NationStates Jolt Archive

ok so whos shops :P i refuse to shop there
<Wal-Mart> :mp5:

ok so whos shops :P i refuse to shop there
<Wal-Mart> :mp5:
Depends if it is past closing times of other stores when I need something :) I live out of town so it is rare but once every 6 - 8 months I got to grab something from there lol

my best friend works for Asda (a British supermarket owned by Walmart)

ok so whos shops :P i refuse to shop there
<Wal-Mart> :mp5:

I have not been there once since i moved to minnesota (Target HQ is here...so Target is basically all there is except for the few random wally's).

I hate Wally's. But where I grew up....2 huge superwalmarts, and not a target for over 100 miles. So i didn't have much of a choice.

If its convenient I will, otherwise I don't really make an effort to shop at one or not.

I have not been there once since i moved to minnesota (Target HQ is here...so Target is basically all there is except for the few random wally's).

I hate Wally's. But where I grew up....2 huge superwalmarts, and not a target for over 100 miles. So i didn't have much of a choice.
Up in St.Cloud there is 1 wally 2 targets 2 k-marts and a random collection of other biggies along with the locals :) we do alright ... I dont much like shoping in general lol so ...

Target and WalMart are like apples and apples. True, WalMart is more unsavory in its employment practices, but both serve to suck money out of communities.

I stay away from walmart. Anything they sell I can get elsewhere, and feel better about myself for boycotting them.

I shop wherever its convienient. This generaly means Target, since there seem to be more of them in the area, but if Wal-Mart is closer, I go there.
I also usualy go there to buy anything electronic, they usualy have significantly better prices and selection.

Target and WalMart are like apples and apples. True, WalMart is more unsavory in its employment practices, but both serve to suck money out of communities.
isnt that true with mst stores :P also find targe t to have overall nicer stuff

I truly honestly think that the quality of the generic products at Target is WAY better than at Wal-Mart.

I shop wherever its convienient. This generaly means Target, since there seem to be more of them in the area, but if Wal-Mart is closer, I go there.
I also usualy go there to buy anything electronic, they usualy have significantly better prices and selection.
i got to frys or shop online for all my electronic :D

I truly honestly think that the quality of the generic products at Target is WAY better than at Wal-Mart.
I dont know got a genaric muliti tool from Wal-mart for 5 bucks ... it kicked ass for a generic :)

I dont know got a genaric muliti tool from Wal-mart for 5 bucks ... it kicked ass for a generic :)
I got a fake leatherman tool and a pocket knife at my local auto parts store this weekend for only $5. Walmart doesn't always have the best deals.

i got to frys or shop online for all my electronic :D
The closest Frys (Not Frys Food and Drug, mind you.) is in Phoenix, which is about a hundred and fifty miles away...Online shopping is out in most cases because of our really horrible mail service.
*Curses all private mail contractors, everywhere.*

I got a fake leatherman tool and a pocket knife at my local auto parts store this weekend for only $5. Walmart doesn't always have the best deals.
I know but I used this one for 4 years it really does kick ass (I got my gerber now but still keep the other around ... got the gerber for a present)

isnt that true with mst stores :P also find targe t to have overall nicer stuff

That's absolutely not true of most stores. It's true of chains, but if you shop at independently-owned local businesses, your money stays in the community.

Why do you think we're seeing wealth consolidate so heavily in the U.S.? Why is the middle class getting squeezed out of existence? Because the WalMart model sets you up at starvation wages for the mass of workers, a living wage for managers, and tremendous profit-taking at the very top of the ladder.

That just ain't good.

The closest Frys (Not Frys Food and Drug, mind you.) is in Phoenix, which is about a hundred and fifty miles away...Online shopping is out in most cases because of our really horrible mail service.
*Curses all private mail contractors, everywhere.*
i go newegg.com they shp pretty fast :D

That's absolutely not true of most stores. It's true of chains, but if you shop at independently-owned local businesses, your money stays in the community.

Why do you think we're seeing wealth consolidate so heavily in the U.S.? Why is the middle class getting squeezed out of existence? Because the WalMart model sets you up at starvation wages for the mass of workers, a living wage for managers, and tremendous profit-taking at the very top of the ladder.

That just ain't good.
Yep. And they don't bring any money into the local communities. Local stores buy local goods and services. Walmart and their ilk just take money out of the community and give it to stock holders.

I live in the south - drive 30 minutes torwards any city and hit at least 1 walmart

That's absolutely not true of most stores. It's true of chains, but if you shop at independently-owned local businesses, your money stays in the community.

Why do you think we're seeing wealth consolidate so heavily in the U.S.? Why is the middle class getting squeezed out of existence? Because the WalMart model sets you up at starvation wages for the mass of workers, a living wage for managers, and tremendous profit-taking at the very top of the ladder.

That just ain't good.
true that but i meant most sotres such as i chains :P shoulda specified heh
and yea i try not to shop at alot of major chains, unless cant help it of corse :D

I won't buy anything made in a Communist country, which excludes most things from Wal-Mart.

First you must find the heart of Wal-Mart. Then you must destroy it.
(Located in the back of the electronics department).

*shamefaced* I have to admit that I do shop there sometimes...especially for disposable diapers (even worse...down with the environment and all that):( Did you know that a WalMart in Quebec unionised, and now is talking about closing (not because there is a union, no never that!).

I try hard to avoid it.

First you must find the heart of Wal-Mart. Then you must destroy it.
(Located in the back of the electronics department).

buhahaha that was what i was thinking of when i mae this thread !

In the past, Ive avoided shopping at Wal-Mart because of their predatory pricing practices and the way they destroy smaller business. However, lately, I have come to accept Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is very involved in helping the community and they give jobs to people no one else is willing to hire. People who are too old, who are crippled, who are missing a limb, who have mild mental retardation, minorities, and other undesireables that no one else hires. For this reason, I have come to the conclusion that Wal-Mart is not as great an evil as I had previously assumed. I wish all companies would be willing to hire all types of people, but most are not. Wal-Mart does, and for that (and all of the other help they provide to the community), I will continue to support them.

In the past, Ive avoided shopping at Wal-Mart because of their predatory pricing practices and the way they destroy smaller business. However, lately, I have come to accept Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is very involved in helping the community and they give jobs to people no one else is willing to hire. People who are too old, who are crippled, who are missing a limb, who have mild mental retardation, minorities, and other undesireables that no one else hires. For this reason, I have come to the conclusion that Wal-Mart is not as great an evil as I had previously assumed. I wish all companies would be willing to hire all types of people, but most are not. Wal-Mart does, and for that (and all of the other help they provide to the community), I will continue to support them.
:mp5: :D hmm u may have a point but if south park has taught us anything...

Yeah, who else would do something so generous as sub-contract their janitorial services so that they can't be legally implicated when the sub-contractors hire illegal immigrants to work for slave wages? Who else busts unions to the same degree? That WalMart, real humanitarians.

Yeah, who else would do something so generous as sub-contract their janitorial services so that they can't be legally implicated when the sub-contractors hire illegal immigrants to work for slave wages? Who else busts unions to the same degree? That WalMart, real humanitarians.
ok now i agree with u :P

I won't buy anything made in a Communist country, which excludes most things from Wal-Mart.
That would exclude most of the products in the United States, including alot of the food, clothes and...well, everything else.

Yeah, who else would do something so generous as sub-contract their janitorial services so that they can't be legally implicated when the sub-contractors hire illegal immigrants to work for slave wages? Who else busts unions to the same degree? That WalMart, real humanitarians.

Subcontracting is practiced in all industries public and private. It allows the company to focus on its core competencies and let someone else handle things outside of those core competencies. Wal-Mart is not in the janitorial business, so it makes sense for it to hire a company that is in that business to take care of that stuff so they can focus on what they are really in business to do. If you want to see secret conspiracies in that, thats up to you. The fact remains that subcontracting is a common practice in all industries and serves as a good example of how Wal-Mart continues to contribute to the community (not only do they hire people no one else is willing to hire, but they also contract work out to smaller companies, helping boost the economy even more).

That would exclude most of the products in the United States, including alot of the food, clothes and...well, everything else.It's doable. Egypt, Indonesia and India, among others produce clothing. The US produces plenty of food at home, although you'd have to stop eating vietnamese chili paste.

I'm Irish so we have no Walmart here yet. Can someone explain what's so bad about it? I need the info so I can resist it, if necessary, if it comes here.

That would exclude most of the products in the United States, including alot of the food, clothes and...well, everything else.

I confess, it isn't easy. Small appliances are the worst.

Clothes are pretty simple, as there is always a tag. Food is more problematic, but I don't accost my grocer as to if I'm buying Chinese or Californian garlic.

I'm Irish so we have no Walmart here yet. Can someone explain what's so bad about it? I need the info so I can resist it, if necessary, if it comes here.
1 It sells such a wide variety of merchandise in one location that local businesses can't compete.

2 It's buying power lets it sell items far cheaper than local stores, so combined with point 1 it causes local stores to go out of business.

3 With the local stores closing down, and walmart hiring fewer employees than the jobs lost there is a net loss of employment in the community.

4 It sells Chinese manufactured merchandise almost exclusively. The Chinese don't have the best record on labor rights or human rights in general.

5 It fights tooth and nail against labor unions in order to keep it's payroll low.

Basically it sucks money out of the communities it invades and drives the competition out of business while lowering the average wages wherever it goes.

You know, I honestly don't think Wally World is that bad. I like 'em, and they are always ready to help you out with a refund or anything. Near where I live, the only other option is K-Mart anyways, and that just plain sucks, especially since they filed for Chapter 11.

You know, I honestly don't think Wally World is that bad. I like 'em, and they are always ready to help you out with a refund or anything. Near where I live, the only other option is K-Mart anyways, and that just plain sucks, especially since they filed for Chapter 11.
Ever wonder why they're the only option in your town?

I'm Irish so we have no Walmart here yet. Can someone explain what's so bad about it? I need the info so I can resist it, if necessary, if it comes here.

Basically, Wal-Mart destroys its competetion because it undercuts everyone on price. This tends to destroy downtowns and small shops in particular.

They do this on two main strategies:
1) Volume. They buy more units of everything, so they tell their suppliers "okay, we'll pay X per toothbrush (or whatever). This is bad for the little guy, who just doesn't have the leverage.

2) Wal Mart has made deals for many products to only buy the cheaper imports. This hurts the domestic worker. Literally, Wal Mart refuses to do business with some suppliers.

Although somewhat partisan, this is a good example:
http://www.rense.com/general45/manuf.htm

It's doable. Egypt, Indonesia and India, among others produce clothing. The US produces plenty of food at home, although you'd have to stop eating vietnamese chili paste.

True. I favor US goods first, then any made in a non-Communist country. But if Carhart goes out of business, I don't know what I'm going to do for jeans. :(
Ditto New Balance for sneakers.

Basically, Wal-Mart destroys its competetion because it undercuts everyone on price. This tends to destroy downtowns and small shops in particular.

They do this on two main strategies:
1) Volume. They buy more units of everything, so they tell their suppliers "okay, we'll pay X per toothbrush (or whatever). This is bad for the little guy, who just doesn't have the leverage.

2) Wal Mart has made deals for many products to only buy the cheaper imports. This hurts the domestic worker. Literally, Wal Mart refuses to do business with some suppliers.

Although somewhat partisan, this is a good example:
http://www.rense.com/general45/manuf.htm

#1 I agree with you on. But the second statement is misleading. Although the statement its self is true, it is also true of a huge number of companies. Exclusive contracts (we will carry your goods and only your goods) are very common in the business world.

#1 I agree with you on. But the second statement is misleading. Although the statement its self is true, it is also true of a huge number of companies. Exclusive contracts (we will carry your goods and only your goods) are very common in the business world.

Cool.

It goes beyond that. Bascially, WalMart ends up forcing US firms to export jobs overseas. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States.

One year, Huffy had committed to supply Wal-Mart with an entry-level, thin-margin bike--as many as Wal-Mart needed. Sales of the low-end bike took off. "I woke up May 1"--the heart of the bike production cycle for the summer--"and I needed 900,000 bikes," he says. "My factories could only run 450,000." As it happened, that same year, Huffy's fancier, more-profitable bikes were doing well, too, at Wal-Mart and other places. Huffy found itself in a bind.

With other retailers, perhaps, Mariotti might have sat down, renegotiated, tried to talk his way out of the corner. Not with Wal-Mart. "I made the deal up front with them," he says. "I knew how high was up. I was duty-bound to supply my customer." So he did something extraordinary. To free up production in order to make Wal-Mart's cheap bikes, he gave the designs for four of his higher-end, higher-margin products to rival manufacturers. "I conceded business to my competitors, because I just ran out of capacity," he says. Huffy didn't just relinquish profits to keep Wal-Mart happy--it handed those profits to its competition. "Wal-Mart didn't tell me what to do," Mariotti says. "They didn't have to." The retailer, he adds, "is tough as nails. But they give you a chance to compete. If you can't compete, that's your problem."

In the years since Mariotti left Huffy, the bike maker's relationship with Wal-Mart has been vital (though Huffy Corp. has lost money in three out of the last five years). It is the number-three seller of bikes in the United States. And Wal-Mart is the number-one retailer of bikes. But here's one last statistic about bicycles: Roughly 98% are now imported from places such as China, Mexico, and Taiwan. Huffy made its last bike in the United States in 1999.

Yay for New York! I hope they can avoid the Walmart monstrosity as long as possible.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/24/news/fortune500/walmart_nyc/index.htm?cnn=yes

I find the last quote in the article eye opening and scary. Like the Donald Rumsfeld quote "You don't go to war with the army you'd like, you go to war with the army you have.", the CEO of Walmart, Lee Scott, says of the working conditions in Bangladesh (where Walmart imports many of their products from): "I've been in the factories in Bangladesh," he said. "It's not the life you want to lead, it's not the life I want to lead. But it's a life that is very much a step up from the life that those people would otherwise lead."

Is that good enough? Now why the hell should we believe that he cares at all for his employees here in the US?

Although we have no "WalMart" stores in the UK they do own ASDA supermarkets and for this reason I never go to ASDA due to the appalling way WalMart treats their workers and their anti trade union policies.

IFAIC, the best way to shop at WallyWorld is to find out what their Loss Leaders are and then only buy those items (if you need them).

If I can buy somthing there that actually COSTS them money to sell, then I can help defeat them from the inside...

It's a legal form of sabatoge you know. :D

If it is convienent I will shop there. If not, I wont go out of my way to shop there or to avoid it.

IFAIC, the best way to shop at WallyWorld is to find out what their Loss Leaders are and then only buy those items (if you need them).

If I can buy somthing there that actually COSTS them money to sell, then I can help defeat them from the inside...

It's a legal form of sabatoge you know. :D
How do you find out?

i only shop there because it's cheap, and pretty much the only place to get anything in carbondale. Besides, where else could i get a 2 pound bag of cereal for 3 dollars?

i only shop there because it's cheap, and pretty much the only place to get anything in carbondale. Besides, where else could i get a 2 pound bag of cereal for 3 dollars?
most of u just dont get it... *gives up*

As far as I know there isn't a Wal Mart within 5,000 miles of me, so no, I don't shop there. (There may be some closer if they exist in Puerto Rico)

most of u just dont get it... *gives up*
what, that they're an evil corporation with th worst employment practices in the nation?

Nike's pretty bad, with the sweatshops and all.

what, that they're an evil corporation with th worst employment practices in the nation?
i said most -_-

Nike's pretty bad, with the sweatshops and all.

Agreed. That's why I stopped buying their products when they moved produciton to Viet Nam.

what's up with WalMart?

Asda (british for WalMart) is cheap and good.

what's up with WalMart?

Asda (british for WalMart) is cheap and good.


(in best Sir Alec Guiness voice):

"Read the thread, Luke..."

As long as they keep stocking Transformers, I'll show up.

I'm Irish so we have no Walmart here yet. Can someone explain what's so bad about it? I need the info so I can resist it, if necessary, if it comes here.

it turns out that WalMart is a Big Store and does things that All Big Stores do.

I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart.

it turns out that WalMart is a Big Store and does things that All Big Stores do.

Plus refuses to carry products that it considers immoral, thus reducing its bottom-line and harming its shareholders.

Plus refuses to carry products that it considers immoral, thus reducing its bottom-line and harming its shareholders.

isn't that a good thing?

They only sell edited CDs. Which is such BS.

Well, I refuse to go near Asda.

How do you find out?

The easiest way is to scope out the store & prices, then when they have a sale on an item that is already "underpriced" (in relation to other local chain stores) you can be relatively assured they are using that product as a "loss-leader".

The key is to never purchase any product that isn't specifically identified as being on "sale" (temporary discount) or "clearance".

I would like to see a Consumer Blog that maintains a list of WalMart loss leaders, but I sure don't have time to do it.

Oh Well.

Agreed. That's why I stopped buying their products when they moved produciton to Viet Nam.
they moved from where?

I htink that for whoever you are for, the most ignorant form of political or social protest is a boycott. Not enough epopel will boycott eh company if it is multinational. I don;t really care, i don't buy wal-mart brand items, becasue i think they are low quality and for not much difference in price. I always buy what i need. I prefer target, but the closest target is all they was across town, and traffic in Baton Rouge is horrble. I have There is a walmart within walking distance of my house, so i go there. There arent; many specialty stores in my town anyway.

If i need groceries it is either Super Wal-Mart or Winn-Dixie. If i need medicine, i go to either CVS or Wal-mart, whichever one has what i need. If i need tech goods, either best buy or comp-usa. Multinational companies don;t, and never will bother me.

Never shop there. I had a friend who worked there and they didn't even pay her enough to shop there. Plus have you notice that they hire a bunch of older people too, like they're easier to push around or something.

they moved from where?

Nikes used to be made in Mexico, and I presume the US before then.

I htink that for whoever you are for, the most ignorant form of political or social protest is a boycott. Not enough epopel will boycott eh company if it is multinational. I don;t really care, i don't buy wal-mart brand items, becasue i think they are low quality and for not much difference in price. I always buy what i need. I prefer target, but the closest target is all they was across town, and traffic in Baton Rouge is horrble. I have There is a walmart within walking distance of my house, so i go there. There arent; many specialty stores in my town anyway.

If i need groceries it is either Super Wal-Mart or Winn-Dixie. If i need medicine, i go to either CVS or Wal-mart, whichever one has what i need. If i need tech goods, either best buy or comp-usa. Multinational companies don;t, and never will bother me.

[/sarcasm]
I am glad you think that way! It's great to hear about someone who thinks their job is safe, and that doesn't give a whit about their fellow citizens.
[/sarcasm off]