Walmart

[uc50ic4more]

Wal-Mart is enabling you to destroy your own country faster than anything you can imagine:

It homogenizes the landscape so that your nation is now just one small town that is exactly like every other small town, punctuated my Wal-Marts.

It REMOVES ownership of the community from the people in the community. The guy who used to own the local shoe shop now wears a silly blue vest and a name tag in the shoe department making little wage; just doing his job. Punching in and punching out... *A community needs to be invested in itself.*

YOU ARE BUYING LOW QUALITY GARBAGE, MADE IN CHINA. You are costing your own people jobs, so you can save a dollar buying garbage. The people in the marketing department must be laughing all the way to the bank watching the wide eyed cattle consumers drifting from one colorful display to the next.

Their employment practices are questionable, at best.

---

You keep shopping at Wal-Mart, and you deserve everything you get, socially and economically... And if you shop there, *you* are part of the problem.

The Canadian Auto Workers union here in Canada began handing out bumper stickers for people to place on their (domestic) cars. It says something to the effect of "Don't want a job? Keep buying foreign". It is *amazing* how many of these you'll see in a Wal-Mart parking lot. You're just killing yourselves, saving $0.80 at a time.

 

[GeaugaFletcher]

Quote:
We have a local grocery chain that emphasizes customer service and friendly employees. They have great produce and their prices are usually the same as Wal-Mart or, at most, slightly higher. [ed: NuVal system? What's that?] The employees are clean cut decent looking.

I can choose to go into a business where my patronage isn't highly valued and I'm treated poorly, or I can patronize a business where I'm valued as a customer, helped by competent staff and can purchase higher quality goods.
This almost exactly duplicates my experience.

Several years ago, my coworker complained about his jeans wearing out.
"Where do you get them?"
"WalMart or Target. They're cheap and I just buy a new pair when I need to, but they wear out awful fast."
"Buy a $60 pair from L. L. Bean - they'll last nearly forever, and if they do wear out, you can send them back for replacement, FREE! You'll wind up saving money, dude."
"...Oh..."

I priced heating register grates at Lowe's. Went to a local Locke Supply, where they had better quality grates for less than half the price. Many times the little local place has to hold their prices higher, but it's almost always more than worth it. Truth is, virtually all these 'big box' stores suck.

I go to WalMart as little as possible, reserving it as a last resort. Just on principle, I don't even buy motor oil there anymore.

You parsimonious schnooks go buy de-contented Levis all you want! Not me...

 

[addyguy]

I shop at Wal-Mart a lot, probably 3-4 times a week. Ironically, I don't very often go to the one closer to my house, that I actually worked at for 8 years. I go to one that is in a nicer area of town, and is bigger, about 6 miles from my place.

Why do I shop there? Have pretty well everthing I want at good prices. Line-ups are sometimes a pain, but I can live with that....

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: GeaugaFletcher

"Buy a $60 pair from L. L. Bean - they'll last nearly forever, and if they do wear out, you can send them back for replacement, FREE! You'll wind up saving money, dude."


My Gap jeans wear out once a year, so I guess I should buy my work clothes from LL Beans and send them in for replacement once a year. Until they went bankrupt.

 

[NJC]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
How often do you go to Walmart?

Rarely shop there for a few reasons. One, much of their stock is [censored] and two, I'd rather patronize businesses that distribute wealth more evenly.
Quote:
Collectively, the Waltons control over 39% of the company, and are worth approximately $19.2 billion each, for a combined total of $81.8 billion (as of March 2008).[1]. After Helen Walton passed away in April, 2007, her fortune will pass to charity over the next few years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton_family

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Wal-Mart is enabling you to destroy your own country faster than anything you can imagine:

It homogenizes the landscape so that your nation is now just one small town that is exactly like every other small town, punctuated my Wal-Marts.

It REMOVES ownership of the community from the people in the community. The guy who used to own the local shoe shop now wears a silly blue vest and a name tag in the shoe department making little wage; just doing his job. Punching in and punching out... *A community needs to be invested in itself.*

YOU ARE BUYING LOW QUALITY GARBAGE, MADE IN CHINA. You are costing your own people jobs, so you can save a dollar buying garbage. The people in the marketing department must be laughing all the way to the bank watching the wide eyed cattle consumers drifting from one colorful display to the next.

Their employment practices are questionable, at best.

---

You keep shopping at Wal-Mart, and you deserve everything you get, socially and economically... And if you shop there, *you* are part of the problem.

The Canadian Auto Workers union here in Canada began handing out bumper stickers for people to place on their (domestic) cars. It says something to the effect of "Don't want a job? Keep buying foreign". It is *amazing* how many of these you'll see in a Wal-Mart parking lot. You're just killing yourselves, saving $0.80 at a time.


I've lived in a small town for a year and could understand how smaller community stores gouge customers with full retail price vs. the typical local price. Example: Selling OJ for $5 per 64oz rather than $2.5 to $3, selling Top Ramen at 4 for $1 rather than 12 for $1 (back in 98), and selling a can of Progresso for $2.5 rather than $1.5, etc. The list goes on and on, and in those cases there is no choice but Walmart.

In my neck of the wood the local community stores sell the exact same thing (hint, China made junk) that the big box sells, for about 20-40% higher. The only exception is the ones that sell boutique European or American merchandise that Walmart doesn't sell, and I'm not overpaying for boutique Artisan items that last about the same amount of time.

BTW, Walmart in California (at least Northern) don't sell fresh produces (what I consider groceries), and they seems to have a policy against loss leaders. Safeway frequently sell higher and fresher quality food like Pasta at a loss to attract people, Trader Joes sell stuff for an even cheaper price if they have them in stock, Kragen and PepBoys used to sell oil at a loss and now at least way lower than Walmart.

When box stores are competing against each other to a point of using loss leaders, there is no way a community store can survive. Heck, you wouldn't consider opening a community store that sell at 1/100 of the same volume of Walmart, with a wholesale cost that is even higher than the box store's retail, so how is this different than asking for a bailout?

I think the local stores need to either go into specialty businesses or online. The flip side of the coin in today's market is that a small town specialty store can generate much bigger sales online than a general store of the old days in the small town.

 

[kkreit01]

How often do you go to Walmart?

about 2x/mo

Why do you shop there?

Unfortunately, they have some things -- which Target does not.

Why do you find the minor price savings to be worth the added hassles of the Walmart shopping experience?

Same as above...It's the cheapest place to buy MC filters. Their pet supply is much better than Target, and cheaper than a pet stores. Their glow fish are $4 compared to $9 at the pet store. They have some items -- I can only buy there: my kids love their generic Cinnimon French Toast Sticks.

 

[mpvue]

I don't appreciate the throw away mentality of WM. jeans wear out in a year? please. buy a quality product that doesn't have to be replaced all the time.
around here, everytime someone moves out of an apt there is more stuff left at the curb than they put in the moving van. usually chrappy 'entertainment centers' and bigass WM TVs. 'huh, it's broken. let's just get a new one'.
we 'had' to go to WM the other day because my son and I were on a hunt for some lego kits; since all the toy stores are closing, WM is the only game in town.
for food, forget it. they are NOT the cheapest in town, some items maybe, but not everything. for us, Wegman's is right across the street, polar opposite shopping experience, incredible quality and good prices.

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
You keep shopping at Wal-Mart, and you deserve everything you get, socially and economically... And if you shop there, *you* are part of the problem.


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: mpvue
I don't appreciate the throw away mentality of WM. jeans wear out in a year? please. buy a quality product that doesn't have to be replaced all the time.
around here, everytime someone moves out of an apt there is more stuff left at the curb than they put in the moving van. usually chrappy 'entertainment centers' and bigass WM TVs. 'huh, it's broken. let's just get a new one'.
we 'had' to go to WM the other day because my son and I were on a hunt for some lego kits; since all the toy stores are closing, WM is the only game in town.
for food, forget it. they are NOT the cheapest in town, some items maybe, but not everything. for us, Wegman's is right across the street, polar opposite shopping experience, incredible quality and good prices.


I have 3 or 4 pairs of their Jeans and they're not bad at all for the money. They last a lot longer than a year for me. Walmart has a pretty liberal return policy too, they don't bust balls like a lot of other retailers.

I just won't go shopping at my local Walmart after sunset, or on Black Friday.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: Tempest


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.


Costco is very different from Wal-Mart, in how they run their stores, the clientel they attract, and how they treat their employees. No mystery at all there.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
You keep shopping at Wal-Mart, and you deserve everything you get, socially and economically... And if you shop there, *you* are part of the problem.


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.


I guess it's because Wal-Mart has been the most successful, and most ruthless to this end; they've become the "face" of the decline of the American community.

But blaming Wal-Mart for this is not helpful. This is like blaming guns for killing people, or pencils for cuss words. The people who support this type of destructive model with their shopping dollars are the real transgressors... And the inevitable victims - This is a cycle, where you buy cheap garbage, then the company that makes that garbage has to outsource even more jobs overseas to keep up with Wal-Mart's pricing policies. Then, the people who are now out of a job have to buy cheap garbage at Wal-Mart, who in turn drive more American businesses and jobs down the kee-rapper, resulting in even more people having to shop at... Well, you get the picture.

You want to solve all of these problems, and then some? Buy local, in whatever capacity you can.

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
Originally Posted By: Tempest


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.


Costco is very different from Wal-Mart, in how they run their stores, the clientel they attract, and how they treat their employees. No mystery at all there.

Care to cite examples?

I see the same type of people in Walmarts and Costco's that I go to. I've never had a problem in Walmart stores.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
You keep shopping at Wal-Mart, and you deserve everything you get, socially and economically... And if you shop there, *you* are part of the problem.


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.


I guess it's because Wal-Mart has been the most successful, and most ruthless to this end; they've become the "face" of the decline of the American community.

But blaming Wal-Mart for this is not helpful. This is like blaming guns for killing people, or pencils for cuss words. The people who support this type of destructive model with their shopping dollars are the real transgressors... And the inevitable victims - This is a cycle, where you buy cheap garbage, then the company that makes that garbage has to outsource even more jobs overseas to keep up with Wal-Mart's pricing policies. Then, the people who are now out of a job have to buy cheap garbage at Wal-Mart, who in turn drive more American businesses and jobs down the kee-rapper, resulting in even more people having to shop at... Well, you get the picture.

You want to solve all of these problems, and then some? Buy local, in whatever capacity you can.


How long has this cycle been going on?

I can remember Woolco, Woolworth's big discount chain, back in the '60s. We had another one called the Atlantic Thrift Co., here in Arabi, LA, about that time. Later there were Gaylord's, Barker's, and Zayre's, often succeeding each other in the same building that the first "regular" Wal-Marts later took over.

Has this cycle been going on for 40 years, and W-M has merely accelerated the trend? Or did the older discounters sell less "garbage"?

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
Originally Posted By: Tempest


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.


Costco is very different from Wal-Mart, in how they run their stores, the clientel they attract, and how they treat their employees. No mystery at all there.

Costco also has no plans to open a store in the New Orleans area, or even in Louisiana, or so they told me when I e-mailed to ask. Any company that is smart enough to see the handwriting on the wall and stay out of this Inner Ring of H*e*l*l* is aces with me.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: Tempest

Care to cite examples?


Not at all. Google should reveal all you need to know about Costco.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: Benzadmiral
How long has this cycle been going on?


Dunno. 35-year-old me might tell you some stuff about the advent of Wal-Mart, technology's facilitating of more efficient manufacturing processes, advancements in mind control marketing, the detachment of the individual from their community; but that is a symptom, not the disease itself. I might tell you some stuff about free trade policies, tariffs, exploitative outsourcing, but I'm probably too young to have seen this thing grow out of it's infancy.

My 60-something dad might go on about the gradual infusion of Asian goods into our marketplace, and how we should have remained isolationist, to an extent; but that again places blame on symptoms.

Perhaps our long-deceased forefathers would have warned us about the industrial revolution commodifying goods, services, labour, humanity, etc.

The "truth", as far as I see it, is that we're making conscious decisions that carry with them benefits and consequences. There are marketers in Wal-Marts and Wal-Mart-esque corporations who condition us as cattle consumers, and it works out really well for them. We buy expendable garbage so we can, uh, "save" a few precious pennies here and there at the expense of a community to which we're no longer connected.

See here and here for some additional reading about how Wal-Mart has destroyed, in an eerily Godzilla sorta way, functioning businesses with employees who have had jobs.

Bottom line: You're buying junk, then polluting your own country with the shiny packaging and broken useless junk you bought in the first place, driving your own business out of the country as they try to keep prices down, forcing your workers to lose their jobs, creating a psychopathic downward materialist maelstrom from which your impressionable young and poor will not emerge, and driving your own communities to you-know-where in a handbasket. Rinse and repeat.

EDIT: I should again point out that Wal-Mart is just the flash point for this issue. Other retailers have been trying their darndest to exploit service our greed/ self-destruct imperative to their profit for generations with shiny packaging, celeb and athlete endorsements, LOW LOW PRICES and catchy jingles; they're just not as good at it as Wal-Mart.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted By: GeaugaFletcher

Several years ago, my coworker complained about his jeans wearing out.
"Where do you get them?"
"WalMart or Target. They're cheap and I just buy a new pair when I need to, but they wear out awful fast."
"Buy a $60 pair from L. L. Bean - they'll last nearly forever, and if they do wear out, you can send them back for replacement, FREE! You'll wind up saving money, dude."
"...Oh..."

I priced heating register grates at Lowe's. Went to a local Locke Supply, where they had better quality grates for less than half the price. Many times the little local place has to hold their prices higher, but it's almost always more than worth it. Truth is, virtually all these 'big box' stores suck.

I go to WalMart as little as possible, reserving it as a last resort. Just on principle, I don't even buy motor oil there anymore.

You parsimonious schnooks go buy de-contented Levis all you want! Not me...

Shoot, I buy jeans at Nordstrom - VERY expensive, I've paid $180 for a pair of Seven for all Mankinds there. But they do provide free hemming and a Costco-esque return policy.

I feel the same way as far as big-boxes go - I never buy anything I consider "critical" or major as far as home and car stuff goes at places like Home Depot, Wal-Mart or any of the big auto parts chains. The local parts house here is cheaper than Kragen or AutoZone half the time. I've bought plumbing parts at the local plumbing house too.

I go to Wal-Mart for most of my automotive fluid needs and for small junk. That's it.

Of course Wal-Mart treats their workers like garbage, pays them a pitiful wage and they import Chinese-made goods. But they're here to stay guys. I'll be honest, everytime I set foot in my local Wally-Worlds, I just feel like a redneck.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
You keep shopping at Wal-Mart, and you deserve everything you get, socially and economically... And if you shop there, *you* are part of the problem.


I find it VERY interesting how Walmart gets this but Costco NEVER does. And what about Amazon? Does the same thing but no hate.


To me Costco and Sam's Club is even worse in the "bang for the buck" department. Costco does have some quality food compare to local stores. Their fruits are expensive but at least fresh compare to Safeway or Albertson/Luckys.

 

[PandaBear]

Just out of curiosity guys, how much are you willing to pay for the following items if they were made in America?

1. Jeans
2. T shirt
3. TV
4. Cell phone
5. Mid size car
6. Kids' Toys
7. Bananas


If they cost 2x as much if you can get them American made, are you willing to buy?