I don't care for Wal-Mart

[Dartnut]

Wow! what a debate! I thought Americans stood tall and mighty for FREE ENTERPRISE! seriously though, we have the same complaints about Wally World in Canada as you do in the U.S. I am neither pro or anti union even though I am a member of one, what gets me is that the government lets big business walk all over their employees and they get the shaft every time while still looking good doing charity work etc. Wal Mart is a good example of advanced marketing stategies, from making the aisles too narrow, not enough checkouts open, rearranging the store, is all designed to make you stay in the store longer and the longer that you are in the store, the more apt you are to buy more than you intended to. Also, the more controversy they have, and the more people talk about them, the more free advertising they get. A good example of this is celebrities, who get free publicity every time they do stupid **** and end up making a lot of money on it! Even talking about them in this forum is giving them free advertising! I shop there as well as other stores, their prices aren't that good for everything, I read fliers and plan my trips out when I shop, and if you hate them that bad, don't shop there. Remember, it's not their fault, it's ours! And I agree with most people, that their return policy is second to none.

 

[70coyoteduster]

My wife just got back from Sams' Club. She bought a dozen chocolate muffins for $5.86. Chocolate muffins at Cub Foods are .98 each. Now she can get another gallon and a half of gas. :scratch:

 

[mikedevore]

If you take back items to a store that wasn't bought there, isn't that fraud. I knew a guy that did that once, they put him in jail. I guess the wal-mart profit margin is so great, they don't care if you bought it there. I used to live about a 1/4 mile from a wal-mart, my wife would spend a min. of $100.00, 2-to 3 days a week. I now live 6 miles away from it, she only shops 2-to 3 times a month. The move has help pay for the new house.

 

[chrisII]

I have not seen walmart puting other stores in my area out of buisness. the "large" dept store we had before walmart is like a mile down the main drag, in town vs the edge of town. our local walmart opened in 92 and everybody said they would take over. they have not! they are now a mega store and have not taken over on tires and oil changes either. in fact a new chain store opened just down the road from them about the same time they opened the tire and lube.the chain store does quite well, I believe the local mom n pop shop does better than either! our downtown is better than it ever was. yes some of the downtown dept stores are now replaced with antique shops ect. but i think thats a trend everywhere. people dont want to go shoping and stop in 5 stores to buy what they nead. walmart covers this want better than anyone, and thats why they are bigger. I read people complaining about the profit margines it allows its supplyers, but i would rather make 1 cent on a million items than 10cents per item but only sell hundreds. walmart is in buisness to make a profit, and they do it well. our government is as much at fault for all the cheap import stuff as anyone, they could easly tax imports higher to keep the jobs in america but they dont.
as for the normal accusations of poor treatment of employees, there seem to be a few here who do or have worked for walmart. ask them , or walk up to anyone in your local store ask them how they are treated.. how many other companys even offer part time employees bennifits? A walmart distribution center just opened about 25 miles from me, they brought over 600 really good paying jobs to the area. I guess that would be considered "bullying" the local workforce, being they took so many employees from companys who were not treating them with the respect they now recieve. history says many of those new employees will stay with walmart for a long long time

 

[howco4]

We live in a world economy, and long as we have free trade, Walmarts will flourish, as with other large movers and shakers on the world stage . We are going through a leveling process, in which our economy is being brought down to equality with other economies of the world. I may take a while, but it is slowly happening. Eventually unions will be a relic of the past. Look at how much the average worker has already lost. So much for the bad: now the good: I'm almost done with the body work on my Swinger! Howard

 

[1975dartswinger]

I haul refrigerated freight, and Walmart is one of our big customers (Kraft is another one). That doesn't mean I like them, but when you drive across the country and you need something, chances are its at one of the many nationwide Walmarts. So I just have to bite the bullet and shop there (even though most of them dont like big trucks to park on their lot).