# Dear Walmart **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 3, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554 "2014-11-03T21:38:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/41 "2015-03-25T00:14:57Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > When you pay your employees shit, you get shit employees. > > No one there is empowered to do anything; it takes a manager just to look up the price on an unmarked item. So what happens? The shit employee offers to just sell you that $6 item for $3 (a price determined completely arbitrarily by her) just to avoid the hassle. Sure, I saved three bucks on the deal, but-- actually, I’m down with this. I can dig it. I know its a zombie, but it makes me want to share my Walmart tale related to this. A few years back I was buying three hammocks, at around $90 each. The first box I put on the belt had a shipping label on it, and the woman scanned that. I started to say something when, to my surprise, it registered as some other item for $13. Being honest, I said that she seemed to have scanned the wrong barcode, and that it should be a lot more. She had already hit the “3x” button so now I was getting ~$270 worth of merchandise for ~$40. She just looked at me and shrugged, and asked me for the $40. mmm… OK. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/42 "2015-03-25T00:23:08Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I hate WalMart too but sometimes I just need some basic stuff cheap. Underwear, toothpaste, socks, toilet paper, all that stuff. People in New York City have no WalMarts or their equivalents and pay thru the nose for those things. Or they just order online and pay the same as everybody else. > [@Green\_Bean](#): > > How is Target just as bad? > > Clean and neat stores, decent prices, quality merchandise, some of it quite stylish, reasonably well-staffed, and SHORT LINES! > > How is that equivalent to Walmart? Don’t you love it when you find yourself vigorously agreeing with someone only to find that it’s yourself? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/43 "2015-03-25T01:24:56Z")
That’s why we don’t have a like button. Everyone would like their own posts. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/44 "2015-03-25T03:53:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I, for one, am annoyed by their insistence on sticking signs on some of the prime parking spaces that declare them to be reserved for “Wounded Warriors”. > > Is this a _thing_? Am I supposed to acknowledge this? Is “Wounded Warrior” a status recognized by law? Do I need a special sign to park there? Am I going to get a ticket if I don’t have that sign? If a warrior has been wounded but not to the degree that he or she legally qualifies as handicapped, what does he need a special parking spot for? Does that include enlistees in the War on Christmas? ---
**Author:** ![Askthepizzaguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askthepizzaguy/32/9405_2.png) [@Askthepizzaguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askthepizzaguy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/45 "2015-03-25T06:19:56Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > If you have an Aldi’s in your area, definitely check it out. They generally don’t have name brands, but they’re really well-priced for a grocery store and their stuff is pretty decent. Just want to add: They pay their employees very well, too, which means someone needs to give a shit about customer service over there, because there are always employees of other stores willing to get a job at Aldi’s. > **[10 companies that pay higher than minimum wage](https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2014/0626/IKEA-Gap-and-eight-more-companies-that-pay-higher-than-minimum-wage/Aldi)** > > IKEA, Gap, and these eight companies pay entry-level employees more than the federal minimum wage. Can you guess which company pays the best? Seriously, if you want to make a huge impact on poverty, shop at a business that cares about its employees. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/46 "2015-03-25T08:15:05Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Turns out that one of our little kitties needs special food, which I found a great deal on at Amazon. But they were taking so long to ship the stuff that I cancelled that order and paid more at Walmart’s site. Then I added a dozen packs of wasabi peanuts for myself to get the free shipping. > > Today, FedEx delivered a box which Walmart labelled wasabi peanuts but actually contained 8 pounds of dog biscuits. You’d think somebody would have noticed that 4.4 ounces of wasabi peanuts × 12 != a 10 pound box. Called Walmart yesterday and got a refund on those dog buscuits but something told me to check on the cat food, which is due to be here tomorrow. Looks like those won’t be right, either. Two 13 pound bags should not fit into two 12 pound boxes! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/47 "2015-03-25T10:53:26Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I, for one, am annoyed by their insistence on sticking signs on some of the prime parking spaces that declare them to be reserved for “Wounded Warriors”. > > Is this a _thing_? Am I supposed to acknowledge this? Is “Wounded Warrior” a status recognized by law? Do I need a special sign to park there? Am I going to get a ticket if I don’t have that sign? If a warrior has been wounded but not to the degree that he or she legally qualifies as handicapped, what does he need a special parking spot for? [Yes, it’s “a thing”.](http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org) I just heard about it last week when I met a guy who is a part of the project. [Justin Powell was stabbed repeatedly on a Navy base by another sailor.](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/06/justice/virginia-portsmouth-naval-security-incident/) He now has difficulty speaking due to the wounds to his neck, but he told me a little about how the project has helped him. I’m generally a lazy fuck, but I do not begrudge recognition, via a damned parking spot, for someone like Justin. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/48 "2015-03-25T12:17:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’ve run into a similar situation with Barnes and Noble. Sometimes I’ll ask if they have a book and they’ll tell me they don’t have it in stock but can order it. Fair enough but then they’ll tell me they can only order it for an in-store pickup. > > Why would I want to combine the inconvenience of waiting for a special order with the inconvenience of driving back to the store? I can order the book through Amazon and they’ll deliver it right to my house. (yes, this is from November, but it struck a nerve) I posted a while back about B&N because of their annoying desire to use the B&N name for their online and brick-and-mortar businesses, but treat them as totally different when it comes to price. Walmart does the same thing (or at least they did the same thing a few years ago). It goes like this: You find a Really Neat Book on the shelf and see that it costs $39.95, and grumble at how outrageous that price is, so you scan it in your handy smartphone app and see “Available from these online retailers from $21.95” Number one on the list is B&N, with Really Neat Book available for $21.95 You go to the nice lady at the customer service desk and show her your phone, and she scoffs and says “But you don’t understand, they are an online business without the overhead we have of maintaining a store and blah…blah…blah” You then say “But this is your own store: it’s B&N. Can’t you match the price?” She sighs and tries to explain to you how silly you are to expect the two businesses with the same name to be the same. “Sorry, we don’t match the online prices” “Ok. Thanks. Bye.” Really Neat Book arrives three days later in the mail from the third option: Amazon. I wouldn’t mind if she were lecturing me about comparing B&N prices with Amazon prices, but we were discussing B&N only. They want to use the value of their business name recognition built up over many years in order to attract customers, but once you are there they say “Nope, we aren’t the same”–they want to have their cake and eat it too. I suppose I wouldn’t have minded had she said “The best I can do is $27.95”, which is still $7 more than the online price, but that would be reasonable (IMHO), depending on how much I wanted Really Cool Book. Keeping it at $40 and smiling while telling me why I am so dumb to expect it to be cheaper was insulting. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/49 "2015-03-25T12:35:50Z")
Oh, and something else from the beginning of the thread: > [@kayaker](#): > > Are there any in the Caribbean? We’ve got a bunch of 'em here in P.R. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/50 "2015-03-25T13:34:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Are there any in the Caribbean? The Caribbean is a pretty large place, it includes places like parts of Mexico and Panama. In the Dominican Rep. there are no Walmarts, or Kmarts, but there are a couple local chains that sell the same type of cheap Chinese crap, with the same level of service. I avoid them too. Living in an island is expensive. That’s the case everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554/51 "2015-03-25T14:46:28Z")
You know, I don’t hate Wal-Mart. I go regularly actually, since there’s one very near my workplace, and I tend to go during my lunch hour. That said, I’m typically going for short trips for what I think of as “fill-in” shopping, meaning stuff to fill in the gaps between more conventional grocery store runs (produce, meat, dairy) and warehouse store runs to Sam’s or Costco (detergents, bulk food, etc…) So if my wife’s going to cook something for dinner, and we find out that we need green onions, I’ll get them during lunch from Wal-Mart, along with the light bulb to replace the one that just burned out, and another couple of 12-packs of soda while I’m there. There are a few particular branded items that are either only carried in large sizes at Wal-Mart, or that they have far and away the best price on- mostly in the category of things like shampoos and detergents. So I usually get those while already there. In general, we don’t do our primary shopping there, and I don’t go after work or on the weekends. The checkout line business is a pain in the ass, even during lunch. And if my shopping list is primarily non-food items or items that I can get at either store, I tend to go to the nearby Target, even though it’s slightly more expensive- it’s well worth it to go to a quiet, clean, orderly store with short lines. I’m not going to deal with Wal-Mart to get a bottle of generic Claritin, some Hot-Wheels for my son, and a bottle of hot sauce. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-walmart/703554.md?page=2)