Do you shop at Walmart?

[depotoo]

We are losing the middle class because more and more of the middle class is being forced into government dependency. The government answer is to pay as much in dependency as the middle class used to make by working.

In reality, no one cares that someone in Bangladesh is making $43.00 a month because $43.00 a month is a substantial middle class lifestyle in Bangladesh. Having ten year olds working 14 hour days is an acceptable trade off to having ten year olds pedaling their ten year old asses on the street for 25 cents a roll. In Bangladesh there is no government provided welfare. It may feel noble to liberals to have these kids dying of starvation in back alleys, but it really is better for them to work 14 hour days. It's okay if you choose to die for the cause, it is not okay to demand that someone else die for YOUR cause.

very well said!

 

[Luissa]

Walmart is the downfall of the US. You wanna know what kills small business? Walmart.
You guys bitch about Obama, while shopping at Walmart.

we bitch about obama no matter where we are.

That's for sure.

 

[Synthaholic]

Just reading this at Huffpo and looking at the comments. Made me wonder if people who disapprove of Walmart still shop there.


Walmart's Internal Compensation Documents Reveal Systematic Limit On Advancement

I cannot vote, Amelia. The choices are too drastic. I do not shop at Wal*Mart, but I frequently pop in and out to pick up something that I cannot find at Costco. I do this with Publix, also.

So, technically, I do shop there, but I don't shop there.

 

[Luissa]

Walmart is the downfall of the US. You wanna know what kills small business? Walmart.
You guys bitch about Obama, while shopping at Walmart.

Nonsense. Wal Mart doesn't kill small business, it increases small business. There isn't a Wal mart store that's not surrounded by independent stores like a hen sitting on a clutch. The businesses that Wal Mart kills are the ones selling shoddy overpriced merchandise. And, those businesses should die. The corner grocery selling molded produce and green meat with shelf goods long LONG past their expiration date should absolutely be put out of business. If you really want to buy shoddy goods and pay more for them, by all means support your local small business. No one is stopping you.

It really is quite easy for a savvy small business to remain healthy and solvent right next to a Wal Mart, plenty do. They just can't offer the same things as Wal Mart, charge more for them and expect customers to flock to the door. With a knowledgeable manager a nearby anchor like Wal Mart can only increase business. Saying that Wal Mart kills small business is like saying Macy's will kill a mall.

You are an idiot if you think Walmart helps small businesses. My aunt who lost her job in a small town because the small business she worked for went out of business when Walmart came to town would laugh her ass off at you.
What a stupid statement.
Plus there is the fact they make 90% of their shitty products in China. If you support Walmart you are a moron.

 

[Katzndogz]

As soon as I saw that this article was the Huffington Post, I knew it was all hogwash.

Wal Mart not only encourages advancement, but will pay for its employees to go to college to advance up the ranks.

Wal-Mart launches employee college plan - Business - Retail | NBC News

The company also said it will commit $50 million over three years to help workers pay for books and tuition above the reduced tuition rate at American Public University, an online school. After the reduction, tuition will cost $212.50 per undergraduate credit hour and $255 for graduate credits.
Wal-Mart Chief Administrative Officer Tom Mars said the program grew out of a larger commitment to cultivate talent within the company. The plan is open to domestic workers at Walmart and Sam's Club stores.

 

[Luissa]

Just reading this at Huffpo and looking at the comments. Made me wonder if people who disapprove of Walmart still shop there.


Walmart's Internal Compensation Documents Reveal Systematic Limit On Advancement

I cannot vote, Amelia. The choices are too drastic. I do not shop at Wal*Mart, but I frequently pop in and out to pick up something that I cannot find at Costco. I do this with Publix, also.

So, technically, I do shop there, but I don't shop there.

I bought my son's Halloween costume there, only place that had a Ninja costume. First time I had been in Walmart in about six months.
I don't like to support them, plus anytime I go in there the place pisses me off.

 

[Katzndogz]

Walmart is the downfall of the US. You wanna know what kills small business? Walmart.
You guys bitch about Obama, while shopping at Walmart.

Nonsense. Wal Mart doesn't kill small business, it increases small business. There isn't a Wal mart store that's not surrounded by independent stores like a hen sitting on a clutch. The businesses that Wal Mart kills are the ones selling shoddy overpriced merchandise. And, those businesses should die. The corner grocery selling molded produce and green meat with shelf goods long LONG past their expiration date should absolutely be put out of business. If you really want to buy shoddy goods and pay more for them, by all means support your local small business. No one is stopping you.

It really is quite easy for a savvy small business to remain healthy and solvent right next to a Wal Mart, plenty do. They just can't offer the same things as Wal Mart, charge more for them and expect customers to flock to the door. With a knowledgeable manager a nearby anchor like Wal Mart can only increase business. Saying that Wal Mart kills small business is like saying Macy's will kill a mall.

You are an idiot if you think Walmart helps small businesses. My aunt who lost her job in a small town because the small business she worked for went out of business when Walmart came to town would laugh her ass off at you.
What a stupid statement.
Plus there is the fact they make 90% of their shitty products in China. If you support Walmart you are a moron.

Then the small business your Aunt worked for didn't know how to run a business. Small business thrives in the shadow of Wal Mart, Costco, Sam's Club and every other major retailer. When Wal Mart moves into an area they sponsor programs to show existing small businesses how to compete and what they must do. The owner of the small business your Aunt worked for may not have wanted to take advantage of such an opportunity.

Every Wal Mart around here is surrounded by a dozen or more small retail businesses. Wal Marts are anchors in shopping centers. A small business that's put under by a major retailer probably deserved to go out of business anyway. They were kept afloat by a lack of competition. People shopped there because they didn't have a choice, not because they wanted to. Once they had a choice, they blew the little guy off.

 

[Luissa]

So tell me, what stores are paying alot more? What county in the US? Let me have some names and I can compare them for you. And you did not answer my question as to what you think someone should make for those positions and what their skill sets are.

Albertson's, Safeway, Rosaurs, Yokes. Etc.
first off most are unions, which Walmarts prevents their employees from doing in the US. You make a decent income as a checker at all of those places. Checkers at Yokes make more than what my dad does, and have awesome benefits. I have friend who have college degrees but stayed at both Yokes and Albertson's because they could make more as a checker.
And I think people should make a decent living wage. They have to deal with the asshole public all day.
I was a checker at Kmart where I made crap when I was younger. The public are jackasses, especially ones who shop at Walmart or Kmart. Worst job I have ever had.

what county? I can't compare unless I have that info. So far as the unions, seems maybe that is really your gripe, are you union per chance?
Upon my research, I can't find anything on Yoke's other than they are located in Washington and in Idaho.
Now so far as Albertsons, starting wages are the same as Walmart in almost every cateogry. There is about a $2 difference per hour from Walmart on the high side. But, if you will note, many stores are having to be closed by Albertsons.
albertsons to close stores - Bing
Seems Albertsons keeps missing revenue estimates. We no longer have any Albertson's in our area as they have all been closed.

So I did find this about Yoke's in Idaho -

Yoke’s Fresh Market, a grocery store that anchors
the Bonner Mall in Ponderay, soon will complete a
$3.5 million renovation that includes a new façade,
signs and fresh paint. The renovation began
last fall with new paint and signs on the outside of
the store. In January, the store began interior work,
renovating a department at a time so the store
could remain open. Preparing for the grand reopening
on May 23, Yoke’s has added 15 to 20
employees to its current work force of 100. It is
also raising wages to the levels paid at the 11
Yoke’s stores in Washington state. For many
Yoke’s employees, that means an increase of a
dollar or more an hour. New employees now start
at $8.05 an hour, up from $7.75.

Now according to this that means they would start on average around 25 cents more per hour than the average for Walmart, Target, Publix, Safeway, etc.
Yokes also only has 11 locations of which they have shut down a couple of their other stores already.

Now, once again, it seems to me your grip eis that Walmart is not unionized and nothing more.


Safeway pays pretty much identical to Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Kroger & Publix.

No I am not a union worker.
Albertson's when I worked there five years ago when it wasn't union bumped you up to journeyman wages after two years. At the time it was $12 an hour.
I live in Washington, and my friend who is just a checker at Yokes makes About 40k a year.
Yokes isn't union here because they don't have to be. Their starting pay may be a certain amount but they get very good raises. My friends who have worked at Yokes still work there having started in high school, while everyone I know who works at Walmart hates it.
When I worked at Kmart we had a manager come back after going to be a manager at Walmart because she hated it so much. I think one of the words she used was brainwashing.

Compare the employee turn over rate at Walmart to the turn over rate at Yokes.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Wal Mart is the obvious target of the left. Their prosperous free market ways are everything they detest.

 

[Synthaholic]

its non union.... first great reason to shop there.


Yeah, when one comes along where i am going ill stop. The closest one is a good 40 miles away. National food brands are national food brands.... and you cant beat their prices.

A few points:

They are carrying less and less national brands, if you've noticed. Try finding Meuller's noodles/pasta. They've been dumped. There are a whole lot of brands that have quietly disappeared, replaced by Wal*Mart's Great Value brand.

Keep an eye on expiration dates. Wal*Mart's expire quicker than anyone else, except for the low income/food stamp places in the low income side of town.

You CAN beat their prices, and by a huge margin: Costco.

A 3 lbs. (48oz.) canister of Folgers Coffee at Costco is $9.99-$10.99 (fluctuates).

A 33.9 oz. canister at Wal*Mart is $8.98

When you can buy 68oz. of Carbonell Extra Virgin Olive Oil at Costco for $9.98 and Wal*Mart sells 17oz. for $4.98, it's really a no-brainer.

I could go on and on.

Of course, if you're 30 miles from a Wal*Mart, you're probably no closer to a Costco. I give you the same advice that Harvey Keitel gave Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta at the end of 'Pulp Fiction': "Move out of the sticks".

 

[Synthaholic]

Wal Mart is the obvious target of the left. Their prosperous free market ways are everything they detest.

You remain a fucking moron.

 

[Katzndogz]

There was a small neighborhood grocery that I knew that was one block from a Ralphs superstore. One block. The small mom and pop was sinking fast when it was bought by new owners who had a son recently graduated from business school. It took him six months to turn that failing grocery into a bustling success.

There is no way a major store can compete with a well run small business. No way. Wal Mart lacks the flexibility to compete with a small business that intends to be successful.

 

[Luissa]

Nonsense. Wal Mart doesn't kill small business, it increases small business. There isn't a Wal mart store that's not surrounded by independent stores like a hen sitting on a clutch. The businesses that Wal Mart kills are the ones selling shoddy overpriced merchandise. And, those businesses should die. The corner grocery selling molded produce and green meat with shelf goods long LONG past their expiration date should absolutely be put out of business. If you really want to buy shoddy goods and pay more for them, by all means support your local small business. No one is stopping you.

It really is quite easy for a savvy small business to remain healthy and solvent right next to a Wal Mart, plenty do. They just can't offer the same things as Wal Mart, charge more for them and expect customers to flock to the door. With a knowledgeable manager a nearby anchor like Wal Mart can only increase business. Saying that Wal Mart kills small business is like saying Macy's will kill a mall.

You are an idiot if you think Walmart helps small businesses. My aunt who lost her job in a small town because the small business she worked for went out of business when Walmart came to town would laugh her ass off at you.
What a stupid statement.
Plus there is the fact they make 90% of their shitty products in China. If you support Walmart you are a moron.

Then the small business your Aunt worked for didn't know how to run a business. Small business thrives in the shadow of Wal Mart, Costco, Sam's Club and every other major retailer. When Wal Mart moves into an area they sponsor programs to show existing small businesses how to compete and what they must do. The owner of the small business your Aunt worked for may not have wanted to take advantage of such an opportunity.

Every Wal Mart around here is surrounded by a dozen or more small retail businesses. Wal Marts are anchors in shopping centers. A small business that's put under by a major retailer probably deserved to go out of business anyway. They were kept afloat by a lack of competition. People shopped there because they didn't have a choice, not because they wanted to. Once they had a choice, they blew the little guy off.

The company had been there 60 years, it took a year of Walmart being there And they went out of business.

"In 2006, the big-box retailer promised to bring jobs to the cash-strapped community. But according to a landmark study by Loyola University, the company's rhetoric didn't match reality: Within two years of Walmart's opening its doors, 82 local stores went out of business."
"According to a provisional study by David Neumark, Junfu Zhang and Stephen Ciccarella called "The Effects of Walmart on Local Labor Markets," for every two jobs Walmart "creates," three local jobs are destroyed."

http://articles.nydailynews.com/201..._1_small-businesses-david-neumark-city-stores


"Assuming Walmart opened the 159 stores needed to reach 21 percent grocery market share in New York City (the same proportion the company enjoys nationally), the impact would be a net loss of almost 4,000 jobs, and a loss of more than $453 million in wages per year for all remaining workers.

What about the new Walmart jobs? According to the report, 4,279 new low-wage Walmart workers would have to “rely on social services to make ends meet, costing New York taxpayers over $4 million per year” in health care benefits alone. This, in a city where the mayor has asked for $2 billion in budget cuts."
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/...ood-access-while-killing-jobs-open-a-walmart/

"There is strong evidence that rural communities in the United States have been more adversely impacted by the discount mass merchandisers (sometimes referred to as the Wal-Mart phenomenon) than by any other factors in recent times. Studies in Iowa have shown that some small towns lose up to 47 percent of their retail trade after 10 years of Wal-Mart stores nearby (Stone 1997)."
http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/faculty/stone/10yrstudy.pdf



Plus now that everyone shops at Walmart and they make most if their products in China. I wonder how that effects our factory workers?

My biggest concern isn't even with small businesses, it is with the fact they make most of their stuff in China. And it's crap!

 

[Luissa]

Wal Mart is the obvious target of the left. Their prosperous free market ways are everything they detest.

It should be the obvious target for everyone.
Just think about how many jobs you are killing when you buy your cheaply made product that was made in China, next time you are at Walmart.
Prime example... My parents bought a small portable heater from Walmart that was made in China.. It crapped out in two years. They still have another one that they bought when I was a baby.
You wanna know the difference between the two? The one bought in the 1980 was made in a mid west factory, by decent materials.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

We are losing the middle class because more and more of the middle class is being forced into government dependency. The government answer is to pay as much in dependency as the middle class used to make by working.

In reality, no one cares that someone in Bangladesh is making $43.00 a month because $43.00 a month is a substantial middle class lifestyle in Bangladesh. Having ten year olds working 14 hour days is an acceptable trade off to having ten year olds pedaling their ten year old asses on the street for 25 cents a roll. In Bangladesh there is no government provided welfare. It may feel noble to liberals to have these kids dying of starvation in back alleys, but it really is better for them to work 14 hour days. It's okay if you choose to die for the cause, it is not okay to demand that someone else die for YOUR cause.

Sorry. I guess if it makes you feel better by believing this then so be it.
No one should have to work 14 hours per day for $.12 an hour.
The reason they do is because we choose the lowest price on the shelves...again and again.
If tomorrow Americans everywhere started choosing fair trade products and stopped buying products that use slave labor - then it would stop.
You could say the same thing about black slavery in the south in early America. They lived better as slaves here than in the jungles of Africa - but that doesn't make it any less wrong.

Please address Katz' point that if the $.12 an hour job were unavailable, the children might then have no means of support and would be more vulnerable to starvation or the sex trade.

That is a strawman argument that is a ludicrous and weak excuse to make you feel better. You support slave labor...you simply lack the character to admit it.

 

[Amelia]

Sorry. I guess if it makes you feel better by believing this then so be it.
No one should have to work 14 hours per day for $.12 an hour.
The reason they do is because we choose the lowest price on the shelves...again and again.
If tomorrow Americans everywhere started choosing fair trade products and stopped buying products that use slave labor - then it would stop.
You could say the same thing about black slavery in the south in early America. They lived better as slaves here than in the jungles of Africa - but that doesn't make it any less wrong.

Please address Katz' point that if the $.12 an hour job were unavailable, the children might then have no means of support and would be more vulnerable to starvation or the sex trade.

That is a strawman argument that is a ludicrous and weak excuse to make you feel better. You support slave labor...you simply lack the character to admit it.

Liberals are famously glib about the unforeseen consequences of their crusades.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I will let my signature do the talking...

You could save a lot of space if you just changed your sig to "I'm a fucking moron". It conveys the same message, but more efficiently.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Walmart pays the same as Target, yet Walmart is always the big bad wolf. Why is that? And since Target's prices are almost always higher, why aren't they paying better wages overall?

I agree. Walmart is a smart option when the household budget requires watching every penny. Costco may pay their employees more but their service is just as bad as other big box retailers (worse in fact because you have to pay for membership).

Not to mention that there's only so much shit you can buy in bulk from Costco. Where do you go to get the OTHER things you need, or the things Costco doesn't carry?

 

[Cecilie1200]

If the store had the lowest price on something that I wanted yes I would. For those who feel victimized by Walmart's practices I suggest they make themselves better equipped for the job market. Opportunities are plentiful for those who possess the best qualifications, market themselves well and have the wherewithal to commit to what the job market demands.

What dream world do you live in? I'm 51 and have tried to get a job since the economy tanked in '08. Well educated, experienced, but yet never even get in for an interview after submitting enough resumes to wall paper a house.

Have you considered that people just don't like you?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Walmart pays the same as Target, yet Walmart is always the big bad wolf. Why is that? And since Target's prices are almost always higher, why aren't they paying better wages overall?

I shop Target. Their store is bigger, brighter, more organized and I like the merchandise..I shop Sam's club too for certain items such as K cups, toilet paper and paper towels. books. groceries I buy at Publix. I also do a lot of online shopping.

I shop WalMart and Target both, as well as KMart. Can't see any reason I have to choose either/or. Any experienced shopper knows which store is the best place to get which item. I even make regular trips to the Food City on the Mexican side of town for items that the regular supermarkets don't carry.