Why do so many people Hate Walmart

[Alice_The_Goon]

I shop at Walmart once in a while, only because as a poor single mom, I have to. I’d rather go to Kmart or elsewhere, but once in a while, I find myself having to go there because of availability and/or price. But I hate them.
As has been stated before, they’ve been successfully sued for labor-law abuse and discriminatory practices. They pay minimum wage and offer outrageously priced benefits.
Also, they are fish abusers. Check it out.

[Garnet]

As far as the “class” issue some posters raised: it’s not so much that the people who shop at Wal-Mart are necessarily “low-class”. At this point, for whatever reason, people I know now come in to Wal-Mart with the expectation of it being a low-class, boorish place, and feel like it’s OK to act accordingly. I’ve been to Wal-Mart with one of my friends, and we decided that we weren’t going to buy a certain item. So I started heading back to put it back on the shelf… and my firned says, “Oh, just leave it anywhere. This is Wal-Mart.” :rolleyes:

So yeah, at least in my experience, “Wal-Mart is low class” is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than an actual observation. And it’s one of the reasons I don’t like the place much.

[mrunlucky]

Sprawl-Busters. The Case Against Sprawl section has an excerpt from the “Slam-Dunking Wal-Mart” book which gives a plethora of reasons why Wal-Mart is particularly heinous.

[vivalostwages]

@danceswithcats

As a poster of anti Mall-Wart threads, I hate them for their policies. Screw the suppliers, screw the employees, screw the town, screw the other merchants who were there. Crush competition, unions, and labor laws at all cost. If an employee gets injured on the job, lie about it. Their collective policies are 180 degrees opposed to the warm and fuzzy red, white, and blue all-American image they seek to portray. I’ll do without before buying from Mall-Wart. Feh.

[Applause!]

As I said in another thread, “Wal Mart: Lower Wages, Every Day.”

And I hate their TV commercials with the happy families and their blue plastic bags full of cheap WM crap.

[MercyStreet]

On a personal level, it’s the parking. It’s the checkout lines.

And for the love of God, it’s the people. “Just folks” is one thing. “Just folks” with their “No-you-can’t-have-that-no-you-can’t-have-that-PUT-THAT-DOWN-PUT-THAT-DOWN-I-SAID” psychodramas is more than I’m willing to endure in the average trip for paper towels and laundry detergent.

[cmason32]

This is an excellent article that explains how Wal-Mart’s desire to keep prices down hurts smaller businesses - and even hurts some of the bigger, more established companies, too. Rather than focus on the competing retailers in the community, this article shows how Wal-Mart hurts their own suppliers.

[jsleek]

Some items I can only find at Walmart. Cloth diapers for one.

[kimera]

Ever try ordering off their website and then getting a refund (or even replacement!) when you don’t get the product you already paid for? It’s near impossible.

The LA Times had an extremely indepth article awhile back on WalMart. The way they act overseas and the things they do to keep their low profits makes them slime. I am never going to set a food in a WalMart ever again and I urge everyone I know to do the same.

[Bob55]

@Squink

At which point the whole town is forced to accept whatever pricing policy its sole supplier chooses to impose.

I completely disagree, and quoting here:

What happens if a business attempts to charge prices lower than his competitors (“dumping”)?

If a business attempts to “corner the market” by charging prices that are too low (i.e., below its’ variable costs of production), the business may drive competitors out of the market temporarily (at the price of eating up its financial capital and eroding its profits); but, as soon as the business raises its’ prices (in order to reap profits in order to build back the capital it has given away by selling products below their variable cost), new competitors will enter the market.

The only way a company can gain profitably gain market share by lowering its’ prices, is if it can lower its costs of production. If a business can charge the lowest price because it has figured out how to build a better mousetrap (i.e., produce more for less), then it deserves whatever market share it can obtain.

[MrFantsyPants]

@Bob55

The only way a company can gain profitably gain market share by lowering its’ prices, is if it can lower its costs of production. If a business can charge the lowest price because it has figured out how to build a better mousetrap (i.e., produce more for less), then it deserves whatever market share it can obtain.

But Walmart does not produce more for less. They are a 500 pound gorilla that dictates unfair terms with their suppliers. They exploit a captive workforce, and screw anyone they can. That is how they outcompete their competitors.

I read somewhere that Walmart has more lawsuits pending against them than the rest of the fortune 500 comapnies combined. I can’t find the source (don’t have time), but if true, it is scary.

I boycott them completely

[Doomtrain]

I hate them because of their crappy treatment of their employees, their generally crappy goods, and as a general objection to evil, monpolizing companies. And it always feels so depressing to go into a Wal-Mart, whereas Target usually feels like a nice, clean, well-lit, decent place to be. The atmosphere of despair and fear is less at Target. And Target has cooler stuff overall.

[Napier]

I don’t hate them, but I probably have the reputation of doing so.

I won’t buy anything there, paying more elsewhere instead - or going without. Cutting costs is good in some measure, depending how far you have to go to do it. Wallmart just goes too far, and I’m voting with my dollars.

I’d be pleased if they went out of business, and other companies that treated folks better wound up ahead.

And certainly I’m in favor of nailing them legally for things like firing employees who won’t work off the clock.

[rocking_chair]

i’m with danceswithcats, it is their policies that i find distasteful. i have not been in a walmart since i heard about their policy of off the clock working. that was about 8-10 years ago.

[Queen_Tonya]

Personally, finding out their percentage of made in the US products versus the percentages of other major retail chains was enough to keep me out. YMMV.

[Mister_Rik]

a general objection to evil, monpolizing companies.

And yet most of you still buy computers running Micro$oft Windows. Sigh.

:smack:

Anyway, I won’t set foot in Wal-Mart. And in my town, as if the traffic snarls caused by Wal-Mart weren’t bad enough, Home Depot set up shop right across the street! Entering this town from the North is like trying to push golf balls through a garden hose.

[choosybeggar]

ratatoskK, your signature, it solved a mystery that has plagued me since college. My favorite Coen Bros film is Raising Arizona. There are two scenes that take place in a bathroom at a highway rest stop. Grafitti on the door reads, “POE OPE.” I never knew the reference. Thanks!!!

PS would have emailed but you are unlisted

[ouryL]

@cmason32

This is an excellent article that explains how Wal-Mart’s desire to keep prices down hurts smaller businesses - and even hurts some of the bigger, more established companies, too. Rather than focus on the competing retailers in the community, this article shows how Wal-Mart hurts their own suppliers.

Ha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha

[Doomtrain]

@Phase42

And yet most of you still buy computers running Micro$oft Windows. Sigh.

Oh no! Not Micro$oft!

Tell you what. I’ve worked as a game reviewer for 4 years now. The day an OS comes out that runs all the games Windows does is the day I’ll switch. If there was an alternative, I’d use it.

[MonkeyMensch]

And besides Walmarts are so crowded that no one shops there anyway.

(With aps to YB)

[Little_Nemo]

What happens if a business attempts to charge prices lower than his competitors (“dumping”)?

If a business attempts to “corner the market” by charging prices that are too low (i.e., below its’ variable costs of production), the business may drive competitors out of the market temporarily (at the price of eating up its financial capital and eroding its profits); but, as soon as the business raises its’ prices (in order to reap profits in order to build back the capital it has given away by selling products below their variable cost), new competitors will enter the market.

The only way a company can gain profitably gain market share by lowering its’ prices, is if it can lower its costs of production. If a business can charge the lowest price because it has figured out how to build a better mousetrap (i.e., produce more for less), then it deserves whatever market share it can obtain.

Maybe I’m being whooshed, but do you actually believe that? The fact is that when a company or group of like-minded companies establish control of a sizable enough majority of any business, they’re in a position where competition is no longer a concern. The minor efforts it takes to eliminate potential competitors is an easily assumed cost of business that can be passed on to its customers. That famous communist Adam Smith himself said this was one of the major dangers of unregulated capitalism.