Walmart is not in my city, but is trying to get in. Apparently we are the only city in North America larger than 100,000 without one.
To the OP, I have signed several petitions regarding the effort to keep them out. I have helped circulate some of said petitions. I made my opinion very clear to my city council, and to the mayors office, and I campaigned for the mayoral candidate who opposed walmart in the last election. And it is still a losing battle.
Cities with a Walmart already entrenched have an even more formidable task.
Many of them have grocery sections, so the fact that your local one doesn’t doesn’t make it a store problem. The corporation is the one who decided to go the grocery route.
Target beating them on price means no such thing. The ONLY thing it means is that Target is selling that item at a lower price. That says absolutely nothing about Target’s cost for the item.
If it’s in the city of Denver, I let my feelings be known that the city should not cut WalMart any breaks on zoning issues, on permit issues, or on tax breaks. Oh, and I don’t give them my money. I agree, it’s not much, but it’s all I can do.
I’ve thought about keeping a supply of molotov cocktails in the trunk of my car, but I’d probably just use them up on the morons driving 20 miles an hour down Parker Road in rush hour.
I hold no illusions that my government, be it state or federal, gives a flying fuck about me, your average not-rich peon. If you don’t have big dollar signs and/or a cross about your person, I doubt there’s many Texas politicians who would even pretend they did.
The WallyWorld was in my town well before I moved here. I simply don’t shop there, and try to discourage my fellow residents/friends/family from shopping there as well. It matters little, because people would rather save a dollar today than realize it might hurt them in the long run when all the local businesses have been driven out.
Well, I haven’t been there in at least a year. I wrote a letter to the editor about their shitty actions on my side of town lately, but they didn’t print it.
Thing is, though, they really did it to themselves; they moved across the street, leaving a dead mall, got rid of most of their people, etc, when their store got nasty. Target, down the road, revitalized its old dead mall by tearing down and remodeling. Their employees were given the option to stay or go, but if they agreed to come back when the construction was done they got to keep their health insurance and were gauranteed jobs. There’s a lot of people madder at Wal Mart about that than anything you read anywhere else.
I don’t believe that trying to stop businesses from being built is a proper exercize of government power. So I don’t shop there, and I encourage others to find other stores, as well. Sorry to disappoint the OP.
I decided I needed a new pan to roast a turkey. Went to my local store, since it wasn’t turkeytime, had them for $20!!! Went to Wally, not only did they have them for $5, they came with the cover! True, they were not as heavy duty as the $20 one, but how often does one roast a turkey?
Soda, at the local: $1.89, $1.25/$1.09 on sale. At Wally: $1.28/98¢.
New cleaning product on TV: Not yet available at local store. At Wally: Huge display. One month later, at Wally: ample refills available. At local: still the original product not yet available.
Wally is now what Sears used to be, where America shops, because they carry the goods the rest no longer do, they carry them at lower that the standard retail. The local dinosaurs are dying out.
You know, it IS possible to dislike the place without being whipped into a rabid frenzy of fear and paranoia. Me, I haven’t shopped there in I-don’t-know-how-long, but other than that, I really haven’t given it a thought.
It’s funny— I’m always defending WalMart in GD against all the folks who think that company IS evil incarnate. But the truth is, I hate the damn place. I hate the way the stores look, I hate how big the damn parking lots are, and I hate how crowded the stores are. I never, ever shop at a WalMart (except when I’m visiting my brother, who loves shopping there and always ends up dragging me along somehow). But if people want to build the things and people like shopping there, who am I to stop them? Knock yourselves out, folks. I do know people save a lot of money by shoping there.
I keep waiting for them to try to build a WalMart in Santa Cruz so I can see the fireworks. So far no luck.
Anyway, I make it a point to patronize local businesses. I can think of three times I’ve visited chains (mostly fast food) in the last month. It is abolutely the business of a city council to look at large developments and stop them if they will have an adverse affect on the city as a whole. Santa Cruz is, I think, #7 on Men’s Journal 50 best places to live- in part because of it’s unique and wonderful local businesses, amazing selection of non-chain restaurants (I can walk to about twelve taquerias), pedestrian and bicycle friendlyness, and our festive public pedestrian mall. How does your city measure up?
Do you think we’d really have the same quality of life if we plunked an Olive Garden and Chevy’s downtown and replaced Pacific Avenue with a huge windowless private mall and a sea of parking lots?
I don’t know how things work in the gloaming, but here in the real world, most managers strive to achieve a thing called “plausible deniability”. This is where you don’t put illegal orders in writing because you don’t want to see them held up in front of your face in court. Saying that something is not a corporate policy because it can’t be found in writing indicates you’re charmingly naive about how businesses run.
Let’s review some suggestions:
Boycott the store? How insignificant.
Express your views to government representatives? That’s what The Man wants.
Burn down WalMarts? Might technically be illegal.
Act superior on an online message board? You’ve got that covered.
The masses are awaiting a great leader to guide us. Tell us what to do.
what’s the point of this thread, Duffer? You ask for what people do to oppose Walmart, yet the most commom answer isn’t good enough for you? what were you honestly expecting?
Most people will boycott, others will take an extra step and try and contact theoir representatives, a small minority will go further.
Is this supposed to be a GQ, or did you put it in the pit so that you could wind people up when they reply?
I have not shopped in a WalMart for over 5 years. I will drive further and pay more for a particular item, but I actually save money by not shopping there. The reason for that is because I buy less things on impulse, and Casa de Sulamith has much less clutter that is only going to wind up in a yard sale.
But, I realize this is not really what you are not really asking, as you have said. So, I will give you the condensed version of our WalMart drama here in Savannah. Sandfly is a very small historic area just outside of Savannah proper. It is very historically significant, especially for the largely African-American residents. There are many old churches, cemetaries and farmhouses. Sure, alot of it is ramshackle, but means alot to the people who have owned these properties for generations. Target tried to come in, as we had no Target in Savannah. The citizenry organized, hired a lawyer and blocked the rezoning process. Target backed off the area and looked for more appropriate sites. Shortly thereafter, enter WM. Same thing happened again, only this time WM wouldn’t back off. Forget that we already have about four WM’s in Savannah. Nooooooo. It turned into a real messy fight. Yes, I signed petitions, went to meetings, and supported the ones who were fighting the process. I am a college instructor. I did my best to educate my students about what was going on. In the end, Sandfly lost. WM’s lawyers were in it for the long haul and didn’t care who they had to steamroll or pay off to get their way. So the new Super WalMart went in. They widened the road, ripped out 300 year-old oak trees and sliced off big chunks of people’s property.
I know, I know, you’re going to say it was the city’s fault. Yes, I agree with that, too. Unfortunately there are always people in high places willing to take a payoff.
It makes me sick.
And I’ll never shop in a Walmart again.
Well, I don’t shop there and, when the subject comes up, I tell others why.
If Wal-Mart indicates its plans to open a store in my immediate community, I would likely write letters to my local government officials stating my objections and would attend meetings to make the same points.
I’ll let others make their own decisions in their own communities.
If I’m participating in a free-market system, I don’t believe I need to do much beyond that. If I and others like me are able to have some economic effect on Wal-Mart, either presuading it to change policies I disagree with or keeping it out of my community, then the system is working. If such actions fail, then, again, the system is working, because not enough of the community agrees with me.
Those are the legal and ethical means available to me.
Today I went skiing. Yesteday I went skiing. The day before I went skiing. Tomorrow I’m going skiing.
And if that is not up to your standards, duffer, then guess what – I’m going skiing.
Chicago currently has no WalMarts, and we are slightly larger than 100,000 people. (Although, I believe approval has been given to build one on the West Side.)
And here I was, cutting you a break over your preference for that nasty pepper sauce because I was picturing you slaving over a cutting board of jalapenos. You were skiing. Well!
(Although, I believe approval has been given to build one on the West Side.)