Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Economics
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-05-2014, 08:43 AM
 
Location: Verde Valley AZ
8,775 posts, read 11,873,724 times
Reputation: 11485

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks View Post
I don't understand what's up with people hating on other people who don't like Walmart. It reminds me of people on the internet verbally punching each other because they like Apple vs. Android. Some Walmart fans get pretty mean about other people disliking that store.



This is one of the reasons I dislike Walmart. Other stores are like this also, but Walmart is the worst offender. When did customers start thinking that it was their job to check themselves out in the first place? I don't agree, and it doesn't matter if I have 2 items or 200. I appreciate a little bit of service from my store at least. I am always polite and thank any employee who helps me. However, I am a customer making a company profit and customers are the reason every company exists. But Walmart, in its arrogance (and appararently AZ's as well) believes that it's the customer's job to find all their items themselves, check them out themselves, bag them up themselves, take them out to the car themselves, and put the cart back in the carrel themselves. No thanks. Because I get service (involving a human being) from my local HEB grocery, I spend my $500+/month on my groceries and other items there.
I think self checkouts came about because customers complained that cashiers took too long, they didn't like waiting in lines, etc.. They came about because customers requested them. They were never intended for people to scan two weeks worth of 'stuff' but as an extension of the '20 items or less' registers...which is why they are usually placed right next to them. If you need a babysitter to help you shop then maybe you should shop elsewhere.

I hear people complain that employees don't pay customers any attention. I hear that employees pay customers to MUCH attention and won't let them shop in peace. Nobody expects customers to do ALL of those things you mentioned themselves. It's the customers choice which way to go. If people want help out with their carts all they have to do is ask. We are always happy to accommodate them. I'd say it's the customers responsibility to place carts in corrals once they get to their car.

I'm sure HEB appreciates your shopping there. Lucky you don't HAVE to shop at Walmart.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-05-2014, 09:14 AM
 
Location: Niceville, FL
13,258 posts, read 22,738,840 times
Reputation: 16414
People don't hate that Walmart is successful; they hate it because their success comes at the expense of employees and the state budgets that have to pay food stamps and medicaid to Walmart employees. Walmart could easily afford to give all employees a $2 an hour raise if their top management stopped rebuying their own stock to prop up share prices. But they don't, and keep a huge number of their staff at or just above minimum wage and part time.

Compare them to some other big retailers- Costco is profitable and provides prices and has a long history of actually treating employees well and compensating them fairly. For all the fuss over birth control, (and I hate that they picked that hill to die on) Hobby Lobby is actually very employee-freindly. The majority of their employees are full time, which means they're making $14 an hour and have full benefits, and you're guaranteed a consistent day off every week, which is a big deal in the retail world. Other major grocers from the premium (Publix) to the budget (WinCo) are employee-owned- you can't buy their stock on the open market but you can buy if you worked there, and the cashiers and stockers who bought in fairly on have made huge profits on their initial investments.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Verde Valley AZ
8,775 posts, read 11,873,724 times
Reputation: 11485
Quote:
Originally Posted by beachmouse View Post
People don't hate that Walmart is successful; they hate it because their success comes at the expense of employees and the state budgets that have to pay food stamps and medicaid to Walmart employees. Walmart could easily afford to give all employees a $2 an hour raise if their top management stopped rebuying their own stock to prop up share prices. But they don't, and keep a huge number of their staff at or just above minimum wage and part time.

Compare them to some other big retailers- Costco is profitable and provides prices and has a long history of actually treating employees well and compensating them fairly. For all the fuss over birth control, (and I hate that they picked that hill to die on) Hobby Lobby is actually very employee-freindly. The majority of their employees are full time, which means they're making $14 an hour and have full benefits, and you're guaranteed a consistent day off every week, which is a big deal in the retail world. Other major grocers from the premium (Publix) to the budget (WinCo) are employee-owned- you can't buy their stock on the open market but you can buy if you worked there, and the cashiers and stockers who bought in fairly on have made huge profits on their initial investments.
One of the reasons Walmart has so many part time employees is because they employee over a million people and even with as many stores as they have there isn't enough business to hire all of them full time. Everyone starts at between $8-9 hour but the raises come fairly fast and regularly. I will soon be getting my 5th raise in 4 years so it adds up fairly quickly. Heck yeah, I'd take a $2 hour raise anytime but if it doesn't happen I'm still okay.

Yes, we do have some employees who get food stamps but it's not as much as what people think. For sure not as much as unemployed, etc.. When I went to work there I was getting food stamps for a few months and they told me I could still get $16 month, if I wanted it. I thought that was dumb and I sure didn't need it so I said "No". Some people have kids on Medicaid, yes, but they aren't. Every single employee of Walmart has access to health insurance, whether they work part- or full-time, and it's not expensive. Why some of them stick with Medicaid, I don't know, except it's 'free' unlike company insurance. As for days off, a Walmart employee can modify their hours/days of availability to get what they want...within reason. For a long while I was getting a lot of split days off and it wasn't working for me so I changed it. We have quite a few people going to college and Walmart is really good about scheduling...AND financial help...for them.

If Walmart was such a bad place to work for I doubt we'd have employees who've been there up to 25 years...since the doors opened here. It still surprises me how many people I work with have been there for so many years. I am still kicking myself for not going to work there 10 years ago when I moved back to my hometown. I'd be fully vested by now and feeling pretty comfortable about my financial future. Yesterday I was reading our company magazine and there are pages and pages of people who've been with Walmart for 20-30-40 years. Yup, they are a terrible company to work for!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 10:18 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,769,827 times
Reputation: 28561
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
I would dispute your second paragraph as a general rule, even as I admit it is true in certain situations. Let's take clothing. I have purchased most of my socks and underwear at Walmart for the past 10 or more years and I cannot notice any lack of longevity. At higher end department stores, let's consider what you are actually paying for (in addition to the items themselves): higher priced real estate in better neighborhoods, advertising in more expensive publications, a higher sales clerk to customer ratio (great for convenience but doesn't add any quality to the merchandise), brand names with greater "cachet" (nice for feeling good about oneself, but questionable as an indicator of quality).

I have also purchased men's dress slacks at Kmart which seem to last forever.

Where do you draw the line on stores? 20, 30, 40 years ago (I am 70) I bought most of my clothing at Sears and JCPenny and it seemed to last forever. Could never understand the rational and objective reason for shopping at higher-end places. Could it be that there is a real difference between men's and women's clothing in this regard?
Clothes 20+ years ago are infinitely better made than ones now. These days, if you look at a trench coat from cheap to mid range, the buttons are sewn so poorly they are already about to fall off.

Now clothing quality is terrible at all price points.

But some categories of clothing have little differences. (Like cotton socks).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 10:26 AM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
45,092 posts, read 60,158,471 times
Reputation: 60682
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks View Post
No. That's not the reason we don't like Walmart. The people who discuss not liking Walmart tell you exactly why we don't like this corporation. I have no problem with Exxon, Apple, Amazon, or the hundreds or other corporations that are enormously successful.................

In bold: Much of it untrue or totally wrong.

Underlined: Right (in a sarcastic tone of voice). Well take out Exxon, you likely have an issue with them. Fracking or something.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 10:29 AM
 
Location: The Northeast - hoping one day the Northwest!
1,107 posts, read 1,446,513 times
Reputation: 1012
Walmart can be hit or miss. A lot of times though, when I do go there, it's after midnight. (all the ones in my area are open 24/7) and I've never had any problem w/ quality. A lot of things too for groceries are a lot cheaper! One salad I live for example is $1 cheaper at Walmart. The cereal I like is about $1.50 cheaper. Those are just two items that I know if. Add it up at the end, and you are saving a good amount of money. Luckily since I go at off times, the lines are very long. Actually i've noticed where I live now compared to where I used to live, the lines any time of day are better. Maybe this area has a good DM?

The desktop we have at home, is a Walmart desk and it's nice. Might not be real wood, but that isn't what we were looking for. Just a decent price and something that had good ratings. Our curtains in the living room are Walmart.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 10:46 AM
 
Location: Niceville, FL
13,258 posts, read 22,738,840 times
Reputation: 16414
As a resident of the northern Gulf Coast, I regard Exxon in its current form as a far lesser evil than BP. Haven't bought BP gas since the oil spill a few years back.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 11:16 AM
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
4,009 posts, read 6,842,813 times
Reputation: 4608
I personally don't like to shop at Walmart either. When I first moved to the U.S, I thought it was pretty amazing, but once the novelty wore off I decided it really wasn't for me. My reasons for not choosing to shop at Walmart are as follows:

1) Target (an extended one with full groceries) is much, much closer
2) I buy most of my fresh produce from the Farmers Markets or a local green grocer, as the quality is usually better and it's usually cheaper than Walmart.
3) 99% of the time, my baby son is with me when I'm shopping. He has a pretty short attention span and the grocery section at Target is about the ideal size for me to get through the aisles in a quick enough time that he doesn't start fussing and screaming to go home. Walmart is so huge and spread out that a shopping trip there takes me longer
4) My closest Walmart is miserable. It's in a much poorer area (with higher crime), and I don't feel safe in the parking lot (one of the few times I went there I had an issue), or in the building itself with baby in tow. It's very seedy.
5) I never feel that I have a valid reason to go to Walmart. I buy clothes for our family at places like Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Kohls, Ross, etc, groceries at Target and the Green Grocers, and Furniture from Craigslist or Estate Sales.

The Walmart is on the way home from my husband's work, so sometimes he'll stop in there to pick up an item or two that we ran out of or that I forgot on my prior grocery trip, but even he can't stand it. He always says they have 20 registers with only 3 open, and a line of about 8 people at each.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 11:29 AM
 
Location: Buckeye, AZ
38,936 posts, read 23,800,954 times
Reputation: 14125
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks View Post
This is one of the reasons I dislike Walmart. Other stores are like this also, but Walmart is the worst offender. When did customers start thinking that it was their job to check themselves out in the first place? I don't agree, and it doesn't matter if I have 2 items or 200. I appreciate a little bit of service from my store at least. I am always polite and thank any employee who helps me. However, I am a customer making a company profit and customers are the reason every company exists. But Walmart, in its arrogance (and appararently AZ's as well) believes that it's the customer's job to find all their items themselves, check them out themselves, bag them up themselves, take them out to the car themselves, and put the cart back in the carrel themselves. No thanks. Because I get service (involving a human being) from my local HEB grocery, I spend my $500+/month on my groceries and other items there.
This is the one thing I can agree with that is not anything about clientele. I agree self-checkout can be an annoyance especially when it doesn't read that you put the shirt in the bag before you try and scan the say the pants you bought. This has happened to me a few times. I will not use it for alcohol or cds and dvds with those boxes just because it is supposed to be a time saver if you have maybe five scan-able items and the express lines are as packed as the traditional lines.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 11:29 AM
 
Location: The #1 sunshine state, Arizona.
12,169 posts, read 17,612,891 times
Reputation: 64102
Quote:
Originally Posted by missik999 View Post
1. My time is worth more than my money. I don't like to deal with checkout lines, clueless customers and slow employees. Customers often don't have their method of payment ready and wait until the total is announced before starting to dig in their bag.

2. You get what you pay for. I will choose quality over quantity, always. Does it really save you money if you have to use twice as much of an off-brand detergent to wash a load of clothes? Or if the cheap quality clothing shrinks or falls apart and has to be replaced?

3. The shopping environment is depressing. Why do so many Walmart shoppers look like they have lost their last hope in life? Or are morbidly obese with carts full of junk food? And why do the kids of Walmart shoppers run, climb, shriek, scream and misbehave in general?
Oh thanks, thats funny, because none of those reasons are exclusive to Walmart.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Economics
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top