store and that is a tiny chain, not even a dozen stores. Midwest is filled with small chains, for many things like food they can undersell the national chains since they can exploit local supply chain better. We have no major chain grocery stores in town, we have a Cub, but that is not exactly a major chain. Major chains are largely in the big cities, I can not even remember the last time I shopped at one.
>25k a year in Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Kansas is poverty level you Fucking ape...even in the midwest.
Poverty line is 12k single person household, $26k would be a family of 4. $25k is about the average starting wage here for a full time job for someone with no skills and all but the most inept should be able to double that in a few years once they have some skills. You can live comfortably on $25k a year here, does not matter where the line is, does not make it any less comfortable.
Have you ever even left your parents house?