# Bye Bye Wal\*Mart **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 17, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198 "2008-06-17T12:08:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/21 "2008-06-17T15:36:19Z")
I hate, hate, hate those monitors, but the Tonight Show had a segment on a few weeks ago where they had Timothy Stack doing fake news broadcasts on them and it was hysterical to watch the peoples reactions. ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/22 "2008-06-17T16:55:03Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] My only complaint is the brand spanking new (to my area) practice of advertising the cash price but not letting you know it is the cash price until you are at the pump. I won’t go to stations that pull this stunt. [/QUOTE] Apologies, because I know this is off the main thread topic, but I gotta give **What Exit?** an Amen here. How this is legal, let alone kosher with the credit cards’ merchant agreement, is beyond me. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/23 "2008-06-17T16:58:56Z")
[QUOTE=brewha] Teela and Rickjay, There’s a local gas station here that has that annoying noise maker next to the pumps. There is a mute button on the front of it. I’d rather push the mute button that deal with the other station. [/QUOTE] I had heard about that, and looked for it when I still went to this Chevron, but didn’t see a mute button. I forgot to mention that at another pump, the monitor had been torn off. I hope the vandal got off on “justifiable monitor-cide”. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/24 "2008-06-17T17:45:57Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Well, in most official DVD releases, there are a good ten minutes of “coming attractions” advertisements that you _cannot fast-forward through_. [/QUOTE] I found out recently that if you press STOP, then STOP, then PLAY on DVD players - it will usually restart at the beginning of the main movie. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/25 "2008-06-17T17:46:09Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] I’ve found that if I just assume this is the reason for everything a corporation does, I’m at least not taken by surprise most of the time. [/QUOTE] What’s wrong with that? Shareholders doesn’t just mean company execs. It also means anyone who owns a piece of that company through their mutual fund, their 401k, a state pension fund for police officers, firefighters, and teachers…in other words, us common folk. That said, I try to press the mute button as fast as I can when I fill up with gas…but sometimes, it seems the mute button isn’t working. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/26 "2008-06-17T18:01:03Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Really pissed me off to think I’d paid $9 to see a movie. Part of the reason for seeing it is to avoid commercials on TV. [/QUOTE] You did pay $9 to see a movie, on the big screen, with no interruptions. Did they stop the movie to show you ads? Did they show the previews then play more ads before the actual movie? No? Then give the theater a break. Most of them don’t make much money, if any at all, on the actual movies, they have to make their money at the consession stand and through those ads. I’ll be right there bitching with you if they stop the movie to show ads, like they do on TV. Until then, it’s those ads that are keeping the ticket prices as low as they are. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/27 "2008-06-17T18:28:56Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] You did pay $9 to see a movie, on the big screen, with no interruptions. Did they stop the movie to show you ads? Did they show the previews then play more ads before the actual movie? No? Then give the theater a break. Most of them don’t make much money, if any at all, on the actual movies, they have to make their money at the consession stand and through those ads. I’ll be right there bitching with you if they stop the movie to show ads, like they do on TV. Until then, it’s those ads that are keeping the ticket prices as low as they are. [/QUOTE] I can’t decide which is more annoying: A) You’re watching a movie on TV and there’s another commercial B) You have to watch all the commercials, one after another, before the movie. I know what you’re saying about the money aspect. Had a gf who used to work at a theater and she said they made their money on popcorn etc. I guess I’ll vote by not going to many movies if that’s going to be the deal. There are alternatives, like second-run, drive in, pay per view, waiting for the DVD… ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/28 "2008-06-17T19:13:35Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Now, in my first time in there in a couple months… If I go to Wal\*Mart again in a few months,… And then leave without purchasing anything. [/QUOTE] Boy, they’re in trouble now! Time to sell the stock! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/29 "2008-06-17T19:15:26Z")
[QUOTE=Gatopescado] Boy, they’re in trouble now! Time to sell the stock! :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Only three more to make it a movement. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/30 "2008-06-17T19:26:38Z")
A friend of mine printed up sheets of labels that said “If this annoys you, don’t buy the product being advertised.” He kept them in the car and stuck them to the monitor screens when appropriate. If we get an infestation here, I’d be tempted. I suppose it is vandalism. But it is only in response to verbal assault. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/31 "2008-06-17T19:30:01Z")
Luckily out here in the sticks these sort of things probably won’t be implemented unless they make it for 4 or 5 years in urban areas. Hopefully by then you guys will have changed their minds about intrusive pushy advertising. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/32 "2008-06-17T19:47:03Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] Did they stop the movie to show you ads? [/QUOTE] They don’t have to, the ads are built right into the movie. 😉 (See, _Iron Man_, and Tony Stark’s request for a hamburger, for just one of a million examples.) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/33 "2008-06-17T19:49:13Z")
Okay, sent a polite yet threatening note to wally’s customer service department. Let’s see if I get back anything other than “we welcome your interest in bettering your Wal\*Mart experience.” ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/34 "2008-06-17T20:28:42Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Even when it was close to me I didn’t go there as often as the prices and selection might have made me due to its employment practices . . . and clientele. [/QUOTE] I’m glad someone else has noticed this. The customers and even the employees at my local Wal-Mart are getting downright scary. And it’s in a decent neighborhood. What’s up with that? The employees, I imagine, are as rude and filthy-looking as they are because A) scumbags who can’t get any other job work there and B) the decent people who get hired there are quickly jaded from being treated like dirt. I would guess that confident, happy, hygienic people don’t last long there. The customers, though, jesus. Do you _have_ to be totally methed out, and/or have multiple dirty, screaming kids in tow, and/or be shoeless to shop at Wal-Mart these days? Did I miss the new rules and somehow sneak in under the radar? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/35 "2008-06-17T20:40:32Z")
What Wal_Mart are you going to?! We shop here about once a week. I stay in the car because I can’t abide crowds, and the only time the Wal_Mart here doesn’t have huge crowds is at 3 AM. Anyway, I see everyone who comes out of there while I’m waiting, and I don’t generally see what you’re seeing. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/36 "2008-06-17T20:45:55Z")
For me personally, sure, the clientele aren’t that rich-looking, but I don’t mind because they’re not really all that much worse-behaved than clientele elsewhere. Perhaps I should have said “the _prevalence_ of clientele”. It gets on my nerves to never ever be in row without at least one person, especially when you have a shopping cart and so will have to dodge them. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/37 "2008-06-17T21:48:19Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] If I go to Wal\*Mart again in a few months, I will see if they still have the ad monitors, and if they do, I will speak to a manager and tell them I am not shopping in that chain ever again and why. And then leave without purchasing anything. I have never spoken to a manager about a customer complaint ever before, but I will now. [/QUOTE] You do realize that the local manager is NOT the one who decided to install these? Somebody at corporate decided this was a good (profitable) idea, and the local managers are just stuck with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/38 "2008-06-17T22:09:15Z")
I would have asked them that when face to face with them, and still would. I still will ask to see the local manager or otherwise provide a face to face feedback if I do not feel that my email is taken substantively enough (i.e. either they remove the monitors for whatever reason, or I receive a response which indicates that someone thought things through enough that their email service system is weighted properly with face to face feedback.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Wing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/51bf81/32.png) [@Little\_Wing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Wing)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/39 "2008-06-17T23:05:31Z")
Yes, perhaps it was a corporate decision but that doesn’t mean you can’t complain at the local level. At our Wal-mart, they’ve greatly reduced the intercom announcements, they’re getting rid of the walkie talkies for management (they’ll be given some sort of headset instead) and the volume on the commercials is now so low you can barely hear them. All because of customer complaints. So changes _can_ be made at the store level. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198/40 "2008-06-18T01:00:32Z")
Try having them on your primary public transportation. Nearly all Metro buses in Los Angeles have been equipped with the damned things. About forty percent of the time it plays something in Spanish. Another forty percent is assigned to assorted pyramid schemes and hair restoration ads. The remainder is dedicated to poorly written news blurbs and useless trivia questions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-wal-mart/453198.md?page=3)