Walmart

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

ICK! I hate Wal-Mart!

DH was in the grocery business for 17 years with a locally owned company. Super WalMart basically stomped them out of business. Out of an 80-some-odd store chain there are maybe 20 left, and they are the prong of stores branded specifically to target the Hispanic community. Luckily DH got out and now he works for a supplier instead of a retailer. A supplier with a 100% rating from HRC, thank you very much.

DH interviewed with WalMart about 6 years ago. Their health insurance is so bad we would have had to get private insurance on the side. He found that out because his friend's DW was a store manager and showed him the new hire packet before he accepted a job - otherwise he wouldn't have known until it was too late.

Our local stores are gross. Dirty, sloppy, gross. I did go there to look for some of DS's hard to find school supplies, but it was scary and I got out as fast as I could.

 

[minicoopercraig]

Our local stores are gross. Dirty, sloppy, gross. I did go there to look for some of DS's hard to find school supplies, but it was scary and I got out as fast as I could.

Yes, but they do sell cereal there, even though I'm scared as H*$L to buy it, that was the first place I saw the new round Trix one night. I ran out of there and over to my local grocery store and bought the biggest box I could and ate them all in like 3 hours. I LOVE ROUND TRIX!! (Even if they don't taste the same as the old ones.)

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

it was horrible...I truly felt as if I had taken acid and was having a bad trip.

OMG, you're right.

 

[merryweather20]

I love Wal-Mart in all its Grey and Blue splendour! The ones near me are always reasonably clean, and I honestly can't think of any stores that closed because of the Wal-Mart, although I'm sure there are plenty that must be suffering on the bottom line.

Now that I use a wheel-chair Wal-Mart is one of the few places i can roll in without feeling inconvenient. I love going in and knowing there are TWO accessible washrooms at hand (with the doors facing the correct way too ). There are only two privately owned stores I shop in, one keeps there aisles so clutter free I can get to 90% of the store, and for the other the store owner is such a sweety and so uber helpful I really feel like I'm not bothering her.

Long live Wal-Mart!

 

[donald...really]

Walmart is the devil. Check this out:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/

 

[fairycat]

Walmart is the devil!!!!!!!!!!

I have one within 5 minutes of my house but instead I save up my errands and drive across town 15mins to Trader Joe's.

I love that so many people still think that Walmart has the best prices. Studies have shown that Walmart came in with the cheapest prices and as people started to assume that they had the best prices they started to raise them in fact on many items they are more expensive then other stores (but still to cheap for many small stores to keep up but not always). I have seen it with my own eyes when I still shopped there. Others have told me they noticed it too.

I also can not deal with them after learning if they raised prices on some of their items as little as .05 and paid it to the workers who make much of their merchandise many workers could actually make a liveable wage. But instead they work to undercut workers and laws and lead people to work in sweat shops and make below substandard wages (we aren't talking no playstations here we are talking, fourteen hour days, eating only rice with no protein, fruits or vegetables and living in tiny shacks and happy to have that poor wages). Worse they have taught us Americans (and other westerners) that we can't possibly spend any more money or our families will suffer (most of the time it would work out to less then $10-$20 a year), instead of us thinking about helping others instead of living of their backs for a deal.

I am sorry for ranting but this so gets under my skin, I know other companies aren't much better but I try to spend my dollars with companies who have better principles. Its my choice.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

I love Wal-Mart in all its Grey and Blue splendour! The ones near me are always reasonably clean, and I honestly can't think of any stores that closed because of the Wal-Mart, although I'm sure there are plenty that must be suffering on the bottom line.

Now that I use a wheel-chair Wal-Mart is one of the few places i can roll in without feeling inconvenient. I love going in and knowing there are TWO accessible washrooms at hand (with the doors facing the correct way too ). There are only two privately owned stores I shop in, one keeps there aisles so clutter free I can get to 90% of the store, and for the other the store owner is such a sweety and so uber helpful I really feel like I'm not bothering her.

Long live Wal-Mart!

They do have nice wide aisles. I noticed when our Safeway was remodeled last year, that it was opened up a lot too. I sorta suspect that move might be more to enable pallet jack traffic than anything else but hey, if it makes somebody's life better, thats great too.

 

[talulabelle]

It takes a thread on Walmart to lure me over to the Gay board.......

We had a regular Walmart, and it quickly started looking congested, messy, Not really dirty, just messy racks and overwhelming to shop there. It also drew a not-so desirable looking crowd. I never really liked their products and only went there for a few products that their prices just couldn't be beat on, ( They also sold cheap dance shoes for my little girl, and she grows out of them so fast, it didn't make sense to buy them at the dance shop for 3 times as much.) However, I still avoided it for the most part and went to Target (which is always neat and clean).

BUUUTTTTT.... a few days ago the SUPERWALMART opened in my town. I went to just see what this place was about and OMG....my life has changed. I know that this place has sucked the life out of small shops and towns. I feel terrible about it, I know they don't have the best business practices...it truly is a shame. But the quality in the higher end stores like Macy's has gone down, while the quality in places like Target and Walmart has gone up (I know- thanks to slave like labor in foreign countries) but I can buy all 4 of my kids NICE jeans for the same price as one pair in Macy's. 2 pairs in Target. And the stock at Target is always picked over. They always only have the smallest and the largest sizes left and nothing inbetween. Walmart was totally stocked (hopefully this won't change as they age in the location) Basic things like sweatshirts and pants $2, jeans $7, turtlenecks @2.99, t-shirts $2.99. Shoes (which, I gotta say are just as nice as Striderite that you can't find for under $45,) $7.00 at walmart. I will still buy the occasional more fasionable pieces elsewhere, but for the basics...this place is awesome. The food....so cheap. The cereal my DH loves is $5.50 ish in our supermarket, it was $3.00 not on sale.
I fully stocked my kids fall wardrobes for $45. I am not a rich woman. I'm sorry, but I have to go there , I don't have a choice. I can do so much more for my kids there. And my kids come before being politically correct.

When I was a kid, my mom took us to the local ma and pa shop and put down several months of paychecks to get us our school clothes (6 kids). We were less than middle class (upper-lower class?) and it financially devasted her to do it. But back then the gap in quality between the k-marts etc and the regular clothing stores was so huge, that we would have been teased for shopping in a thrift store. Ugly cheap clothes. My mother wanted us to have nice quality. The local ma-and pa shop was absolutely price gauging by the way and there was no other place to go. If my mother had this as an option, well , her life would have been so much easier. Really as a PP said , it's hard to see how families can afford NOT to shop there.

Walmart is seen as the poster-boy of "Huge store puts all other out of business", but it has been happening in our town WAY before Walmart ever hit town. The big fancy grocery stores put the little family owned ones out of business. The new malls shut down the places like the ma and pop clothing store my mom used to take us to. Change happens. I really don't see this new Walmart having a huge effect on the surrounding stores. It is an upscale, higher income area, and the people around here will still shop other places too. I think this store will be more of a destination shopping trip for people on the outskirts of the wealthier neighborhoods. I would never desert my Target entirely for ANY store. I will still probably do a huge amount of my grocery shopping at my local market, just because the parking is easy and I can run in for a quick jug of milk or a few items fast. But once in a while , for a big shopping trip, I'll brave the parking at Walmart to save some $$$. Oh, and the HUGE wide aisles are so nice when you have 4 monkeys playing tag around the cart and Mom is base.