Opinions about Walmart by Arkansas people. (Little Rock: vacation, job, property)

[northbound74]

Originally Posted by SwinerBock

As has been said before, there are some stores in the chain that will not look all that great, but there are some stores that look clean as a whistle. It's all about the PEOPLE that work there, and the pride they take in doing their job right.

As far as low prices, in MY part of the country, if you are talking about name-brand items, Walmart IS the lowest in town. If you are talking about off-brand or store-brand stuff, Walmart is still lowest in town as far as groceries are concerned, and the difference between their non-grocery stuff and the stuff sold at Dollar General, Big Lots, Family Dollar, etc, is so little that it is not really worth my time and gas to travel to those other stores.

The stuff in the middles of the main aisles? Those are their sale items and specialty items. They put them there for their high visibility. It's called good marketing.

Anyway, I realize practically every one has already made up their minds on Walmart and nothing any of us will say will ever change them. How about we all just agree to disagree and move on?

If Wal-Mart wants to be respected, they should have some mechanism in place to keep ALL of it's stores in good shape. I don't care who works there. No excuses. Be consistent. Being an extremely large company, with hundreds of thousands of employees, is no excuse. Target, while not as big, obviously, somehow manages to keep things under control.
There's also a gas station that I go to. It's a pretty large chain. No matter where it's located, no matter how good or bad the neighborhood is, it is always very well kept. If all the yards around it are overgrown with trash and weeds, it's grounds are always immaculate.

With Wal-Mart, unless there's very strict city ordinances in place (which it often fights with a vengence), it usually looks only as good (barely) or worse (most likely) than whatever area it's in. It leaves a stain wherever it is located. Don't get me started on the monstrous buildings Wal-Mart abandons every time they want to "expand". Why not expand the building they're already in? You know, the one with all the empty land around it.

Marketing or not, I still say get rid of the crap in the aisles. People that shop at Wal-Mart are irritated and cranky enough without having to dodge these things. The people that work there are inept and rude at least 75% of the time. Could be a reflection on them, the company, or just having to put up with those cranky customers.

I'll spend my money at places that give a rip. Usually, that means local, mom and pop places, and farmer's markets. More often than not, I have good experiences at Target and Hy-Vee (grocery store chain)... with prices that are every bit as affordable. Bad service should not be tolerated in the name of saving a buck, anyway.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

Actually, you have no idea what you're talking about. My family sold a service, not stuff.

Regards.

Then I'm curious to know how Wal Mart drove them out of business. Wal Mart does not provide a lot of services. Some of them have a Great Clips (I think) hair salon, they have some photography services, and a snack bar, but they don't even have automotive services like Sears used to have and maybe still does have in some stores.

[joebaldknobber]

Kmart is AWESOME!!! They are not Walmart

[McGowdog]

I buy more food from Schwans and take out than I do at Walmart. I'll get some staples from Walmart here and there, but I'm kind of a gourmet shopper when it comes to food.

The closest store to us now is a nice new Walmart SuperCenter. I like that we've got 24/7 shopping if we need it. But our local Safeway has been there longer and they went the other direction when they found out Walmart was coming in. They went high-quality gourmet, kind of like a Whole-Foods or Wild-Oats type store compared to what it was. It's more expensive, but I'll get that stuff and actually eat that food.

To be honest, food's been too cheap for too long in this country. I don't need Walmart prices and we ain't starvin' just yet.

Now when it comes to Walmart's quality, on some stuff it's as good as anything else. My wife wanted a small fridge for her newly acquired office and this is what she wanted me to get her for her birthday. So like a good American, I went to Sears. Their selection sucked and they did not want to sell me a fridge anyway. Really. They wouldn't have given a fiddler's fart for my business that day. So I went to Walmart. They had a better bigger fridge, better brand, and the right color for $25.00 less! Hell yeah.

But for the most part, it seems like the quality of most items in the store is lacking. Is it me, or is Walmart like one big Dollar Store? Maybe it depends where you go. Do the Walmarts in Eastern Colorado in towns of 8,000 people give as good a deal as the Walmarts in a growing town of 30,000+ people?

Now I hear people say they just can't afford to shop other places, but here we are paying as much as 500.00 per person per month on regular gas to drive our SUVs around, but we gotta feed our faces with Walmart food. I'm not an economist here, but how much did we really spend extra for shopping at Publix and True Value Hardware compared to what we're willing to spend on gas? Yes, I said Willing to spend. With the way gas prices have gone, you'd think we'd all be bikling around now, but we're still a driving them trucks and minivans...to the Walmart.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by northbound74

If Wal-Mart wants to be respected, they should have some mechanism in place to keep ALL of it's stores in good shape. I don't care who works there. No excuses. Be consistent. Being an extremely large company, with hundreds of thousands of employees, is no excuse. Target, while not as big, obviously, somehow manages to keep things under control.
There's also a gas station that I go to. It's a pretty large chain. No matter where it's located, no matter how good or bad the neighborhood is, it is always very well kept. If all the yards around it are overgrown with trash and weeds, it's grounds are always immaculate.

With Wal-Mart, unless there's very strict city ordinances in place (which it often fights with a vengence), it usually looks only as good (barely) or worse (most likely) than whatever area it's in. It leaves a stain wherever it is located. Don't get me started on the monstrous buildings Wal-Mart abandons every time they want to "expand". Why not expand the building they're already in? You know, the one with all the empty land around it.

Marketing or not, I still say get rid of the crap in the aisles. People that shop at Wal-Mart are irritated and cranky enough without having to dodge these things. The people that work there are inept and rude at least 75% of the time. Could be a reflection on them, the company, or just having to put up with those cranky customers.

I'll spend my money at places that give a rip. Usually, that means local, mom and pop places, and farmer's markets. More often than not, I have good experiences at Target and Hy-Vee (grocery store chain)... with prices that are every bit as affordable. Bad service should not be tolerated in the name of saving a buck, anyway.

Man...I just hate to keep bringing up one specific city but it DOES seem to demonstrate some of the worst things I've seen. I've been in some pretty nasty Wal-Marts where I was told to go back out into the parking lot to get my own cart and that just in general looked like a good carpet bombing would improve the property values in the neighborhood greatly but...have you ever been to some of the Targets in and around Baltimore?? Seriously dude, Target's s*** stinks just like Wal-Mart. Heck..the one in west LR is pretty scuzzy too but it's getting a facelift right now. Their customer service is NOT across the board consistent either.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

Man...I just hate to keep bringing up one specific city but it DOES seem to demonstrate some of the worst things I've seen. I've been in some pretty nasty Wal-Marts where I was told to go back out into the parking lot to get my own cart and that just in general looked like a good carpet bombing would improve the property values in the neighborhood greatly but...have you ever been to some of the Targets in and around Baltimore?? Seriously dude, Target's s*** stinks just like Wal-Mart. Heck..the one in west LR is pretty scuzzy too but it's getting a facelift right now. Their customer service is NOT across the board consistent either.

My opinion: WalMart, KMart (where they still exist) and Target are all about the same. As for the cart thing, this was one of my biggest gripes about the WalMart in NM, carts were not available and left all over the parking lots. Here, it seems people care or at least to some degree they care. The stores are a product of the comuunity.

Nita

[SwinerBock]

Originally Posted by nmnita

My opinion: WalMart, KMart (where they still exist) and Target are all about the same. As for the cart thing, this was one of my biggest gripes about the WalMart in NM, carts were not available and left all over the parking lots. Here, it seems people care or at least to some degree they care. The stores are a product of the comuunity.

Nita

Bing-freakin-O.

[joebaldknobber]

How can anyone be excited about Target? Sears ROCKS!!! Why not go to Marrakesh!! They have cool stuff. Ipanema has cool shops. Why is Baltimore always cited for uncleanliness in general.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by joebaldknobber

How can anyone be excited about Target? Sears ROCKS!!! Why not go to Marrakesh!! They have cool stuff. Ipanema has cool shops. Why is Baltimore always cited for uncleanliness in general.

Why did I cite it personally? Because I lived there for 6 years. It's a city with which I have personal experience and not hear-say.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

Why did I cite it personally? Because I lived there for 6 years. It's a city with which I have personal experience and not hear-say.

That is refreshing here on City-Data!