KungFuGuy

well one example were the lawnmowers our family was looking at. went to walmart, and sure the mowers were $20-50 cheaper, but they looked cheaper and felt cheaper. Like they'd fall apart abotu 2 years sooner than the other mowers we looked at to. Soap is Soap.

There was a story about the toy industry not playing with walmart because it was putting toy stores like KayBee and Toys R Us out of business. Basically, many toy manufacturers would only sell the "bland" toys to walmart, and ship all the limited editions, newer versions, to the toy stores. Walmart would also be late in getting any of the new toys, so the other toy stores would have a lead on them. The idea being to drive toy customers to the toy stores.

Not to sure if they're still doing this though, I think the story about them doing that is several months old at the least.

yahway96

Both Toys R Us and KayBee stores are on the verge of bankruptcy, is this the fault of Walmart? Probably not, but I do know that meat cutters tryed to unionize and they responded by firing all of them and then elliminating that position from all of their stores.

MontanaXVI

Let me first start off by saying I did quick search and did not see anything like this that caught my eye, so please, if this is a re post do get rid of it.

I want to start off by saying or asking rather what is everyone's thoughts on the giant retailer Wal-Mart?

A little background on myself, I work for one of (if not the biggest) grocery retailer in the US (Kroger) and have for 12 years. I have a great healthcare package as worked out by my local union through my employer and while the payscale is a bit weak I do make a decent amount of money with the opportunity for a little OT here and there as the season dictates (vacations to cover, holidays etc.)

I asked the question above because for me, and this is not just due to the fact a union is involed and WM is historically very anti union, I simply flat out cannot stand WM. They (much like many companies) treat employees like shit, pay equally qualified women less than men in the same positions, use cheap out of country labor to make cheap product the american public goes nuts for, runs small business and shops out of town then raises the prices. The list goes on and on and on. People flock to them just because of the name and oh joy a new WM is opening let's go..with quite a few of them around me, no matter what end of town you are in the WM looks like trash all the traffic, and people who just feel the need to act like they have no sense or something just due to the fct they are shopping WM. I know this is probably not the norm but just around here that is the way it seems.

I will be the first to say working for a grocer it is very hard to work 40+ hours in a week then turn right around and give a third of my check right back to them on a regular basis to buy my food purchases for me and my girlfriend, but I just cannot bring myself to shop at such a cut throat competitor who has such a directly negative impact on my immediate working conditions. My contract is up in September, and the union is getting us ready now, it is going to be long and hard due to the fact that WM pays less so now my company feels the need to do as well to compete, not to metnion clashing my benefits or adding on ridiculous co-pays. The country as a whole is facing many problems with healtcare so I know in the long run this cannot be avoided, but again my problems result from WM and the way they run their business.

Hopefully some of you can post your thoughts/feelings on this WORLDWIDE corporate influence that WM is.

__________________
Spank you very much

Bill O'Rights

I avoid Walmart like the plague. Oh, there's all of the moral and ethical reasons that I won't shop there. But, in the end, the number one reason that I won't shop there is because my ex-wife works at the Walmart closest to my home.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

ShaniFaye

I dont go to walmart for groceries, unless I am somewhere with no Kroger around. Kroger has been my grocery story for a long time. I grew up a winn dixie girl, but all the ones in our area have been gone for years and years and I never could stand publix.

I admit I do like wal mart for buying some things.....they are hella cheap on my hair dye and "intimate" clothing and other things. I wont patronize Target because they dont sell anything cigarette related...you cant even buy an ashtray in that store. Most of my clothes shopping is done at Kohls.

One of my best friends has worked for Wal Mart for years and loves his job. I've never heard him complain about anything at all.

__________________
I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

Antikarma

I met my wife while I was working at Walmart, she worked in sports and I worked in hardware. We went out on a date. One of the girls in Linens narc'd out the fact that we went on a date. I was asked into the office of the manager and told I was fired for dating an employee. A year and a bit later, my wife was fired for being pregnant on the job.

I think that should make my feelings sufficiently clear on how I feel about walmart.

__________________

"Whoever you are, go out into the evening,
leaving your room, of which you know each bit;
your house is the last before the infinite,
whoever you are."

cj22009

The thing about Wm that pisses me off they abuse imminent domain they go into a town find property that they want. Then they offer the people money for and they dont want to sell it for one reason or another. Then they go to the county commisoners or city or whatever the local branch of government and have them seize the property by saying this is going to better the community cause of more tax revenue bla bla bla and the local government says we are taking your property cause we are going to make more money from WM that is just wrong and its happening all over the country and WM is the leader in this and other big company's are starting to do this to and it pisses me off we are suppose to have the right to own land with out nobody takening it from us but they are .

Lasereth

Where I live, both Wal-Marts have the lowest prices and the best product selection out of anywhere else. They have cheaper prices than any grocery store (by FAR) selling the exact same brand-name product. Their store is usually clean, they're open 24/7, and the employees tell me exactly where to go to find my product. There's no reason to go anywhere else.

As for the ethical issues, I've never had it impact me or anyone I know negatively so I'm not concerned. That may be ignorant, but I've never heard of a case of Wal-Mart treating its employees like crap where I live. That may be the case at other places, but I'm not shopping at other places.

-Lasereth

maleficent

I wouldn't even know where there was a Walmart in the area where I live. I don't think there are any...

I will give Walmart some credit for taking an anti-union stance, there was a time and a place for unions once, but that time and place has long since gone. One of the first jobs I ever had, at age 15, was working in a grocery store, I was required to join a union and pay union dues of which I got absolutely nothing out of... Unions are doing more harm than good in this country, not Walmart.

__________________

Holdem Dvorak

The thing about Wal-Mart (wally world), is that they aim to be the only store you will ever have to go to. But really they do it in a healthy manner. I didn't see the show, so i shoulden't be posting.

Its kinda like how in pokemon there is only one major store for general things, like PokeBalls. But if you need something specialized you can go to the bike store or things like that.

And I think if the world was more like pokemon, we'd all just be catchin them all.

POKEmon!

Ace_O_Spades

K, I have my own story to tell about this one

My friend, on christmas eve, picketed outside wal-mart with a sign that said "Think Global, Shop Local" ... handed out flyers, talked to kids about buying toys and games from local shops instead of walmart.

The police came and escorted him off the property, so he stood right on the other side of the property line and stayed there all day.

oh yeah, and he was dressed as santa.

__________________
Feh.

anti fishstick

some local activists were able to stop a Wal-Mart from being built in my area. The closest Wal-Mart around is probably 20 miles away.

Yay activists!

Wal-Mart depletes local businesses. They are actually bad for the community, more than good. Sure, it's your one-stop shop, but so is Target.

__________________
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin

Aladdin Sane

Art, you've written the truth as precise as it can be said. Amen.

__________________
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Carno

That's a nice sotry, but I don't really understand your point.. Are you saying it was wrong for Wal-Mart to call the pigs on your friend?

roachboy

is walmart good for america?
i have no idea what the question means.
so i was reading through posts to figure this out.

i guess you could argue that it is because they deliver commodities at lower prices through economies of scale combined with opposition to unionization, predatory pricing and so forth. but within this, consumers get to find commodities cheap. so if all that matters, really, is cheap consumer goods, and access to cheap consumer goods can somehow be tied into what is good or not for "america" then i guess---maybe---you could say yay walmart.

and i guess, following the same logic, that you could argue that to not see walmart thorugh this truncated frame of reference is to fall into a type of "classism"--if by that you understand class divisions as being nothing to worry about in themselves, and so as something to be addressed, if at all, by adjusting factors like the price. so poorer folk have less disposable income--this is simply a given, not the result of anything that might require thinking or change--and so cheaper prices is something like a public service. yay walmart.

and i guess from this same type of viewpoint, the destruction that walmart visits upon downtown areas everywhere a store turns up--is a type of schumpeter's "creative destruction" of capitalism. which itself can only be cheered. yay walmart.

of course, this all makes little sense if you do not also assume that the real measure of political freedom, and all other varieties, lay in your access to consumer goods. so your ability to optimize your shopping experience proves that you are free.

somewhere along the line, folk started confuseing the absolute stupidity of contemporary discourse on/about capitalism with a kind of optimism. i guess once you walk across that line, there is no turning back. so yay walmart.


edit: on economies of scale and walmart: if you think about walmart only as a series of concrete buildings, retail outlets, in isolation, you might come to understnd them as simply benefitting from the race to the bottom characteriztic of contemporary capitalism in terms of wages, costs, working conditions, the preference for repressive political regimes as site to locate production facilites because these regime internalize the costs of crushing union activity---but if you think about the size of walmart, its purchasing practices have to be seen as a driver of the race to the bottom.

what do walmart's cheap prices assume?
continued, wholesale intensification of the worst types of capitalist exploitation--but moved to another part of the world---so you cant see any of it---but if you, in a low prices=good for america kinda way, assume that the world extends no further than america, what is away in the world can be understood not to exist.

so it doesnt exist because i cant see it.
that helps.
yay walmart.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

ARTelevision

I always appreciate your well-constructed posts, roachboy - especially when they present positions diametrically opposed to my own.

Perspectives and viewpoints are ways of looking at things. I understand yours and I always gain something thought-provoking from them.

__________________
create evolution

jorgelito

My "only" problem with WalMart is that they REDUCE my choices. As a consumer I find this to be unaccepatble. While I appreciate the fact that they offer cheap (inexpensive and POOR QUALITY) goods, I would prefer to pay a tad more, buy Amercian and get a higher quality good.

It's the same reason I don't shop at Ikea: shoddy goods - I don't care how cheap it is. If I have to keep buying a $30 bookcase every few months cause it breaks, I may as well buy a solid one for $100 or so that will last me years and years.

It's the same reason why I don't buy American cars. Cheap shoddy products made IN MEXICO. Instead, I buy a reliable, solid Honda Civic made IN KENTUCKY (that's the USA) that will last me near 2 decades with zero problems.

If you don't like WalMart, don't shop there. Picket, strike, vote'm out of town, do whatever you want (as long as it's legal).

I would probably go to WalMart for toilet paper but anything else, I'd rather go somewhere else. The problem would be if there is "somewhere else" left. Plus their store are so ugly it really is a blight on the community. I'm surprised it doesn't bring the property values down. Although my guess is that WalMarts are either located in remote areas or poor ghetto areas. Either way, I don't live in either so I have never seen a WalMart except on TV or a picture in the paper (they sure are ugly).

Let the market decide.