It’s 3:30 a.m., and I hate Greg Feltes.

My not-so-illustrious editor sent me out to see why people head to America’s favorite retail store at all sorts of odd hours. That’s why I found myself standing before the glow of DeKalb’s fabulous 24-hour Wal-Mart.

It was cold, way too early and I really didn’t see why someone would need to be at a Wal-Mart at this time of day, but for some reason there were at least a dozen cars in the parking lot. There were twice as many stock personnel as there were customers, but there was a decent number of shoppers in the store.

The strange thing is, none of them seem to be in a hurry to buy anything. I surveilled the store for at least an hour and not once did I see a groggy shopper come in hurriedly to grab something that they obviously needed right then. In fact, the kind of shoppers I saw were exactly the opposite. One woman was meandering around the produce section doing basic shopping. A group of younger girls browsed through the candy section and a few people were checking out towels and fabric.

My question: What on earth possesses someone to go shopping at 3:30 a.m.?

Sycamore resident Mark Shelkey was browsing the electronics section and finding shelter.

“I come here relatively often this early,” Shelkey said. “It’s the only place open after the bars close.”

DeKalb resident Mike Kyzivat had a more mundane reason for his late-night trips.

“I work the third shift, so I am usually awake this early anyway,” Kyzivat said. “Sometimes I come shopping, sometimes just looking around. It depends on how bored I am.”

Some NIU students choose to hit up Wal-Mart during the wee hours purely because there are fewer people there.

“Later at night, the store isn’t as packed as it is during the day,” freshman undecided major Anna Galecki said. “We also have more fun when we go later at night because we can do anything.”

The fun thing about the late-night world of Wal-Mart is that, since there are very few people shopping, there is more fun to be had. The main attraction tends to be the toy aisle. In the empty store, the aisles are open for impromptu games of soccer and taking quick spins around on the bicycles.

“Right before Christmas, [my friends and I] went to Wal-Mart out of boredom,” Galecki said. “We rode the motorized scooters around the store for a while and then we started playing with all the Christmas decorations. I don’t think we ended up buying anything.”

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Webber said the billion dollar corporation doesn’t mind having potential customers at the store at any hour.

“We like having customers at our stores at anytime,” she said. “But I haven’t heard of any type of subculture of people hanging out at Wal-Mart.”

This reporter suggests that Webber needs to listen a little bit closer.