When Wal-Mart came to out town 24 years ago, we were happy to have them. At that time we had other stores, even a shopping mall. Quite a thriving retail evironment.
Years later, that’s all gone except Wal-Mart built a Supercenter and is the only kid on the block. I don’t blame Wal-Mart for everthing else going away. Many of the stores that are gone simply don’t exist anymore, some areas around us are more built up then they were 15-20 years ago and businesses left, and frankly, poor planning on the city’s part.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. People’s opinion of Wal-Mart has shifted to “Let’s go to Wal-Mart, yeah!” to “Let’s go to these 4 different stores to get the things we need in order to get what we need so we can avoid Wal-Mart at all costs!”
For me, I don’t like the Supercenter aspect. When we had a small Wal-Mart I thought it would be great to have everything you needed all under one roof. While it may be convienient at times, it’s a monster and a pain to “run in” and get what you need. Everybody that is shopping there talks about how much they hate being there. In my town, there isn’t much of a choice. You get what you need here or you drive 20 miles north or south to get it. We’d rather shop here and complain. So it’s long lines, poorly managed stores, apathetic employees and just an overall feeling of misery at Wal-Mart. I didn’t feel that as much even 10 years ago when I worked there.
Am I crazy?