Am I the Only One Who Likes Walmart?

[ols386]

I love Walmart. I buy clothes there frequently. I can find clothes that fit easier there than at most retail stores, and for a lot less money. I refuse to spend a ton of money on clothing.

Most of the employees that I've encountered at Walmart have been friendly and very helpful.

 

[luvmyfam444]

I keep seeing "why pay more for the same item?". That one just dont hold water. Sorry. It dont. It's NOT the same item. PERIOD. When you can buy something made in a quality country vs a cheap knockoff in China, I'm sorry, but that's NOT the same item!!!
Corporate stores have been doing this for years. They sell the same *brand* but it's created DIFFERENT. It may be created in China vs a more reputable manufacturing country. When I used to work in sales at a local plumbing company we sold a particular brand of valve. The company started sending ones made in China in with the order. They looked cheaper. They felt cheaper. They weighed less. The packing nut was thin. The angle was all wrong. It just looked "cheap". The manager refused the Chinese valves. He told the rep to the company that he would switch companies if they continued to send those valves. They stopped sending the China valves. They were still making them in USA as well. They sent us the U.S. made valves for many many years after that.
So the question is... WHY were they making the same "model" of valve in BOTH USA and China? The answer was the bigger chain stores would rather pay less for the cheap valve. The bigger chain stores don't give a crap if it splits and floods your house. They just want to be able to say "We have cheaper prices". They were selling them by the tens of thousands to Lowes and Home Depot. It took us a while to sell off the China valves. The plumbers didn't want them; AT ANY PRICE! You can't argue value/price with people who are only looking at price. Its like looking at a 3-D movie with the red and blue glasses and closing one eye.
The items Walmart sells are NOT the same as what I buy at the stores I shop at. It's like trying to compare a Mercedes with a Kia and then saying the Kia is better because it's cheaper. No, it's NOT better, and it's NOT the same thing. It's cheaper. It will NOT give the same service. In some cases the cheaper item may be what you are after, and there are some really good legitimate examples of that, but you can't make generalizations and say Walmart sells the same item, because that's just not true.

Walmart does sell some good items as well, but overall, the merchandise is more cheaply made.
As far as the "I can't afford to pay more" comments... that might be true. BUT can you afford to buy things that break and are poorly designed?
In my "dumpster diving" days of flea marketing we had a local chain store that sold fans. They sold a large variety of window fans. The best seller was one called "The Wind Machine" (because it was the cheapest). There would be a defective Wind Machine in the dumpster at almost any given week. Sometimes there would be 2 or 3. You never seen one of the other models, only the Wind Machine. I have to wonder how many people kept buying the same piece of crap fan every year, and in turn paid a LOT more than they would have if they had just bought a good one and been done with it.

Very vaild points - but in general I think most people are meaning grocery items as being the same - the Kraft mac n cheese & Lay's chips are the same bought @ Wm as Targer as Publix as the gas station. Why do we not do all our shopping at the local BP gas station - they have a whole lot of itmes I need, ravioli, tuna, milk, meats, cheese, chips, sofdrinks, UMMMMM 'cause that would be STUPID to pay those prices - maybe? well that's how I feel about buying groceries at Target (no super T here anyway) or some other grocery stores as a general rule. OF course I hit others stores if I'm closer to one, need something ASAP or the sale is a buy one get one & I know its a good deal.

 

[luvmyfam444]

I'm glad to know that I've finally found what group in society I fall into...the WM shopping, trashy fam that abuses their kid...china promoting (so that means anti-USA) um...I wonder what else I should add

Actually my kids never wore just a diaper into WM - they wear WM clothes into WM! But by the looks of these comments that would have you folks passed out to walk by a rack & see the clothes on me & the rack @ the same time...

And the KSwiss tennis shoes I bought for my kids this year look as dirty & worn out as the WM tennis shoes - so I will NOT be buying name brand shoes again - my kids still can manage to ruin them in 1/2 a year no matter what brand.

 

[Enchanted_Mama]

I have been inside a Walmart twice. The first one was in Fort Collins, CO (I was on a biz trip and needed tampons ). Very clean, seemed like a fine store.

The second one was the one near my home in NJ. I ordered something online to be shipped to the store, and went to pick it up. The store was disgusting, really filthy, and I had a hard time getting anyone to direct me to the pick up location. I'll never go back there.

 

[61292cna]

I love shopping at Walmart, just not ours!!! Ours was supposed to be remodeled into a superstore, but due to protests from neighbors(too much taffic & noise), The Wamart is anti-union & abuses it workers crowd(my DD now 28 makes more & has better benefits than my Dsis who is a union member in the same type of job), & The Walmart competes unfairly bunch(WM has only been here 23 years already) the city said no, so they turned it into some kind of upscale, snooty version of a Walmart that I only shop at when I need something & I don't have time to drive the 15 miles N. or S. to one of the real Walmarts(both superstores) for it.

As for the quality, it just depends, at both upscale shops & Walmart we have gotten items that have lasted a long time & others that barely lasted 4 or 5 washings & I can tell you it's a lot less upsetting to throw away cheap items, than expensive ones

 

[threecrazykids]

I'm glad to know that I've finally found what group in society I fall into...the WM shopping, trashy fam that abuses their kid...china promoting (so that means anti-USA) um...I wonder what else I should add



Amen! I'm in the same boat as you!

 

[C.Ann]

As far as the "I can't afford to pay more" comments... .

------------------

Perhaps you would prefer those people just go on welfare instead - then you can pay for their "better quality" items.. Actually I'm not even sure what "better quality" items you are talking about..

If you're talking about clothing, I have 9 pairs of pants that I purchased there back in 2000 - the only place I could find pants that fit correctly.. They are worn every single week - the only pants I own - and they are still in good enough condition to wear out to social occasions; work; or wherever else I might be going..

I've never bought an electrical item; appliance; electronic item; or anything else from Walmart that didn't hold up very, very well - and yet was much, much cheaper than other stores.. I know many people who have that "mind set", but I have yet to see any personal proof that the theory you are putting out there is correct..

Sitting here right now I am looking at a small microwave that I purchased at Walmart 6 years ago - for $40.. Still works perfect.. An air conditioner - purchased in 2001 for $128 - still works fine.. A Black & Decker one-cup coffeemaker - purchased 3 years ago - no problems.. A 13" color t.v. - with built-in VCR - $99 in 1998 - which still works fine.. I could go on and on - looking around my place here - but I think you get the gist.. I personally have not had the experiences that you seem to think occur on a regular basis..

Guess I have to join the "trashy" group here - until such time that I decide to spend my limited monthly income willy-nilly - and then rush off to apply for welfare instead so I can shop in the "better" stores..

 

[bicker]

It is an interesting back-and-forth argument going on here. I wonder if anyone is willing to take a shot at the mechanics of the situation: Walmart does offer lower prices... I think everyone is agreed on that. Clearly, the folks who don't like Walmart feel that that is reflected in lower quality, somehow (whether it is the product quality, service quality, facilities, policies, negative impact on the community, negative impact on the labor market, etc., it doesn't matter, at least not at this point). For folks who do like Walmart, and feel that the lower prices aren't associated with a decrease in quality, what do you attribute the lower prices to?

 

[TheZue]

It is an interesting back-and-forth argument going on here. I wonder if anyone is willing to take a shot at the mechanics of the situation: Walmart does offer lower prices... I think everyone is agreed on that. Clearly, the folks who don't like Walmart feel that that is reflected in lower quality, somehow (whether it is the product quality, service quality, facilities, policies, negative impact on the community, negative impact on the labor market, etc., it doesn't matter, at least not at this point). For folks who do like Walmart, and feel that the lower prices aren't associated with a decrease in quality, what do you attribute the lower prices to?

I don't think everything there is lower quality (although I still think their clothes are based on what I buy for my boys and the limited clothing I bought myself there) but I think a lot of the prices on staples like detergent and non perishable food is just do to how fast they can MOVE it. If you are only going to sell one or two bottles of something a day you have to pay for your rent somehow, so the price will be higher vs somebody that is moving 200...Even if the mom and pop store jacks their price up to double what walmart sells they are never going to make what walmart does based on volume. Not only that they buy in quantities that allow them to get better prices, which leads to more ability to ask for lower prices and yet more volume sold. And even beyond that I would guarentee that they make deals with their landlords for cheaper rent because of the traffic they bring.

We used to have a computer store. We saw a lot of this stuff first hand with the other large chains. They would negotiate rent based on not that lone mall in town, but in the chain of malls and would negotiate to get stores in a percentage of them. So while we were paying $25/sqft per month they'd be paying up to half that because they would have 30 stores in that brand of mall. Walmart would have even more clout because not only could they say "we'll open up 10 stores with you guys and sign a five year lease, but we'll also massively increase the traffic going into your mall making it more desirable to other tenants". It's a huge advantage.

Another story from our old store. We used to use a supplier and we could see our prices online. We were looking at a game, I think it was Diablo 2 or something, and our cost was around $40-50...the supplier also put up the prices available to Future Shop (Canadian version of Best Buy at the time) and Future Shop's price was $18 for the exact same thing. So they were making an extra 22 per game, and they sold an absolutely huge amount. That gave them the ability to mark down other things to barely making money. \

And finally the last little nugget we got from our store was that some of the large chains actually have the ability to buy their inventory on consignment from the distributors. So they wouldn't pay a dime until that item sold. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but consider that they don't have to deal with marking down goods that don't sell or taking a loss if it comes to that; they either send it back or renegotiate the price. And to top it off they wouldn't be paying interest to the distributor and/or they'd have that money available to be working in other ways while that widget is sitting in the aisle waiting to be sold. That is a massive advantage.

And as for corporate bullying, I've never seen any company do what Michaels did when they came to Canada. Before they came we had some craft chain here called Crafts Canada. It wasn't fancy and the stores weren't great but it was cheap and had a decent selection. When Michael's came they went through and priced the key items from Craft's Canada below cost. When Craft Canada went under they upped the prices overall and stopped carrying a number of items which they had priced below Craft's Canada cost. Now THAT is corporate bullying.

 

[donald&daisy]

It is an interesting back-and-forth argument going on here. I wonder if anyone is willing to take a shot at the mechanics of the situation: Walmart does offer lower prices... I think everyone is agreed on that. Clearly, the folks who don't like Walmart feel that that is reflected in lower quality, somehow (whether it is the product quality, service quality, facilities, policies, negative impact on the community, negative impact on the labor market, etc., it doesn't matter, at least not at this point). For folks who do like Walmart, and feel that the lower prices aren't associated with a decrease in quality, what do you attribute the lower prices to?

I attribute the low prices to high quantity buying power. Walmart sells the most, Walmart can negotiate better prices. If I had a product, I would want it sold in Walmart stores because I know I would be reaching a huge market. I also know that Walmart makes a concerted effort to keep operating costs very low. Their corporate office is nothing impressive, very plain, very few people have actual offices, it is basically a cubicle kingdom (although I think they may call them pods, lol). Disclaimer-- I like Walmart. I live 30 mins from HQ.

 

[CPT Tripss]

It is an interesting back-and-forth argument going on here. I wonder if anyone is willing to take a shot at the mechanics of the situation: Walmart does offer lower prices... I think everyone is agreed on that. Clearly, the folks who don't like Walmart feel that that is reflected in lower quality, somehow (whether it is the product quality, service quality, facilities, policies, negative impact on the community, negative impact on the labor market, etc., it doesn't matter, at least not at this point). For folks who do like Walmart, and feel that the lower prices aren't associated with a decrease in quality, what do you attribute the lower prices to?

nice avatar! what is it?

 

[bicker]

nice avatar! what is it?

It is the symbol of the Unitarian Universalist faith.

It has a great history: It was earlier an underground symbol in occupied Europe during World War II for assistance to help Unitarians, Jews, and other people escape Nazi persecution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_chalice

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

Very vaild points - but in general I think most people are meaning grocery items as being the same

I kinda agree with you on the food issue. Aldis is cheaper, (non-arguably) but aside from Aldis, only Sams and Costco can beat Walmart, and not always there. Walmart is really hard to beat on Groceries. I was referring to electronics, household, hardware, etc.
Sams and Costco almost ALWAYS beat Walmart on video games, at least that's my experience with the games I have bought.

Perhaps you would prefer those people just go on welfare instead - then you can pay for their "better quality" items.. Actually I'm not even sure what "better quality" items you are talking about..

If you're talking about clothing, I have 9 pairs of pants that I purchased there back in 2000 - the only place I could find pants that fit correctly.. They are worn every single week - the only pants I own - and they are still in good enough condition to wear out to social occasions; work; or wherever else I might be going..

I've never bought an electrical item; appliance; electronic item; or anything else from Walmart that didn't hold up very, very well - and yet was much, much cheaper than other stores.. I know many people who have that "mind set", but I have yet to see any personal proof that the theory you are putting out there is correct..

Sitting here right now I am looking at a small microwave that I purchased at Walmart 6 years ago - for $40.. Still works perfect.. An air conditioner - purchased in 2001 for $128 - still works fine.. A Black & Decker one-cup coffeemaker - purchased 3 years ago - no problems.. A 13" color t.v. - with built-in VCR - $99 in 1998 - which still works fine.. I could go on and on - looking around my place here - but I think you get the gist.. I personally have not had the experiences that you seem to think occur on a regular basis..

Guess I have to join the "trashy" group here - until such time that I decide to spend my limited monthly income willy-nilly - and then rush off to apply for welfare instead so I can shop in the "better" stores..

I never mentioned anything about welfare. You missed my whole point. There are a lot of "disposable" type of items at Walmart. I was merely saying sometimes it's better to buy a good product to begin with. My comments about the fan were quite clear I think. The fans were always in the dumpster all the time, for years. It would have cost someone LESS to paid more for a good one once than a cheap one over and over every couple of years. Both Patton and Lakewood make some fans that are a bit more, but will outlast anything at Walmart. Of course more and more brands jump on the Walmart train. They could be selling them now. Probably cheapened just for their specs and pricing. As another person here mentioned as well; they do make them at different locations.
Examples... OK. I wasn't going to mention it, but it took me 7 VCRs from Walmart before I got one to actually last through the (at the time) 3 month return policy period. One wouldn't even power on from the box. One ate the very first tape (brand new... ALSO from Walmart and purchased the same night) the FIRST time I tried to play it. One lasted 2 weeks. One lasted 3 weeks. One lasted 2 months... etc. The 7th VCR was a keeper, but even it only lasted about 2-3 years. When my mother got a DVD player (I'm ashamed to say I was a die hard VHS fan back in those days) she gave me her VCR, which was purchased from a local store. It lasted until very recently. I couldn't just get a refund, or I would have done that after the second one, but you could (at the time) only do an exchange within 3 months. That was years ago.

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

I will also add one more point. But this one is favoring Walmart. I can't COUNT the number of times I wanted to buy something from one of my local stores and the store was closed. Walmart is 24 HRS. That's ONE advantage that Walmart does have. They are always there when you need them. If the local stores were open past 5PM they would be a LOT easier to support.

 

[TheZue]

I never mentioned anything about welfare. You missed my whole point. There are a lot of "disposable" type of items at Walmart. I was merely saying sometimes it's better to buy a good product to begin with. My comments about the fan were quite clear I think. The fans were always in the dumpster all the time, for years. It would have cost someone LESS to paid more for a good one once than a cheap one over and over every couple of years. Both Patton and Lakewood make some fans that are a bit more, but will outlast anything at Walmart. Of course more and more brands jump on the Walmart train. They could be selling them now. Probably cheapened just for their specs and pricing. As another person here mentioned as well; they do make them at different locations.
Examples... OK. I wasn't going to mention it, but it took me 7 VCRs from Walmart before I got one to actually last through the (at the time) 3 month return policy period. One wouldn't even power on from the box. One ate the very first tape (brand new... ALSO from Walmart and purchased the same night) the FIRST time I tried to play it. One lasted 2 weeks. One lasted 3 weeks. One lasted 2 months... etc. The 7th VCR was a keeper, but even it only lasted about 2-3 years. When my mother got a DVD player (I'm ashamed to say I was a die hard VHS fan back in those days) she gave me her VCR, which was purchased from a local store. It lasted until very recently. I couldn't just get a refund, or I would have done that after the second one, but you could (at the time) only do an exchange within 3 months. That was years ago.

I think electronics in general have seen their quality go to crap no matter where you buy them from. I used to subscribe to the theory that if you paid more it would last forever, and I do think that used to be true. I have some ancient electronics that still run. But we found around 10 years ago no matter what we paid it wasn't lasting more than just past the one year warranty. We literally went through 3k in Sony products that died within 2 years, and everything we bought before the year 2000 is still going strong. Everything from photo printers, to dvd players, to PS2s (one at our store, one for home, and one gift), all died just out of warranty. The timing was just too convenient to the manufacturer for it to be a simple quality issue. These were NOT cheap items and it really made me mad that they all died within a month of their warranty expiring and sony wouldn't do a darn thing. That's not cost cutting, that's planned obsolecence.

Now unless I get a really good deal if I can get the $30 crappy version at walmart I will, because after spending $500 on a couple dvd players that died at 13 months (we thought the first one was a fluke because Sony had always been such a high quality brand for us) it is cheaper to keep buying the terrible Walmart version. I don't like it, it's wasteful as hell, but I don't blame Walmart for this trend. I blame the companies that decided moving the technology forward at warp speed wasn't enough. They had to do things like make the batteries impossible to replace but destined to die after a year (Apple) or bring out TVs that advertise that their life spans are low but put it in hours so it isn't so obvious (the new styles of TVs). A lot of the companies that are known for planned obsolesence electronics are higher end brands.

 

[bicker]

Some say that Walmart, itself, is responsible for much of electronics "going to crap" as you assert, i.e., the maniacal desire on the part of so many consumers, focused by this one retailer (but really also supported by others retailers) on the lowest price without regard to the ramifications leads the industry to (remarkably) do what the customer wants: make cheap crap. Indeed, no matter how you look at it, overly-price-sensitive consumers are at fault: The electronics industry wouldn't be as you suggest, structured to plan on you making a new purchase every few years, if you paid a reasonable price in the beginning. The offering reflects the consumers' penchant.

 

[DisnyMama]

I've tried going to Albertson's, Von's, Ralphs and Stater Bro's but they just can't beat Wal-Marts prices and in a big way. However, I will not buy any type of fresh chicken unless it is a big bag of frozen chcken breasts at Wal-Mart. For some reason, to me it just has the funkiest smell... uh uh, not doin it! So I buy my fresh chicken at either one of the markets or my fav-Trader Joes when it's convenient.

 

[DISUNC]

I've been shopping at my local WalMart since it opened 10 years ago. Never ever had any problems with it. I dont think they have any lesser quality of items either. Most of what the sell is the same thing the other stores are selling.

When it comes to food items....like every other Food store the prices vary significantly. Sometimes Shoprite has a better sale, sometimes not.

I notice that many of the Employees in WM are the same ones who have been there since the day it opened. I cant say that for any other department store I go too.

 

[TheZue]

Some say that Walmart, itself, is responsible for much of electronics "going to crap" as you assert, i.e., the maniacal desire on the part of so many consumers, focused by this one retailer (but really also supported by others retailers) on the lowest price without regard to the ramifications leads the industry to (remarkably) do what the customer wants: make cheap crap. Indeed, no matter how you look at it, overly-price-sensitive consumers are at fault: The electronics industry wouldn't be as you suggest, structured to plan on you making a new purchase every few years, if you paid a reasonable price in the beginning. The offering reflects the consumers' penchant.

I honestly don't think Walmart is at fault on this one. I think it it the manufacturers wanting to increase demand of their product and pushing us to buy before we need to. There is no way that Walmart pushed for the batteries in the Apple products to be impossible to remove while at the same time doomed to a relatively short life span. If that was the case it would be a feature of ALL mp3 players. And it's NOT a price point issue. The high quality goods are just as prone to this as the low price products; many of which Walmart does not carry and are status items when they are first released in many ways so low cost would be more of a detriment within the first year or two. And with low quality goods there isn't the care taken to ensure that these things have one part (our dvd players and the PS2s all met the exact same fate) that are doomed to die right out of warranty. It's not they are refusing to use quality goods to keep the cost down, they are timing the items death because they are reasonably confident that you could buy their product again due to brand loyalty. Low quality goods are a crap shoot, it could come out of the box broken or you might luck out and get one that lasts a few years. It's not nearly as predictable on when it will die.

Also when I bought most of that Sony stuff that broke Walmart did not even carry the equivelents other than the PS2s so you can't argue that their breaking within a month or two of the warranty was some how Walmarts doing. The photo printer was one of the first on the market and it was $850, at the time this just wasn't something you'd find there. It's just not where you go for cutting edge electronics beyond video games until they've gone totally mainstream.

Besides, planned obsolecence is a much older practice than Walmart.

 

[java]

I'm eh about Walmart. I don't love it, don't hate it. It's fine for certain things. And the prices are great on many items that we use regularly so I will shop for those there.

Ours is located right near my daughter's taekwondo place so I am in the area about 3-4 days a week. I do wander around a little. I like the craft stuff. And the $5 dvd bin.

I don't buy my clothes there but I did like the Norma Kamali stuff. I thought it was cute and my daughter likes the Taylor Swift stuff. My little guys like the "character" tees they sell (they wear them as pj's) and for $7 they are a deal.

So I guess I appreciate Walmart for what it is. And I love the employess at our local one. They are sweet and very helpful.