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While I agree with most of the original points, in general, there's 2 sides to the story.
Walmart pays decent wages. Not great, but good enough. Anybody who sticks around and works fairly hard can move up the line quickly and get into the $20/hr range- and $40,000+ per year in cheap retail is pretty good pay. Could they do better? Clearly, but again, they do well enough. Also, people come there to SAVE MONEY- they wouldn't be the least expensive if they started workers at $15/hr. That's what makes then Walmart.
As to how they buy their goods, it's the same formula as Costco, Target and the rest of the chain stores. They just seem to be better at it.
As for me, while there are indeed a lot of inconveniences there, they do a darn good business and I go there to save money- like most people.
I always seem to agree with you B P, and this is no exception. OTOH, SCGranny makes some good points too.
My wife and I do the bulk of our grocery shopping at WalMart, and we also buy things like vacuum cleaner bags there, i.e. anything disposable. For hard goods like small appliances or for clothing we shop around and do not always buy such things on price alone. Sadly, though, most of the small appliances are all made in China now (no matter where you shop), and quality has certainly dropped.
For instance, our son-in-law hinted that he would like to have a milk shake blending machine like my Hamilton Beach (going strong now since 1976), so we bought him one for his birthday. It turns out to be a cheap plastic imitation of my 32 -- almost 33 -- year old version. Such is life, though, and it saddens me to think that the USA is, as granny noted, just a place with a bunch of service jobs. Pretty soon half the country will be serving fast food hamburgers to the other half, and we'll all be forced into buying Japanese cars. Given the current economic crisis, buying a Japanese car is the most unpatriotic thing an American can do. A far more serious deed than shopping at Walmart, I'm afraid.
Oh year, and for those who'll say that those Hondas etc are built here, that may be true, but the profits go back to Japan.
Obviously the toilet paper, etc is the same if it is the same brand. Don't be dumb.
Anyone who is accusing me of being a snob or shopping at Barney's are WRONG.
Just because I choose to NOT shop at Walmart does not put me instantly at Nordstrom and Bloomingdales.
Why should I not assume your royal touche is not good enough for Walmart TP? Like the other poster had mentioned, your post sounds arrogant, snotty and condescending. I'm not dumb. I dare you to post that word again in response to my post. I hope you've read the TOS for the Great Debates forum.
I don't know nor care where you shop, but when you make a sweeping generalization that 90% of what they sell there is junk, "because your clothes fell apart" is fallacious, then you deserve every bit of what is thought of you, especially since my post specifically mentioned household items like toilet paper and detergent. You seem bent on the attack already...tsk tsk tsk.
Last edited by BagongBuhay; 12-04-2008 at 01:26 PM..
Walmart could not care less about repairing its image. I doesn't need to.
People will always need to work there, so they'll always have enough workers.
Customers will always shop at the cheapest place, regardless of whom it may be hurting.
Suppliers will always want to sell to them, even though Walmart will cut out most of their profits, because of the quantities involved.
So, OP can boycott all he wants, but it makes not one whit of difference to Walmart.
Why should I not assume your royal touche is not good enough for Walmart TP? Like the other poster had mentioned, your post sounds arrogant, snotty and condescending. I'm not dumb. I dare you to post that word again in response to my post. I hope you've read the TOS for the Great Debates forum.
I don't know nor care where you shop, but when you make a sweeping generalization that 90% of what they sell there is junk, "because your clothes fell apart" is fallacious, then you deserve every bit of what is thought of you, especially since my post specifically mentioned household items like toilet paper and detergent. You seem bent on the attack already...tsk tsk tsk.
Your insults were just as bad. (Elitist, Snotty) And I do not give a cr*p about what you think of me. I know where I shop and I really could care less where you shop or if you shop at Wally world. You keep going there and I will keep going where I like to go.
My main focus on this thread has been about this poor man who died and why the blame should be put on WALMART. They were not in control of the situation. They never should have opened the doors until they were. Period, end of story.
Your insults were just as bad. (Elitist, Snotty) And I do not give a cr*p about what you think of me. I know where I shop and I really could care less where you shop or if you shop at Wally world. You keep going there and I will keep going where I like to go.
My main focus on this thread has been about this poor man who died and why the blame should be put on WALMART. They were not in control of the situation. They never should have opened the doors until they were. Period, end of story.
Owning a home in a small Texas town, I went to a local "mom and pop" type automotive supply yesterday to purchase an aftermarket horn part for a Ford truck I have been working on. The charge for the part was $23.98. I later called Autozone in a larger town about 35 miles away and the very same part was $9.45.
Walmart may sell a lot of "junk" but at least they don't ask three prices for the same product like the traditional mom and pop shops they supposedly unfairly replace. What makes it worse, is that I buy a lot of parts from this local store and the owners still act as if I am a tourist. I say go Walmart. It's one of the few American businesses not wanting, or needing, a bailout.
If the man who was trampled felt that he wasn't trained or capable of controlling the ravenous, classless beasts who trampled him, he should have told the person who appointed him to that position. He, however, must have thought that he was capable of holding the crowd back. He clearly wasn't. Is that Walmart's fault? No. I presume that he was old enough to know what he was doing.
It seems that you disliked Walmart well before this trampling incident occurred. It is ridiculous that you are using this man's death as leverage on your thinking that Walmart is "bad." Place the blame on the people in line.
while i agree with most of the rest of what you said, how do you think a single man is going to control 2,000 people? it is just not possible.
I'm not very smart when it comes to physics, but say the average weight of the people in that line is 150Lb,X 2,000 people, that nearly equals the weight of 4 fully loaded semis. I don't know anyone who can stop 1, let alone 4 semis.
Also, the man could have said whatever he wanted to the crowd, that isn't going to stop them when they're angry because a couple people were let in the store, although the people in the crowd didn't know they were employees coming to work.
We live in a area that has a 24 hour Wal-Mart and nothing like has ever happened. People are already in line and waiting before the sale starts. Now, I have seen a few fist fights due to line cutting, but the smartest thing for Wal-Mart to do is to open their doors early, keep the inventory wrapped, like they do at the 24 hour stores and just have constant security watching and give out tickets to those in line for big items like Best Buy does.
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