You could throw leds at the t8s in the Ceiling hopefully break a few

Those GE 4100k F32T8s in the ceiling are good lamps.  It's the fact that many walmarts don't maintain the fixtures and clean them which irks me. 

I had some similar thing in a school trip

We came for the night to a camping site, this one was a field with Indian style tents. The place was lit over with 400W MH floodlights (HQI-T's, Pulse Start), on posts mounted to a block of bathrooms/showers, that was stretched along the end of the area

I found out that around the back of the bathrooms block is the main electric panel for the site, and.. pulled the main breaker off. Beautifull starry night, Screaming girls in showers, you name it. Then i flipped it back on. Everything came on except the Halides

Long story short, it was not hard to figure out that if Ash is on a trip and electricity goes haunted, those things are related. One teacher walked straigth to me and asked me to go and switch back on the "big lights". Took me a long time - basically untill they started coming on and i pointed at them - to get him to understand that i am not lying and there really is nothing that can be done other than waiting for them to come on by themnselfes

And those were exactly the odd setup that takes AGES to restrike, 45 minutes or more



Also in that trip :

The lighting in the tents was 24V E27 incandescents, wired through single core wires laid in the gravel, powered from a big transformer. The wiring was broken in mny places, so when you walk near the tents sometimes the light there flickers. Well, did not take me long to dig out one of the wires for one of the tents (upstream - away from the tent itself), and add in series a "dimmer" made of bucket of water, salt, and aluminum coke cans

The showers were a row of "shower cubicles", similar to "bathroom cubicles" where the partitions dont get all the way to the floor or to the ceiling. The shower heads are mounted on L shaped pipes coming from the wall and turning down. I replaced the showerhead on one with a garden sprinkler (found one thrown in the "pile of technical stuff" behind the block) and turned it upside down, so that the sprinkler have good coverage of most of the shower cubicles in the room above the height of the partitions. Opened cold water to the max. Everyone around got a dose of ice beam

Sorry for the necro post but I love your stories! I wonder if you have more?

In this threat, we post funny lighting-related (or not lighting related ) ways to get kicked out of walmart or another hardware store. (Don't worry, they can be COMPLETELY unrealistic!  )
Here are some of mine:
1. Walk in with a 1.5kw incandescent and say "Do you have any of these? My nightlight takes them"
2.Bring in a 2kw MV and ask "Where can I get yard light replacement bulbs?"
3. Sneak in overnight and "retrofit" the fluorescent lights with green fluorescent tubes.
4. Bring in a 1kw HPS lamp and ballast, set it up in an isle, wait for it to warm up, then laugh maniacally like an evil scientist.
5. Set up "Remote ballasts" on the display lamps, using 200w medium base PSMH lamps, and plug them into a homemade ballast box
6. Set up a huge bonfire in the middle of the parking lot and burn LED fixtures.
7. Play Baseball with LED bulbs and a bat.
8. If the store has MH fixtures indoors, put clear MV lamps or colored MH lamps in them.
Can you think of any?

I have a really good one! Walk into the lighting section holding a LPS Schréder RXN H and ask “Excuse me, do you have any replacement bulbs for this?” They’ll get security to take you out! 

LOL!
Walk into the computer section holding a Mac 128K/512K/512Ke/Mac Plus and ask the associate "Do you carry the floppy disks for this?"

Messing with the store intercom.

Push all the associate call box buttons and leave.

Dress up as a fish with a big top hat and Use a megaphone and shout the Soviet National Anthem on repeat.