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View Poll Results: Beginning of the end
Yes 16 28.57%
No 31 55.36%
Invincible 9 16.07%
Voters: 56. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-16-2015, 11:13 AM
 
Location: EPWV
19,284 posts, read 9,386,028 times
Reputation: 21079

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140 View Post
There may be something to that, but the difference is that for Walmart the competition is online. For McD, the competition is the food. People are willing to spend more for Fatburger, 5 Guys, and other places with real burgers. Mothers used to take their kids after soccer practice to Mcd for a quick dinner, now we see them at the more expensive places while both our McD and Jack in the Box have mostly empty lots and drive-ups.
Ha, not the one near us. It has been remodeled and drive in upgraded to allow for more vehicular traffic. The place is ALWAYS busy. Yes, we have a Chick Filet and a 5 Guys, within less than 15 mins drive. The Chick Filet place is basically across the street. The 5 Guys is the one about 15 mins drive away.

We have 2 Walmarts in different directions about 10 mins away and there are additionally 3 other Walmarts within a 30 mins drive in different directions. All see pretty good business. Are just as clean as the one Target. I do have a couple faves, because of their selections. I just can't get to them as often because of the location/convenience, ie - being on my way home from work. Great for the weekends though. I don't wait any longer in Walmart lines than I do at any of the local grocery stores. Sometimes I wait longer at the other places than at Walmart. Big surprise there for some of the Walmart haters.
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Old 10-16-2015, 01:19 PM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,113,493 times
Reputation: 27718
You can only cut so much in order to provide low prices.
Walmart can't cut any more. They are already gouging their vendors and their workers.

Online...they are coming to the game late.
Amazon has the market share. That is Amazon's business.
Amazon has automated their warehouses and built them in strategic hubs around the US.

I have used online to order and have delivered to store for stuff they don't carry.
But other big box stores do the same.

But most of my online ordering is from Amazon. They have proven themselves over the years.
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Old 10-16-2015, 02:57 PM
 
9,891 posts, read 11,673,828 times
Reputation: 22079
Quote:
It's lure of lowest prices has generated some backlash of criticism, the refrain of protesters stating the obvious "lowest wages always" mantra has allowed more than a tad bit of morality to seep into the buyer's choice of shopping destinations. Walmart's negative views on employee compensation, not just the wages but their total benefit package, or lack of one is brought to the fore when ever their pricing structure is mentioned, and that has often brought their advertising to the level of a social concerns discussion.
This shows how much you understand the world of retail business. Here are some of the fact.

Retail businesses do not pay high wages, they are all low wage businesses.

However, Walmart is one of the top paying retail businesses in the country. Why pick on Walmart to cry about how poor they pay. You should pick on the high priced department stores that pay less than Walmart. You may want to cry about how private local businesses pay really low, making Walmart look like a high paying company.

I spent 4 years when in my 20s working for one of the top 10 Department Store Chains in the nation. I was one of the what they call in the trade, Big Ticket Salesman. That means the Furniture, Major Appliances, and Electronics. Those departments had professional salespeople, that worked on commission. I sold Furniture.

I was earning in today's dollars $125,000 up. At the same time the other employees were earning minimum wages which was 85 cents an hour at the time. They ones that had been there for a while were getting more for their longevity, having gotten raises about 5 cents at a time. Today the same thing is happening, those people are working at or just slightly above the minimum wages.

I also earned spiffs paid direct by manufacturing companies, such as High End Mattresses and Box Springs. $10 on a twin or double set. $15 on a queen size set. $20 on a king size set. The sales rep came around every month and gave us an envelope with our spiffs in cash. I made way more on spiffs alone than the clerks did working full time. A commission on a king set came to $24, with a $20 spiff. If I only sold one king size set a week with commission and spiff of $44 I would earn $10 more than a clerk did working hard all week. I never had a week where I only sold one king size set and nothing else. I would earn on an average a minimum of one spiff every day. I sold lots of mattresses and box springs, plus a lot of other furniture items.

Yes I know what wages people make working for retail of all types. I know that Walmart is one of the best paying retail chains in the nation.

What is funny to me: Walmart makes an announcement to the public that there will be a lower profit this year, due to giving their employees raises, plus opening a few smaller stores. A good company, tells the investors when something will happen that will effect the bottom line as they are being a reliable company keeping their stock holders in the know. Then some one writes an article about it, and makes it sound like Walmart will go broke doing this. Then we have the Walmart haters such as some on these threads jump on it and start saying that Walmart is going broke. Of course they do not understand business, and how it really works, and what the truth is.

Truth is, Walmart is doing great, and is trying to be a good employer and raising wages when they can do it without hurting the company. Then the Walmart haters keep calling Walmart ripping off their employers with low wages. Truth is retail is low paying overall with Walmart being one of the highest paying in their field. The big high priced retail chains, mostly pay less than Walmart. None of them pay high wages.
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Old 10-16-2015, 06:57 PM
 
Location: Oregon, formerly Texas
10,003 posts, read 7,140,523 times
Reputation: 17096
Having worked for Wal-Mart, They're not THAT much worse than the big box retail sector as a whole. They're a little worse, but it's not like Target or Dollar General are model employers providing good work-life balance, fair wages, excellent health care and a fun Christmas party.

When they called out on something, they actually become obsessive about making sure it does not happen again.

Ie: after a scandal involving people working overtime without overtime pay, the policy response was to fire the worker, his supervisor and the department manager if found working overtime.

The culture at Wal-Mart is anti-customer though. Wal-Mart is in the stuff-logistics business. They are NOT in the customer service business. WM is about getting stuff as cheaply as possible, stocked as quickly as possible, and making the whole shopping experience as minimal as you will tolerate before leaving your cart and walking out in disgust. Shoppers are secondary to the stuff. Hourly workers are obviously secondary to the stuff. Wal-Mart's business focuses on moving the stuff in, to the floor and as a shopper your job is to grab and pay. That is all. As a customer you should be appreciative that Ritz crackers are 12 cents less than at Target. I worked there for 4 years and it's how the culture works. If you have that attitude you move into management.

That is where Target and other competitors really beat WM and you have to consider if a few cents savings - maybe $5-15 per shopping trip at most, is worth shopping at a dirty, disorganized, under-staffed store.

Last edited by redguard57; 10-16-2015 at 07:07 PM..
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Old 10-16-2015, 07:04 PM
 
Location: Midwest
128 posts, read 232,217 times
Reputation: 180
The Aldi grocery stores have been doing well for the last few years. They used to be thought of the "poor people's grocery store," but I noticed the new stores are kept very clean. Interestingly, even though they are cheaper than Walmart, you don't get a lot of the EBT crowd, even though Aldi takes EBT. I see a wide variety of people at the Aldi locations I shop at (one near work, one near home). Younger folks, retirees, families. All variety of cars in the parking lot.

I only go to Walmart for one thing - ammo - it's the cheapest around.
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Old 10-17-2015, 08:24 AM
 
Location: EPWV
19,284 posts, read 9,386,028 times
Reputation: 21079
Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57 View Post
Having worked for Wal-Mart, They're not THAT much worse than the big box retail sector as a whole. They're a little worse, but it's not like Target or Dollar General are model employers providing good work-life balance, fair wages, excellent health care and a fun Christmas party.

When they called out on something, they actually become obsessive about making sure it does not happen again.

Ie: after a scandal involving people working overtime without overtime pay, the policy response was to fire the worker, his supervisor and the department manager if found working overtime.

The culture at Wal-Mart is anti-customer though. Wal-Mart is in the stuff-logistics business. They are NOT in the customer service business. WM is about getting stuff as cheaply as possible, stocked as quickly as possible, and making the whole shopping experience as minimal as you will tolerate before leaving your cart and walking out in disgust. Shoppers are secondary to the stuff. Hourly workers are obviously secondary to the stuff. Wal-Mart's business focuses on moving the stuff in, to the floor and as a shopper your job is to grab and pay. That is all. As a customer you should be appreciative that Ritz crackers are 12 cents less than at Target. I worked there for 4 years and it's how the culture works. If you have that attitude you move into management.

That is where Target and other competitors really beat WM and you have to consider if a few cents savings - maybe $5-15 per shopping trip at most, is worth shopping at a dirty, disorganized, under-staffed store.
I would really like to see the Walmarts you shop (walk into). The majority of the Super Walmarts I've been in have been just as clean and free of aisle clutter as some Targets.

Still appreciate both. They don't have everything I might be looking for. Sometimes I do opt for finding stuff on the Internet. I have been to a Walmart while traveling/visiting relatives, but I guess to be fair, it was one of the older Walmarts that had not been converted to a Super Walmart.
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Old 10-17-2015, 01:14 PM
 
Location: Columbia SC
14,190 posts, read 14,543,530 times
Reputation: 21994
The long term success of any business is to change with the times. With change there will be a few burps and bumps but without change, a business will die.

Just today I went online to search for a Vizio Sound Bar system. After all was said and done (price, shipping charge. delivery date, return policy, etc.) I ordered it online from Walmart. One online only retailer had it for $10 less but if I am not happy with it, I can return it to any Walmart and that is worth money to me.

Walmart will adjust to the times.
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Old 10-18-2015, 12:39 PM
 
Location: Düsseldorf
94 posts, read 91,832 times
Reputation: 103
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtrader View Post
This shows how much you understand the world of retail business. Here are some of the fact.

Retail businesses do not pay high wages, they are all low wage businesses.

Truth is, Walmart is doing great, and is trying to be a good employer and raising wages when they can do it without hurting the company. Then the Walmart haters keep calling Walmart ripping off their employers with low wages. Truth is retail is low paying overall with Walmart being one of the highest paying in their field. The big high priced retail chains, mostly pay less than Walmart. None of them pay high wages.
Sorry, but that's not correct. Aldi for example pays pretty decent wages, significant higher than Walmart. In their US division still not decent enough. Aldi employees in Germany are considered to be middle class. An apprenticeship at Aldi is like winning the lottery.

Of course Walmart could pay much higher wages. Their latest profit margin (EBIT) was 5.6%. That's much higher than the standard in this industry.
If the average Walmart employee works 1,500 hours per year. A pay rise of $2 per hour for 2m employees would cost just $6bn. The EBIT margin would fall from 5.6% to 4.4%, still very decent.

I only had experience with Walmart stores in Germany between 1997 and 2006. It was almost always an awful shopping experience. Sometimes some shelves were empty, never seen this before, badly trained employees, dishonest pricing (Rollback nonsense), and endless lines. But the worst thing was the inferior quality of their store brand food products and their non food merchandise. When I read the online complaints about Walmart stores in the U.S., my experience with Walmart in Germany seems very similar to what could be found in American Walmart stores.

Those huge Walmart Superstores will become more and more irrelevant. Limited assortment grocery stores like Aldi or Lidl are able to offer significant better prices, and traditional grocery stores will be able to offer a much better shopping experience than Walmart. And more and more people will buy non food merchandise online. Those superstores are a thing of the past. Walmart has already reacted to the development with their smaller neighborhood format.
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Old 10-18-2015, 11:22 PM
 
1,002 posts, read 1,039,457 times
Reputation: 983
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtrader View Post
This shows how much you understand the world of retail business. Here are some of the fact.

Retail businesses do not pay high wages, they are all low wage businesses.

However, Walmart is one of the top paying retail businesses in the country. Why pick on Walmart to cry about how poor they pay. You should pick on the high priced department stores that pay less than Walmart. You may want to cry about how private local businesses pay really low, making Walmart look like a high paying company.

I spent 4 years when in my 20s working for one of the top 10 Department Store Chains in the nation. I was one of the what they call in the trade, Big Ticket Salesman. That means the Furniture, Major Appliances, and Electronics. Those departments had professional salespeople, that worked on commission. I sold Furniture.

I was earning in today's dollars $125,000 up. At the same time the other employees were earning minimum wages which was 85 cents an hour at the time. They ones that had been there for a while were getting more for their longevity, having gotten raises about 5 cents at a time. Today the same thing is happening, those people are working at or just slightly above the minimum wages.

I also earned spiffs paid direct by manufacturing companies, such as High End Mattresses and Box Springs. $10 on a twin or double set. $15 on a queen size set. $20 on a king size set. The sales rep came around every month and gave us an envelope with our spiffs in cash. I made way more on spiffs alone than the clerks did working full time. A commission on a king set came to $24, with a $20 spiff. If I only sold one king size set a week with commission and spiff of $44 I would earn $10 more than a clerk did working hard all week. I never had a week where I only sold one king size set and nothing else. I would earn on an average a minimum of one spiff every day. I sold lots of mattresses and box springs, plus a lot of other furniture items.

Yes I know what wages people make working for retail of all types. I know that Walmart is one of the best paying retail chains in the nation.

What is funny to me: Walmart makes an announcement to the public that there will be a lower profit this year, due to giving their employees raises, plus opening a few smaller stores. A good company, tells the investors when something will happen that will effect the bottom line as they are being a reliable company keeping their stock holders in the know. Then some one writes an article about it, and makes it sound like Walmart will go broke doing this. Then we have the Walmart haters such as some on these threads jump on it and start saying that Walmart is going broke. Of course they do not understand business, and how it really works, and what the truth is.

Truth is, Walmart is doing great, and is trying to be a good employer and raising wages when they can do it without hurting the company. Then the Walmart haters keep calling Walmart ripping off their employers with low wages. Truth is retail is low paying overall with Walmart being one of the highest paying in their field. The big high priced retail chains, mostly pay less than Walmart. None of them pay high wages.


Wow. Just wow. Where do I even begin. So you were paid a kickback, I mean spiff, to push a manufactures line or product. Paid directly to you, in cash That had to present quite the paperwork nightmare come income tax time. Were the spiffs paid consistently across all lines / brands ? I could see it creating an ethical and or moral dilemma ( steering sales ). Or did you just sell one mfg's line? Any way I hope that top 10 retailer is still relevant.

As previous posters noted: smaller stores, Dollar Stores ( they just folded Walmart Express into Neighborhood Markets), Kroger, home delivery ( but seriously are you to choose WM over Amazon?) they have a full plate even without the cultural backlash. The takeaway, for me? They are waging MAJOR battles on many different fronts, these proposed changes will be problematic to execute at the customer level. I'm pulling for them. What a success story.
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Old 10-19-2015, 12:40 PM
 
Location: Southeast, where else?
3,913 posts, read 5,200,318 times
Reputation: 5823
The worst part of Wal-Mart is the help. Depending where you live it can be completely ghetto or rural redneck....the only one stealing more merchandise from the stores than them are the customers. Between the girls with names that resemble household products (Lestoil, Lavoris, Clearasil, Immodium) and their absolute disdain for having to work to the guy named Cletus who doesn't know, nor care, where anything is, it's a pretty comical experience.

But, let's face it, you don't got to Wal-Mart to get your Chinese goods for the ambiance, you go there for the priced, period. They could have feces on a shelf and some polyester woman snacking on a hoagie would ask, "how much?".

It is....what it is....Nothing special, just low prices....kind of like GM....even the name says it all..."General Motors".....like a government label; "auto, green, 1 each...."...

I've got more taste between my toes than the two combined....

Sure....
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