Why do intelligent cool people hate Wal-Mart?
- Thread starter N8 v2.0
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I've had bad luck with their products. Because they strong arm their suppliers they typically get their worst stuff. A couple of my examples: My parents live near a super walmart (which drove out every other business. They used to have 4-5 grocery stores now they drive 30-60 mins for groceries) so I used to shop there in hs. Over the years I bought several aerosol deodorants there. Every one died after only a week or so. They ran out of propellent. I've also bought tennis balls from a few different stores and they are all horrible. Same exact brand and model that I usually use (Penn) and only 3 cents less.
Walmart sucks.
Walmart sucks.
KMART sucks, Rain man, get your quotes right!:biggrin:
Walmart sux...crappy stuff for cheap is still crappy stuff. And the slash and burn capitalism they practice is no good for anyone but Walmart...
But it still fun to go to one now and again and watch the parade of wife beaters and Peggy Bundy wanna bes...
But it still fun to go to one now and again and watch the parade of wife beaters and Peggy Bundy wanna bes...
why do you hate lower income working people so much?
Because that is from whence I came...and remain. And I have a sense of humour that makes self loathing funny.
Walmart comes into your community with the intention of ruining your local economy.
They force smaller stores out of business.
Every dollar that you spend in a local business circulates 6-8 times within the community.
The same dollar spent at Walmart only circulates once.
Walmart treats their employees like crap.
They fuel the American consumers desire for low prices and inferior quality. Walmart and other big box stores created this desire and thus continue the cycle.
The demand for cheap goods has resulted in lost manufacturing jobs to countries like China. Our economy continues to flounder while theirs flourishes.
They force smaller stores out of business.
Every dollar that you spend in a local business circulates 6-8 times within the community.
The same dollar spent at Walmart only circulates once.
Walmart treats their employees like crap.
They fuel the American consumers desire for low prices and inferior quality. Walmart and other big box stores created this desire and thus continue the cycle.
The demand for cheap goods has resulted in lost manufacturing jobs to countries like China. Our economy continues to flounder while theirs flourishes.
wal-mart employees stuff their paychecks in the mattress?
and another thing:
if families save money by shopping at wal-mart, does that not free up more money for potential spending in the local economy?
and what items are typically bought at wal-mart that put mom & pop out of business?
if you say groceries, then share this same disdain for all chain groc stores.
if you say consumer electronics: best buy, circ city, etc. same goes for CDs, DVDs.
if you say clothes: yet another chain.
if you say home improvement items: then home depot, lowes, hechinger, etc.
if you say pets: petco & other chains.
i haven't read the first 240 or so posts; i really hope this was covered. hate to think i'm the most observant in this select group.
if families save money by shopping at wal-mart, does that not free up more money for potential spending in the local economy?
and what items are typically bought at wal-mart that put mom & pop out of business?
if you say groceries, then share this same disdain for all chain groc stores.
if you say consumer electronics: best buy, circ city, etc. same goes for CDs, DVDs.
if you say clothes: yet another chain.
if you say home improvement items: then home depot, lowes, hechinger, etc.
if you say pets: petco & other chains.
i haven't read the first 240 or so posts; i really hope this was covered. hate to think i'm the most observant in this select group.
Employee owned chain vs. national chain makes a huge difference. If I buy my tools at Ace Hardware, I know the owner. Ace is a national chain, but it's a franchise, so the money I spend there goes to a guy who has his horse stabled 2 doors down from mine (I know his horse well). Hell, the gal that rings me up babysits our daughter.
Now both of them could work at WalMart. But a smaller portion of the money I spent would go directly to them.
So not to say that Jennifer stuffs her mattress with the paycheck she got by selling me tools, but a larger portion of my tool purchase goes to her indirectly. Also, if I don't know what tool to get, I can rely on Doug to help me because it's his store and chances are he has used that tool himself.
And another thing:
All big box stores suck. I go to BiMart and Ace first before I go to Home Depot. I don't go to Lowes because Home Depot was there for me once.
<a short story> Cell service sucked in New Orleans after Katrina. I had been on the ground for 4 days and had not talked to my wife or daughter since I left. While heading to Home Depot for supplies, I tried to use the pay phone and it didn't work. A guy at the front door said "I have service, use my phone to call home if you want." He was the regional manager from Illinois who had been flown in to cover shifts. He was working as a greeter that day. I talked to my wife for 20 minutes and it was awesome.
Home Depot was open daylight hours only because they didn't have enough electricity to run lights at night. it was staffed by volunteers from all over the country so they had enough employees to staff up since the regular employees were busy taking care of their families.
All big box stores suck. I go to BiMart and Ace first before I go to Home Depot. I don't go to Lowes because Home Depot was there for me once.
<a short story> Cell service sucked in New Orleans after Katrina. I had been on the ground for 4 days and had not talked to my wife or daughter since I left. While heading to Home Depot for supplies, I tried to use the pay phone and it didn't work. A guy at the front door said "I have service, use my phone to call home if you want." He was the regional manager from Illinois who had been flown in to cover shifts. He was working as a greeter that day. I talked to my wife for 20 minutes and it was awesome.
Home Depot was open daylight hours only because they didn't have enough electricity to run lights at night. it was staffed by volunteers from all over the country so they had enough employees to staff up since the regular employees were busy taking care of their families.
this looks like heartstring pulling, and as a heartless conservative, this falls flat
so avg wages for the same skill/experience are higher @ ace than wal-mart? i honestly have no idea. but i wouldn't worry about wal-mart squeezing out ace any time soon. home depot & lowes maybe.
good selling points, sure. same case can be made for your LBS. but i don't think the occasional mom&pop store to shut their doors can be blamed solely on wal-mart, but more upon their stale business model & families who would rather commit to their own families first.
WalMart underpays EVERYONE, as if that issue has never been raised in the media.
2 years after WalMart opened in Woodburn, Ace was out, so was True Value, both locally owned. They were under-cut by national pricing, then prices went up as soon as he doors closed. Bob-businessman can't lower his prices because he has only one store. WalMart can under-cut Bob because they make the difference up either after Bob is gone, or because Steve in Salem closed last year.
Please tell me this isn't news to you? If your conservativeness keeps you from caring about your community to save $.25 on a 24 pack of sh!tpaper, then I mourn for the loss of your soul.
<edit> It's not the "occasional" mom and pop stores. If you look at places like Woodburn, the entire landscape of the town has changed because of WalMart. It has all been centered around it because damn near every small business otherwise has closed.
Before WalMart, there were 2 entire shopping centers on either end of town, last time I was there, both were empty and have been "for lease" for the last few years.
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if you think mom & pop stores pay more than WalMart and provide the same or better benifits than Walmart, you're sleepwalking thru life.
Plus this just in:
Plus this just in:
I know Ace pays Jennifer more than she would make elsewhere. She also got a raise when she registered for classes after high school. Doug said as long as she pulls grades, she makes more money.
<edit> He also has been flexible with her schedule so she can take classes when they are available, not just on her days off.
This just in:
Rebate Checks Not Spurring Spending Spree
wow!
around here walmart doesnt have jack-booted stormtroopers holding their guns to shopper's heads forcing them to shop at their ubber-storz.
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Here either, but the lure of cheap crap draws enough business for long enough and a local shop can't hang. It's not like the owner of Ace is independently wealthy and has a business for tax purposes only. Enough slow months and doors close.
I'm having a tough time believing you are truly that ignorant. Sorry if you are.
Sooner or later in a race to the bottom, you're actually going to get there...
i don't agree so much that wal-mart categorically underpays everyone, per the phrase i used in my previous post: "...same skill/experience...". wal-mart will hire a pulse for their parttime positions, which you may argue that it exploits these people, but i would counter they are barely employable as it is. from this alone, i can appreciate your well-founded preference for ace.
as far as caring about my community goes, this comes after i have taken care of my own first. i don't recall in my wedding vows before God & guests to include local patronage. the money my family has saved so far this year will pay for a father's day wknd on the lifts, which helps the local economy of summit county & vail (demographic: spoiled white people & hispanic day laborers)
you bring up a good point about shopping centers, for grocery stores are integral for some (if not most), and wal-mart does tempt some of their customers. this is why i like albertsons, which is located only a mile from wal-mart & for this reason never a line. we had a bumper crop of rite-aids (most gone now), and even a few walgreens have closed up. it's debatable if they picked a bad spot (visible within neighborhoods, but not feeder/secondary roads). so yeah, there are spots where we used to have pawn shops, nail joints, watch/jewelry repair, chocolatiers, fabric stores, and used cd/book stores, but are gone now b/c of wal-mart. but taking a look inside wal-mart, we see there are a few satellite offices of other nat'l chains, space for which i'm sure is leased at a premium.
this is change i can believe in
as far as caring about my community goes, this comes after i have taken care of my own first. i don't recall in my wedding vows before God & guests to include local patronage. the money my family has saved so far this year will pay for a father's day wknd on the lifts, which helps the local economy of summit county & vail (demographic: spoiled white people & hispanic day laborers)
you bring up a good point about shopping centers, for grocery stores are integral for some (if not most), and wal-mart does tempt some of their customers. this is why i like albertsons, which is located only a mile from wal-mart & for this reason never a line. we had a bumper crop of rite-aids (most gone now), and even a few walgreens have closed up. it's debatable if they picked a bad spot (visible within neighborhoods, but not feeder/secondary roads). so yeah, there are spots where we used to have pawn shops, nail joints, watch/jewelry repair, chocolatiers, fabric stores, and used cd/book stores, but are gone now b/c of wal-mart. but taking a look inside wal-mart, we see there are a few satellite offices of other nat'l chains, space for which i'm sure is leased at a premium.
this is change i can believe in
our small metro area has 5 ubber walmarts.. 3 Home Depots, 3 Lowes and guess what?
12 small hardware stores (2 of which are Ace)..
so your usual generalizations sux0rz - again.
Are you drunk on your own bath water?
I for one resent the homogenization of retail in this country. Diversity among purveyors of goods and services is one of this country's corner stones. When you no longer have a choice where you shop, you've lost something. The ability to make a choice is one of the things that this country has celebrated. But the cycle of supply and demand for cheap goods and services that was started by big box stores such as Walmart, is robbing us of the very thing we cherish.
When Mom & Pop stores close, not only does the local economy suffer, but so does the community.
I am talking about what is happening here using local facts. I would hardly call anywhere with 3 WalMarts "small".
Woodburn (where i used to live) had 3 hardware stores in the whole town. No Home Depot, no Lowes.
Forest Grove has Ace and BiMart. WalMart is building in the Cornelius (next town over) and will likely have an impact. In a larger area, the impact is less, no doubt.
bullsh!t..
try to find some decent selection at a local store...
usually their crap selection is 3+ years old, over priced, and you have hell returning it if it eff's up
(primarily directed at Hephaestus's post above)
try to find some decent selection at a local store...
usually their crap selection is 3+ years old, over priced, and you have hell returning it if it eff's up
(primarily directed at Hephaestus's post above)
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our metro population is 270,000 so, not a large city by any measure.
i personally avoid Ace like the plauge... the only recent thing i bought from the store here was a stale, over priced Gambinos king cake about 10 years ago.
It's Lowes or HomeDepot for 99% of all my non-lumber yard construction needs.
That's more than half the size of Portland! I would call that large, by my measure.
Forest Grove = 16, 275
Woodburn = 20,100
As a comparison, Salem = 152,239
<edit> Neither Home Depot or Lowes carries a full line of brass airline fittings. I replaced all the bolts in the chassis of my '69 Chevy with Grade 8 bolts from the selection at Ace, not to mention I got an "employee" price because the total was more than $100.
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let's see if i understand this: wal-mart is the bane of the collective local economy b/c it doesn't offer the diversity of commerce, which means i can no longer find:
- hemp shoulder holsters
- organic m&c
- lesbian non-fiction
- free-trade hinges
- pre-tattered kaffiyahs
- "witty" anti-conservative tee's & stickers
- bootlegged phish
- patchouli-scented candles
- soul food deli
- free range panda steaks
- locally hewn footbags
- abe's of maine vag balm
- llama hair prayer flags
you should be able to get all those items locally in Santa Fe, Boulder, Austin and more than likely Portland at one of several boutique shoppes
No that's not quite what I meant. I was referring to the fact that there is a decreasing number of smaller individual stores and an increasing number of big box stores. This is what I mean by retail homogenization.
Maybe you want retail to be that way, all under the guise of consistency. However, as for me, I want diversity and the ability to choose.
You should probably open a local shop, then... and beat Wal Mart at the retail game.
My experience says that the VAST majority of the population could give a rat's a$$ where they buy underwear.
I, for one, hate to go to Wal Mart. Then again, I have lots of other options where I live...
but doesn't the ability to choose from many stores - presumably at many locations - also use more resources (to say nothing of personal time)? not just from the different stores stocking both competing & redundant items, but from you as the traveler? point is, if we're going to care about "community", shouldn't that also factor in our environment? your car will use more fuel & go to the landfill sooner from all these little individual trips. it's all about the footprint.
see what i did there?
I am a small business owner and that's why I feel he way I do about Walmart.
Sorry, your spin doesn't work for me.
You can reduce your foot print by driving a more fuel efficient vehicle and combining trips. Or better yet, ride your bike or walk to the store if at all possible.
I walk to Ace. Now what?
See what I did there?
Not to mention the shops in downtown, 4 blocks from my house.
me too.
on all counts
"...combining trips..."
how would i go about doing that? if only there were one place where i could buy butter, bullets, beans & XXXL gansta tee's...
