We Had 24 Hour Walmarts. We Had It All

About

We Had 24 Hour Walmarts and $1 McChickens. We Had It All is a catchphrase and copypasta expressing nostalgia for the time when everyday products and services had a lower price, which gained virality in early 2024. The spread of the catchphrase was followed by users modifying it as a phrasal template to express nostalgia for various things that used to be cheaper in the past. The format is similar to We Used to Be a Country. A Proper Country.

Origin

On December 22nd, 2023, Facebook^[1] user Brandon Patrick wrote, "We had 24 hour Walmarts and $1 dollar McChickens. We had it all," expressing nostalgia for the time when Walmart stores were open 24 hours a day (until 2020) and McChicken sandwich was available at McDonald's for $1 (also until 2020). The post (shown below) garnered over 970 reactions and 23,000 shares in two months.

Spread

In the following days, several Facebook^[2] users and groups reposted the post. For example, on December 25th, 2023, user Cursed Posts made a repost that gained over 1,100 reactions and 1,400 shares in two months.

On January 3rd, 2024, X^[3] / Twitter account @messedupfoods posted a screenshot of the repost, gaining over 1,700 reposts and 18,000 likes in two months.

On February 23rd, 2024, X^[4] user @HarrisonKrank posted a slightly altered version of the Facebook post, gaining over 6,000 reposts and 52,000 likes in four days (shown below, left). On February 24th, X^[5] user @jjasshole made a similar post, gaining over 35,000 reposts and quotes and over 184,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Following the second post, more users on X / Twitter made posts based on the copypasta, altering it to reflect nostalgia about various things that used to have a lower price in the past.

Related Memes

We Used to Be a Country. A Proper Country

We Used To Be A Country. A Proper Country refers to a catchphrase coined on Twitter in early December 2021. It was originally used in an anti-vax context, where the original tweeter was trying to show how good life used to be in America without masks. The catchphrase then picked up ironic usage going into December 2021 where people paired it with humorous images.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References