Do you shop at Wal-Mart? (Portland, Troutdale: insurance, buying, pharmacy)

[TechmanOR]

Do you ever shop at Wal-Mart in Portland? There are two in our town, both on 82nd Avenue, one at Holgate, one in Clackamas.

[hamellr]

There is another one out near Troutdale on highway 84.

I refuse to shop Walmart at all due to their practices and the fact that most everything they sell seems to be cheap junk that needs to be replaced every other year. They're at the fore front of the recent scandals of unsafe Chinese Products by forcing ever cheaper production methods.

Between sexual harassment suits, their lack of health care support for workers by making everyone work part time, their habit of destroying local economies and a host of other issues I do not see how anyone can ethically shop there.

Check out Wal-Mart Watch | Fighting for Wal-Mart Workers | Employee Free Choice Act for a lot more information.

[scottinpdx]

I actually worked for walmart for 3 years in early 2000 and never had a problem with them. I worked full time plus overtime and was paid ALL my hours and overtime. Had all my benefits, profit sharing, etc. I thought it was a good company to work for.

[juggler]

I don't live anywhere near a Walmart now, but when I lived in Texas, we shopped there quite frequently for kids clothes and consumables (e.g. detergent, shampoo, toothpaste, motor oil, etc.)

Yes, Walmart has some questionable practices and some of the stuff they sell is indeed cheap junk. I would never buy "furniture" from them, for instance. However, it's not like all their competitors are absolute angels either. Walmart, being the biggest, just happens to get the most attention from the naysayers. People who believe otherwise are just deluding themselves.

[karlsch]

What gets me is the hypocrisy of Wal-Mart hating politicians like Sam Adams. They do everything they can to keep Wal-Mart from building new stores, but then they bend over backwards, even bending the rules, to get Ikea to locate in Portland.

Ikea does the same things that they hate about Wal-Mart. They sell cheap imported crap much of which is made in Asia by low paid workers. They put local merchants out of business. They have huge parking lots. They don’t pay high wages. Etc. etc. They do have better benefits, but Wal-Mart is rapidly closing the gap.

What they do better than Wal-Mart is build unsightly buildings. Their size puts Wal-Mart’s to shame. And the gaudy colors – bright blue and yellow – a Wal-Mart painted those colors would be burned to the ground by Wal-Mart haters.

I almost forgot to mention the gaudy flags and the giant gaudy sign that certainly doesn’t conform to the spirit of the Oregon billboard regulations.

But all of this is ok because Ikea serves Swedish meatballs in their cafeteria and Sweden is a liberal country.

Upper Left Coast: IKEA vs. Wal-Mart

Lars Larson on IKEA vs Walmart - The Oregon Catalyst

[PNW-type-gal]

Wal-Mart lead the charge to the bottom - requiring prices from vendors that couldn't be obtained in the US, and pushing everything off-shore. I don't see any reason to reward that. The fact that they've been green-washing themselves in the last couple years doesn't cut it.

I briefly shopped there because of the $4 scripts - but stopped when they couldn't/wouldn't tell me who the manufacturer of the generic was or where they came from. My local pharmacy (who WILL tell me where they buy from) is only slightly more. Besides, their local store has terrible produce, and when you go to the meat counter, everything is labeled "Product of US/Canada/Mexico" - I'm not buying food out of a supply chain that long.

IKEA is a non-issue for me because nothing there is a "have to buy" - it's all stuff I can get elsewhere.

[LeftCoastee]

I'm sure there is some hypocrisy, but its not as rampant as its made to seem. There is no comparing Ikea to Walmart.

Have you ever dealth with Walmart from a business perspective? Ever dealt with Walmart corporate? Do so and then come back and tell me they are like any other business entity you've ever dealt with. The only other entity thats similar is the US Government. Not surprising since they both have the largest private and public workforces respectively and can impose their will by brute force.

I find it ironic that most people that complain about anit-Walmart people do so the using the whole "crazy liberal" argument. You don't have to be a liberal to not want to deal with Walmart, I can attest to that.

I find Walmart itself to be the most hypocritical of all. How does a company that censors the books / magazines / music it sells under the guise of having a higher standard then go and take out life insurance policies on rank-and-file employees? They get to deduct the premiums and cash-in when an employee dies. How does a corporate entity claim stake to the lives of a cashier? I guess they can't since they were forced to stop that practice.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

I briefly shopped there because of the $4 scripts - but stopped when they couldn't/wouldn't tell me who the manufacturer of the generic was or where they came from. My local pharmacy (who WILL tell me where they buy from) is only slightly more. Besides, their local store has terrible produce, and when you go to the meat counter, everything is labeled "Product of US/Canada/Mexico" - I'm not buying food out of a supply chain that long.

Along those lines... The Wal-Mart Supercenter in my community has the required inspection notices for its Bakery and Meat departments posted near their back-of-the-store bathroom area and guess what they say? Not inspected... I would never buy any food from a Wal-Mart ever. I do not shop there for anything and wouldn't unless it was an emergency somehow.

[Cornerguy1]

If folks want to argue about the merits of Sam Walton's contribution to modern society, that's okay with me...........but not in the Portland forum.

Try Politics or Other Topics for this particular discussion.