It is disturbing. It affects us in other ways too. In reference to the balance of trade problem and weak dollar, I heard an economist on NPR saying that Americans are increasingly price-shoppers; in other words, we don’t care how good it is as long as it’s the cheapest. Europeans and Japanese, by contrast, care more about quality and maintaining long-term business relationships. So when the dollar goes down, European importers are less likely to switch to an American product just because a weak dollar makes it cheaper. So the classic theory by which a foreign exchange imbalances should correct themselves doesn’t work here.
This is where Wal-Mart has now lost all of my business, and if those around me are at all serious much of theirs as well. I may be a poor starving college student, and W-M certainly has most of the stores around here beat (by a long-shot) on price, but when they pull this crap, acting solely on their own behalf without concern for the consumers I’m out of there.
I sent a message to both Mastercard and W-M about it. MC replied that they tried to negotiate with W-M, but couldn’t work out a deal. Annoying that they have sold out their card holders, but understandable (on a business end) that they refuse to yank W-M’s ability to use their cards all together. W-M refused to answer my query - bastards! That pissed me off even more.
I also sent a strongly worded letter to Wal Mart on this very issue, with no response. My bank charges me $.50 for each debit transaction, but nothing when used as a credit card.
I hate Wal-Mart. On a one of the few times I’ve actually gone there, I’ve always waited at least tewnty minutes in line, even at four in the morning. There are 27 cash registers, yer there are never more than 3 open at once. The store is filthy, it smells like fried chicken and sewers. The shelves are always a mess, and never rarely stocked. I hate Wal-Mart, and want them to die.
It is a fallacy that WalMart is always cheaper than, and always offers better selection than its competition.
The SuperCenter near my home has THE worst selection of jellies and jams I’ve ever seen in a grocery store, and they carry only one brand of honey which is priced even higher than at my local Kroger outlet ( next to Albertson’s, the highest-priced grocery, overall, in the Omaha area).
I’ve NEVER bought meat at WM Supercenter–my local No Frills, BagNSave and HyVee markets carry leaner meat cheaper.
WM NEVER beats my 3 local favorites’ price on soda pop. Even though they advertise they’ll match every competitor’s ad, why would I stand 10-deep in line for the same price I could get down the street on a quick-in quick-out basis?
Kitty litter and ferret food are cheapest at WM, but Target beats them on cat food, both canned and dry, and equals their price on toilet paper and paper towels. Target’s and Shopko’s store-brand clothes are of better quality than WM’s as well.
Yes, WM is open 24/7, but that doesn’t mean they’ll have what you want when you want it.
I work the 11-to-7 shift and have found that if one discovers that one needs an automotive light bulb or a wiper blade on one’s way home, one should stay up past 8 and go to a real auto parts store, because WM won’t have you need at 7:15 am.
Our local NoFrills chain is owned by a sharp-eyed gentleman named Harold Cooperman who must be pushing 90. About a month after the opening of our local SuperCenter, I noticed that NoFrills was beefing-up its stocks of just about every grocery item not carried at WalMart. NoFrills stores are NEVER empty of customers at any hour of the day or night. I hope I’m half as sharp in my 80s as Harold seems to be in his.
When Kmart sold its PACE Membership Warehouse division to WM, I became a Sam’s Club Member. You can get bargains at Sam’s, but if you’re ignorant of prices elsewhere, you can be seriously screwed as well. For instance, Sam’s beats the local chains’ everyday prices on milk, but on any given day someone somewhere will have milk on sale lower than Sam’s price. And bread is NEVER cheaper there than at the regular supermarkets. They can’t be beat on film, batteries and Brita water filters, however.
I used to think that Sam’s and WM had really good prices on OTC drug items such as aspirin, my wife’s contact lens cleaners, etc., but Walgreen’s and No Frills both carry OTC generics at the same unit prices and in much smaller containers.
Shop around while you still have alternatives available. If you haven’t any alternatives form alliances with neighbors in your small WM-dominated towns to organize mass shopping trips to your nearest larger non-one-horse-community.
Maybe the retailers in that community will notice enough of an increase in business from yours that they’ll establish stores there. Take back your lives!!
Wow, I didn’t think it was possible to squeeze that many typos and grammatical errors into just four sentences.
Hmm.
Just chiming in to say that I love WalMart. Whatever I may need, I get there, and always cheaper than any competition in the area. There are 4 WalMart Super Centers within a 15 minute drive from my house and of the four, three of them are always clean and well-organized when I shop there (which, admittedly, tends to be after 10PM). The other is extraordinarily busy but, for the amount of traffic it receives, does pretty well in terms of cleanliness.
Quite honestly, I don’t give a rat’s ass about what my cheap products had to go through to get to the shelves. It’s a corporate world and if you’re not looking out for number one, then you’re going to go under. It’s a simple concept of capitalism, and I understand it well. WalMart knows how to play the game to their advantage, and whoever plays does so willingly. Vlasic is a good example. You can’t change the rules mid-game without expecting the other players to try to take the upper hand.
WalMart has smart executives who know how to do the job. Regardless of the majority of anti-WalMart opinions expressed here, WalMart IS the world’s largest company and, in terms of retail sales, leads the pack by a HUGE majority because smart people shop there to save money. I express sympathy for small-business owners but, in today’s world, if you can’t keep up, you should find another line of business.
That said, for my fellow WalMart shoppers, there’s a nice big sale on chips and chip-related-products this week, apparently. Got more than enough for our huge party last night for under $20.
I refuse to shop at WalMart for all reasons laid out in this thread.
I also refuse to shop there because I get panic attacks when I go into the store. I used to go there for the cheapo crossword puzzle books because they usually had them for like $.50 or something great.
Then I had my first WalMart panic attack. Three attacks later and I’m not going back.
I agree with the dirty, badly lit and moronic employees (because those with smarts are usually able to get out as soon as possible).
As for hours, we have five 24 hour grocery stores in town. They sell anything I might need at three in the morning.
Just adding to the fodder.
There is a super walmart 2 blocks away from my house, and I have to say that I’m glad it’s there.
+I can go and buy blank dvd’s at 1am.
+I can get a pint of ben&jerry’s within 5 minutes of a craving, which is good
because I typically don’t follow through with cravings.
+I have human interaction when all of my friends are asleep, and will be for 6-10
hours(although I do admit, I try to avoid conversation with most walmart
employees most of the time, as they can be assholes).
±The store is well-lit, almost too bright, especially at night.
+Every time I go there they are using that floor buffer thing, so it’s relatively clean.
+They seem to have a good system for reshop, and I often see people actively
looking for misplaced items when I venture there during the day.
Overall, I’m glad it’s there if I need it, but most of the stuff can be said about the other 24-hour store that is a couple miles in the other direction as well, so it depends on what time it is and what I need. If I’m killing time at 3am, I go to wal-mart, because I feel better walking out of there with nothing than I do the grocery store, because the gorcery store does not really have much security, and I don’t want people to think I’m stealing anything… but, if I know exactly what I want, I’d probably go to the grocery store, simply because a friend of mine works there and chatting with a friend is more fun than chatting with a stranger.
okay, so my reply didn’t really add to the thread, but this is my first time even visiting this section of the forum, and I thought I’d add my input about this place.
Interesting article in CS Monitor