Do you shop at Walmart?

[Nosmo King]

I have never NEVER cast a shadow on any Wal Mart floor. I prefer to buy from local merchants offering American made items. I love this country too much to sell out to a purveyor of cheap Chinese made junk who treats their employees like crap.

I wonder how many Americans claim a love of country, but defend the policies and practices of Wal Mart?

 

[Foxfyre]

I have never NEVER cast a shadow on any Wal Mart floor. I prefer to buy from local merchants offering American made items. I love this country too much to sell out to a purveyor of cheap Chinese made junk who treats their employees like crap.

I wonder how many Americans claim a love of country, but defend the policies and practices of Wal Mart?

My sister and brother-in-law had absolutely no problem with how they were treated as employees of Wal-mart and they are/were (my BIL has since passed on) dyed-in-the-wool leftwingers who voted consistently Democratic or Green--I don't believe either ever voted for a single Republican in their lives. But they both praised Wal-mart as an employer and for their compassion, public service, and opportunities provided the employees. I'm sure there is much to condemn Wal-mart for as there is in any large corporation, but there is also much to commend it.

And other anecdotal testimony has been provided by a couple of folks I know well who currently work at Wal-mart and they love their jobs.

I think Wal-mart sometimes gets a really undeserved bad rap.

 

[Nosmo King]

I have never NEVER cast a shadow on any Wal Mart floor. I prefer to buy from local merchants offering American made items. I love this country too much to sell out to a purveyor of cheap Chinese made junk who treats their employees like crap.

I wonder how many Americans claim a love of country, but defend the policies and practices of Wal Mart?

My sister and brother-in-law had absolutely no problem with how they were treated as employees of Wal-mart and they are/were (my BIL has since passed on) dyed-in-the-wool leftwingers who voted consistently Democratic or Green--I don't believe either ever voted for a single Republican in their lives. But they both praised Wal-mart as an employer and for their compassion, public service, and opportunities provided the employees. I'm sure there is much to condemn Wal-mart for as there is in any large corporation, but there is also much to commend it.

And other anecdotal testimony has been provided by a couple of folks I know well who currently work at Wal-mart and they love their jobs.

I think Wal-mart sometimes gets a really undeserved bad rap.

Before Wal Mart came to town, there were four places a knitter to buy yarn. There were three bicycle shops owned locally. Four different jewlers, I can't count the number of locally owned pharmacies. Today, there are three locally owned pharmacies, but just one place to buy a bicycle and one place to buy yarn.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I have never NEVER cast a shadow on any Wal Mart floor. I prefer to buy from local merchants offering American made items. I love this country too much to sell out to a purveyor of cheap Chinese made junk who treats their employees like crap.

I wonder how many Americans claim a love of country, but defend the policies and practices of Wal Mart?

My sister and brother-in-law had absolutely no problem with how they were treated as employees of Wal-mart and they are/were (my BIL has since passed on) dyed-in-the-wool leftwingers who voted consistently Democratic or Green--I don't believe either ever voted for a single Republican in their lives. But they both praised Wal-mart as an employer and for their compassion, public service, and opportunities provided the employees. I'm sure there is much to condemn Wal-mart for as there is in any large corporation, but there is also much to commend it.

And other anecdotal testimony has been provided by a couple of folks I know well who currently work at Wal-mart and they love their jobs.

I think Wal-mart sometimes gets a really undeserved bad rap.

Before Wal Mart came to town, there were four places a knitter to buy yarn. There were three bicycle shops owned locally. Four different jewlers, I can't count the number of locally owned pharmacies. Today, there are three locally owned pharmacies, but just one place to buy a bicycle and one place to buy yarn.

We can't pretend there aren't trade-offs. Are we better off due to Wal Mart? I vote yes.

 

[Nosmo King]

My sister and brother-in-law had absolutely no problem with how they were treated as employees of Wal-mart and they are/were (my BIL has since passed on) dyed-in-the-wool leftwingers who voted consistently Democratic or Green--I don't believe either ever voted for a single Republican in their lives. But they both praised Wal-mart as an employer and for their compassion, public service, and opportunities provided the employees. I'm sure there is much to condemn Wal-mart for as there is in any large corporation, but there is also much to commend it.

And other anecdotal testimony has been provided by a couple of folks I know well who currently work at Wal-mart and they love their jobs.

I think Wal-mart sometimes gets a really undeserved bad rap.

Before Wal Mart came to town, there were four places a knitter to buy yarn. There were three bicycle shops owned locally. Four different jewlers, I can't count the number of locally owned pharmacies. Today, there are three locally owned pharmacies, but just one place to buy a bicycle and one place to buy yarn.

We can't pretend there aren't trade-offs. Are we better off due to Wal Mart? I vote yes.

So much for the entrepreneurial spirit. And ask the former employees of Rubber Maid in Wooster, Ohio if "we're better off due to Wal Mart"! They'll tell you of a 'trade off' that sent their jobs to Asia so Rubber Maid could meet the pricing point Wal Mart demanded. That's right. The retailer demanded a cheaper product and told Rubber Maid if they wanted their dish strainers and laundry baskets sold in Wal Mart stores, they would have to make them cheaper, like in China! Better off? Only if your name is Chin.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Didn't Wal Mart experiment with permissible stealing?

I've not heard of this, but is sounds intriguing?

 

[Uncensored2008]

So much for the entrepreneurial spirit. And ask the former employees of Rubber Maid in Wooster, Ohio if "we're better off due to Wal Mart"! They'll tell you of a 'trade off' that sent their jobs to Asia so Rubber Maid could meet the pricing point Wal Mart demanded. That's right. The retailer demanded a cheaper product and told Rubber Maid if they wanted their dish strainers and laundry baskets sold in Wal Mart stores, they would have to make them cheaper, like in China! Better off? Only if your name is Chin.

Utter bullshit.

The lies leftists tell. Rubbermaid went BANKRUPT in 1999, they did NOT move their manufacturing, which was mostly in the UK at the time. They were bought out by Newell corporation.

You shit fer brain fools can't even keep your demagoguery straight. Rubbermaid wanted to increase prices to Walmart, who "pulled the line." Yeah, that happens, prices go up and some people decide not to buy.

Newell subsequently lost their shirt on Rubbermaid - because the company is not competitive.

 

[Foxfyre]

I have never NEVER cast a shadow on any Wal Mart floor. I prefer to buy from local merchants offering American made items. I love this country too much to sell out to a purveyor of cheap Chinese made junk who treats their employees like crap.

I wonder how many Americans claim a love of country, but defend the policies and practices of Wal Mart?

My sister and brother-in-law had absolutely no problem with how they were treated as employees of Wal-mart and they are/were (my BIL has since passed on) dyed-in-the-wool leftwingers who voted consistently Democratic or Green--I don't believe either ever voted for a single Republican in their lives. But they both praised Wal-mart as an employer and for their compassion, public service, and opportunities provided the employees. I'm sure there is much to condemn Wal-mart for as there is in any large corporation, but there is also much to commend it.

And other anecdotal testimony has been provided by a couple of folks I know well who currently work at Wal-mart and they love their jobs.

I think Wal-mart sometimes gets a really undeserved bad rap.

Before Wal Mart came to town, there were four places a knitter to buy yarn. There were three bicycle shops owned locally. Four different jewlers, I can't count the number of locally owned pharmacies. Today, there are three locally owned pharmacies, but just one place to buy a bicycle and one place to buy yarn.

Okay, that's the flip side. The big box stores are crowding out some or most or all of the mom & pop stores wherever they go in. That is the fact of the way the world is, and Wal-mart is by no means the only factor in that trend. If it wasn't Wal-mart that you resented, it would have been K-mart or Target or one of the less successful chains that would dearly love for Wal-mart to go out of business so they could have it all.

I hate that our local office supply store closed up too because they gave us personal attention and provided special service we don't get from Staples and Office Max that drove them out of business. I loved our local hardware store for the same reason before it succumbed to Lowe's and Samson's and Home Depot. Our locally owned pharmacies went out of business when Walgreens came in and all the grocery store chains opened up pharmacies. All the quaint special little bookstores that used to dot the city have given away to Borders and Barnes & Noble. The local music stores couldn't compete with Best Buy and other big box electronic stores. It is the rare local clothing store that can compete with Sears, Penneys, and Kohls. All but the largest Christian supply stores have closed up shop because they couldn't compete with their stuff being convenient and cheap on the internet. The small grocers and most farmers' markets could not compete with Albertsons, Smith, Krogers, and other huge grocery store chains that, by the way, thrive in spite of Wal-mart.

The American public has become accustomed to wide selections, volumn discounts, and the convenience of being able to take care of numerous tasks in one location. The big box stores, because of much larger volume, can operate on a much lower profit margins than the Mom & Pop stores can do. So, even though the shoppers have to be price smart and quality consicous because even the big box stores don't always offer the best buy, it is the shoppers who have made Wal-mart and all the other big chains the successes that they are.

It isn't Wal-marts fault.

 

[Koios]

Didn't Wal Mart experiment with permissible stealing?

I've not heard of this, but is sounds intriguing?

It is intriguing. It's possible that in some cases, loss due to shoplifting might have cost them less in shrinkage than the cost to mitigate some but not all of the losses. A company as in-tune with cost reduction as Walmart might well have considered the postlate, and tested it in one or more stores.

But I merely speculate, since I'm unaware of any such policy or test.

 

[emilynghiem]

I'm not an elitist. You're just so hyper-sensitive to elitism that you see it where it doesn't exist. I'm actually not arguing with the Wal Mart model. There is a opportunity cost in its model. To offer cheaper products, they have to pay their workers less. If they pay their workers less, the workers are not going to be as good. It's basic economics, basic reality dude.

I understand WM is protested for unfair competition in its business practices, such as:
* forcing supplier to cut their prices where they lose money on the sale to WM, but otherwise WM won't contract with them at all, in other words bullying the manufacturers so they have to eat the losses either way, by cutting their profits or not getting any sales at all, so they risk going out of business either way; then WM can buy them out and take over production or go with someone cheaper
* buying out spaces and killing off small towns by driving out all the small businesses
* offering prices below market, pushing competition out of business, then raising the prices afterward, so they are using their size to manipulate the market forces and take advantage

Does Target do the same thing?

My impression is Target has been competing with WalMart by marketing a better image first, and then prices being comparable or lower. But I have not heard complaints about Target abusing unfair competition to drive other businesses or suppliers out of business.
Am I wrong?

 

[emilynghiem]

My sister and brother-in-law had absolutely no problem with how they were treated as employees of Wal-mart and they are/were (my BIL has since passed on) dyed-in-the-wool leftwingers who voted consistently Democratic or Green--I don't believe either ever voted for a single Republican in their lives. But they both praised Wal-mart as an employer and for their compassion, public service, and opportunities provided the employees. I'm sure there is much to condemn Wal-mart for as there is in any large corporation, but there is also much to commend it.

And other anecdotal testimony has been provided by a couple of folks I know well who currently work at Wal-mart and they love their jobs.

I think Wal-mart sometimes gets a really undeserved bad rap.

Before Wal Mart came to town, there were four places a knitter to buy yarn. There were three bicycle shops owned locally. Four different jewlers, I can't count the number of locally owned pharmacies. Today, there are three locally owned pharmacies, but just one place to buy a bicycle and one place to buy yarn.

Okay, that's the flip side. The big box stores are crowding out some or most or all of the mom & pop stores wherever they go in. That is the fact of the way the world is, and Wal-mart is by no means the only factor in that trend. If it wasn't Wal-mart that you resented, it would have been K-mart or Target or one of the less successful chains that would dearly love for Wal-mart to go out of business so they could have it all.

I hate that our local office supply store closed up too because they gave us personal attention and provided special service we don't get from Staples and Office Max that drove them out of business. I loved our local hardware store for the same reason before it succumbed to Lowe's and Samson's and Home Depot. Our locally owned pharmacies went out of business when Walgreens came in and all the grocery store chains opened up pharmacies. All the quaint special little bookstores that used to dot the city have given away to Borders and Barnes & Noble. The local music stores couldn't compete with Best Buy and other big box electronic stores. It is the rare local clothing store that can compete with Sears, Penneys, and Kohls. All but the largest Christian supply stores have closed up shop because they couldn't compete with their stuff being convenient and cheap on the internet. The small grocers and most farmers' markets could not compete with Albertsons, Smith, Krogers, and other huge grocery store chains that, by the way, thrive in spite of Wal-mart.

The American public has become accustomed to wide selections, volumn discounts, and the convenience of being able to take care of numerous tasks in one location. The big box stores, because of much larger volume, can operate on a much lower profit margins than the Mom & Pop stores can do. So, even though the shoppers have to be price smart and quality consicous because even the big box stores don't always offer the best buy, it is the shoppers who have made Wal-mart and all the other big chains the successes that they are.

It isn't Wal-marts fault.

Who do you blame for prostitution, the prostitutes, the customers, the pimps, or all three?

 

[Koios]

I'm not an elitist. You're just so hyper-sensitive to elitism that you see it where it doesn't exist. I'm actually not arguing with the Wal Mart model. There is a opportunity cost in its model. To offer cheaper products, they have to pay their workers less. If they pay their workers less, the workers are not going to be as good. It's basic economics, basic reality dude.

I understand WM is protested for unfair competition in its business practices, such as:
* forcing supplier to cut their prices where they lose money on the sale to WM, but otherwise WM won't contract with them at all, in other words bullying the manufacturers so they have to eat the losses either way, by cutting their profits or not getting any sales at all, so they risk going out of business either way; then WM can buy them out and take over production or go with someone cheaper
* buying out spaces and killing off small towns by driving out all the small businesses
* offering prices below market, pushing competition out of business, then raising the prices afterward, so they are using their size to manipulate the market forces and take advantage

Does Target do the same thing?

My impression is Target has been competing with WalMart by marketing a better image first, and then prices being comparable or lower. But I have not heard complaints about Target abusing unfair competition to drive other businesses or suppliers out of business.
Am I wrong?

Not as effectively, obviously. Walmart is the very best at what it does, and Sam Walton hit on a gold-mine idea when he figured out that he could drive at night to pick up his own inventory and offer it the next day at a cost his competitors could not match. Since then, better sourcing of goods has been a driving force in the company he left behind to his family, whom if they pooled their wealth, would easily surpass Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Not too shabby for a dumb southerner that K Mart and other thought not worthy of worry.

And nothing in your "unfairness" is in fact illegal. They have a right to tell suppliers "here's what we have to buy it at to sell it in our stores." And they offer liaison services to potential suppliers to help them get their product cost down, either with off-shore manufacture or other packaging techniques. It's quite brilliant.

Also, there's nothing illegal about pricing that steals marketshare. Only predatory pricing, where selling at a loss over time kills off competition, and then prices are raised back up once a virtual monopoly exists. And I do not think Walmart's business model is thus.

If we do not like what Walmart or other businesses are doing, to compete in our markets, it's up to us to change the rules, via our elected representatives. But griping about a company that's really, really unbeatable at playing the game by our rules does little, except maybe earn some commissions for ad agencies and PR firms who they'll hire to help mitigate the ill feelings.

 

[Staidhup]

So, the corner store can't compete because of the paradigm shift that occurred in merchandising 10 years ago. It's time for a reality check, consumers demand the lowest price for their hard earned dollar, and if I am not too far off, after this President is finished the demand will only increase. So spend your money elsewhere and don't ram your politics and bullshit down everyone else's throat.

 

[Foxfyre]

I'm not an elitist. You're just so hyper-sensitive to elitism that you see it where it doesn't exist. I'm actually not arguing with the Wal Mart model. There is a opportunity cost in its model. To offer cheaper products, they have to pay their workers less. If they pay their workers less, the workers are not going to be as good. It's basic economics, basic reality dude.

I understand WM is protested for unfair competition in its business practices, such as:
* forcing supplier to cut their prices where they lose money on the sale to WM, but otherwise WM won't contract with them at all, in other words bullying the manufacturers so they have to eat the losses either way, by cutting their profits or not getting any sales at all, so they risk going out of business either way; then WM can buy them out and take over production or go with someone cheaper
* buying out spaces and killing off small towns by driving out all the small businesses
* offering prices below market, pushing competition out of business, then raising the prices afterward, so they are using their size to manipulate the market forces and take advantage

Does Target do the same thing?

My impression is Target has been competing with WalMart by marketing a better image first, and then prices being comparable or lower. But I have not heard complaints about Target abusing unfair competition to drive other businesses or suppliers out of business.
Am I wrong?

I can't imagine Target is any different than any other big box store that is able to corner a substantial part of the market. Certainly competing with Wal-mart has kept the prices in both stores lower. But I also am aware of many charitable and benevolent activities of Wal-mart that I have not seen from Target. Would Target be any more noble or benevolent or a better neighbor than Wal-mart if it could corner as much of the market, be profitable in as many locations, and do the volume that Wal-mart does? I somehow can't see that it would be.

I sometimes do presentations for groups, including small business classes, and one component of that is situational ethics. As an illustration, I use the concept from the Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan movie "You've Got Mail." It was of course a love story, but the plot of the movie was Fox Books, a big box book store, putting the small neighborhood children's bookstore "Shop Around the Corner" out of business. And most of us who watched the movie found ourselves strongly on the side of "Shop Around the Corner", and yet the character, Joe Fox, (played by Hanks) turned out to be a really decent guy who wasn't at all a devil or ogre even though he knew he was putting the small shop out of business and fully expected to do so.

The former customers of Shop Around the Corner felt guilty about it, but found the allure of a good selection and lower prices too much to resist and abandoned the small shop in favor of the big box store.

So the question then was: Was it ethical for Fox Books to put Shop Around the Corner out of business? I've never worked with a group who didn't really struggle with that question.

 

[Foxfyre]

Before Wal Mart came to town, there were four places a knitter to buy yarn. There were three bicycle shops owned locally. Four different jewlers, I can't count the number of locally owned pharmacies. Today, there are three locally owned pharmacies, but just one place to buy a bicycle and one place to buy yarn.

Okay, that's the flip side. The big box stores are crowding out some or most or all of the mom & pop stores wherever they go in. That is the fact of the way the world is, and Wal-mart is by no means the only factor in that trend. If it wasn't Wal-mart that you resented, it would have been K-mart or Target or one of the less successful chains that would dearly love for Wal-mart to go out of business so they could have it all.

I hate that our local office supply store closed up too because they gave us personal attention and provided special service we don't get from Staples and Office Max that drove them out of business. I loved our local hardware store for the same reason before it succumbed to Lowe's and Samson's and Home Depot. Our locally owned pharmacies went out of business when Walgreens came in and all the grocery store chains opened up pharmacies. All the quaint special little bookstores that used to dot the city have given away to Borders and Barnes & Noble. The local music stores couldn't compete with Best Buy and other big box electronic stores. It is the rare local clothing store that can compete with Sears, Penneys, and Kohls. All but the largest Christian supply stores have closed up shop because they couldn't compete with their stuff being convenient and cheap on the internet. The small grocers and most farmers' markets could not compete with Albertsons, Smith, Krogers, and other huge grocery store chains that, by the way, thrive in spite of Wal-mart.

The American public has become accustomed to wide selections, volumn discounts, and the convenience of being able to take care of numerous tasks in one location. The big box stores, because of much larger volume, can operate on a much lower profit margins than the Mom & Pop stores can do. So, even though the shoppers have to be price smart and quality consicous because even the big box stores don't always offer the best buy, it is the shoppers who have made Wal-mart and all the other big chains the successes that they are.

It isn't Wal-marts fault.

Who do you blame for prostitution, the prostitutes, the customers, the pimps, or all three?

Excellent question. I would take the pimps out of the equation because they are simply the marketing and administration division but, though they sometimes allow things to run more efficiently with there being good and bad pimps, they aren't essential to the business.

But if there were no prostitutes, there would be no customers for prostitution.
If there were no customers, there would be no prostitutes.

It takes both for the enterprise to exist.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I can't imagine Target is any different than any other big box store that is able to corner a substantial part of the market. Certainly competing with Wal-mart has kept the prices in both stores lower. But I also am aware of many charitable and benevolent activities of Wal-mart that I have not seen from Target. Would Target be any more noble or benevolent or a better neighbor than Wal-mart if it could corner as much of the market, be profitable in as many locations, and do the volume that Wal-mart does? I somehow can't see that it would be.

I sometimes do presentations for groups, including small business classes, and one component of that is situational ethics. As an illustration, I use the concept from the Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan movie "You've Got Mail." It was of course a love story, but the plot of the movie was Fox Books, a big box book store, putting the small neighborhood children's bookstore "Shop Around the Corner" out of business. And most of us who watched the movie found ourselves strongly on the side of "Shop Around the Corner", and yet the character, Joe Fox, (played by Hanks) turned out to be a really decent guy who wasn't at all a devil or ogre even though he knew he was putting the small shop out of business and fully expected to do so.

The former customers of Shop Around the Corner felt guilty about it, but found the allure of a good selection and lower prices too much to resist and abandoned the small shop in favor of the big box store.

So the question then was: Was it ethical for Fox Books to put Shop Around the Corner out of business? I've never worked with a group who didn't really struggle with that question.

Why would anyone struggle with such a question?

Was it ethical to offer a better product at a lower price?

Um, yeah - it sure was.

The reality of life is that an old tyme blacksmith working iron in a coal driven furnace makes us all tingly inside, but for products, a forge with with thousands of workers puts out better quality at a fraction of the cost.

Same thing with retailing, little local retailers are quaint, but aren't efficient in logistics or supply chain management. Economies of scale.

 

[thereisnospoon]

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

So?....These people have no legitimate claims. They knew the conditions of the pay scale before they took the job.
Walmart is a NON UNION Company. Those people do not have the right to "strike". Therefore their unexcused absence from work is grounds for termination.
On the other hand, if they do not care for the conditions under which they are employed, they are free to explore other opportunities for employment.
This is a bunch of CRAP.
The article clearly states the company turned a NINE PERCENT profit...Big deal.
Let these whiners stay home from work. They will be replaced. And the stores will still be packed. Who cares.
We're sick of whiners.

 

[thereisnospoon]

My wife's friend (who is an AF Dependent Wife and Japanese) worked at a WalMart for a year or so when her husband was stationed at nearby Andrews AFB. They promoted her real quick and wanted to put her into Management but she turned it down.

She said working for WalMart was ok it's just the workers there are just too lazy and stupid (Well, she used Polite Japanese to describe them but that's basically what she said) . She said that she was called upon to finish up what the workers couldn't do (which was often) and apparently was fast tracked for management because of that.

She was real happy to leave.

I try not to shop at WalMart so we go to Giant and Wegmans instead but we do occasionally stop in for one or two items on the way home from somewhere.

My impression of WalMart is that it's a filthy, Illegal Alien magnet. Whenever I'm in there I just wanna' get the f*ck out as soon as possible.

Our local Walmart is clean and well run. The employees seem to be in good morale.
While the one a few miles away is unclean and poorly run. I do not shop there. Of course it is in a lower income area.

 

[thereisnospoon]

We don't have a Walmart, so of course I don't shop there. We will probably have one in a few years, though.

in Oz is K-Mart

Notice how "Doomi" just had to copy your style of avatar...

 

[thereisnospoon]

Nope, but when I want inferior products, I surely know where to go.

That's not logical. I can find the precise make and model of products in other stores that are sold in Walmart.