Whole Foods signs South Hills lease (Upper St. Clair, St. Clair: condominiums, crime, townhouses)

[greg42]

Originally Posted by sskink

They might like a Wal*Mart even more. If you look at the electoral map, the WF development butts right up against one of the reddest parts of USC.

Heh, I suppose there is some electoral correlation with the two brands, but their thinking is quite out of whack if they think Whole Foods would draw more people, more traffic, more riffraff, etc vs something like Walmart. Of course, it would hardly be the first time someone's groupthink was way out of whack.

[SteelCityRising]

I would legitimately oppose the construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Upper St. Clair, but people in the South Hills are truly more NIMBY than I thought they were if they're afraid of a WHOLE FOODS attracting "riff-raff". A new big-box shopping development, anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, now abuts my parents' subdivision in a rapidly growing suburb of Scranton. They've had nothing but problems with human trash since the complex opened. My mother was pulling into the driveway once after work and found township police vehicles everywhere. It turns out an illegal immigrant stole a laptop from the Wal-Mart and ran into the backyard shed, barricading himself, as he was chased by Wal-Mart security (that in and of itself says a lot about your store's clientele when you need your own security forces). Another time their next-door neighbor's home, which directly adjoins Wal-Mart's parking lot, was broken into. There have also been increased occurrences in their subdivision of suspicious people wandering/prowling. When I was growing up there in the 1990s the neighborhood was very peaceful and tranquil.

I can't understand in this day and age how people could still shop at Wal-Mart given all that's been released about how so many of their full-time employees can't afford to purchase their own health insurance that is offered by the company, allegations of gender/racial bias and overtime fraud, evidence of sweat shop labor being utilized to supply their stores, etc. I worked for Lowe's, another big-box retailer, and I can safely say that you CAN operate a corporate goliath while ALSO treating your employees (and the community) very well. I've boycotted Wal-Mart since I attended a 2005 rally for the group "Wake-Up Wal-Mart" and saw the DVD "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price". I'm a fraction above the poverty line, and if I can find a way to shop elsewhere to ease my conscience then I don't know why so many others can't.

[PB&J O'Rourke]

Did you know that literally every store bigger than a mom and pop has their own security team?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by PB&J O'Rourke

Did you know that literally every store bigger than a mom and pop has their own security team?

Lowe's didn't when I worked there. We had a loss prevention officer who dressed in normal attire, but we didn't have a security force.

[PB&J O'Rourke]

That location was an outlier then.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I can't understand in this day and age how people could still shop at Wal-Mart...

I'm a fraction above the poverty line, and if I can find a way to shop elsewhere to ease my conscience then I don't know why so many others can't.

I have bought exactly one thing at Walmart in my entire life. I happened to have Thanksgiving dinner in 2000 at the house of a friend for whom Black Friday is blood sport, and she wanted to go there after we finished dinner. I needed a Discman for a trip the next day, and I found a cheap and cheerless version there for $9. Unless I kept this disc player motionless, it was a total POS; it barely got me back and forth on my trip. That was it. No more Walmart.

[PB&J O'Rourke]

Originally Posted by jay5835

I have bought exactly one thing at Walmart in my entire life. I happened to have Thanksgiving dinner in 2000 at the house of a friend for whom Black Friday is blood sport, and she wanted to go there after we finished dinner. I needed a Discman for a trip the next day, and I found a cheap and cheerless version there for $9. Unless I kept this disc player motionless, it was a total POS; it barely got me back and forth on my trip. That was it. No more Walmart.

So you bought a cheap generic product that any store could have stocked and somehow it's Walmart's fault?

[Goinback2011]

I'll definitely spend a portion of my food dollars at Whole Foods rather the Giant Eagle once they have a South Hills location.

[sparrowmint]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I would legitimately oppose the construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Upper St. Clair, but people in the South Hills are truly more NIMBY than I thought they were if they're afraid of a WHOLE FOODS attracting "riff-raff". A new big-box shopping development, anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, now abuts my parents' subdivision in a rapidly growing suburb of Scranton. They've had nothing but problems with human trash since the complex opened. My mother was pulling into the driveway once after work and found township police vehicles everywhere. It turns out an illegal immigrant stole a laptop from the Wal-Mart and ran into the backyard shed, barricading himself, as he was chased by Wal-Mart security (that in and of itself says a lot about your store's clientele when you need your own security forces). Another time their next-door neighbor's home, which directly adjoins Wal-Mart's parking lot, was broken into. There have also been increased occurrences in their subdivision of suspicious people wandering/prowling. When I was growing up there in the 1990s the neighborhood was very peaceful and tranquil.

I can't understand in this day and age how people could still shop at Wal-Mart given all that's been released about how so many of their full-time employees can't afford to purchase their own health insurance that is offered by the company, allegations of gender/racial bias and overtime fraud, evidence of sweat shop labor being utilized to supply their stores, etc. I worked for Lowe's, another big-box retailer, and I can safely say that you CAN operate a corporate goliath while ALSO treating your employees (and the community) very well. I've boycotted Wal-Mart since I attended a 2005 rally for the group "Wake-Up Wal-Mart" and saw the DVD "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price". I'm a fraction above the poverty line, and if I can find a way to shop elsewhere to ease my conscience then I don't know why so many others can't.

Despite often claiming to be so poor, you still manage to cram a lot of classism into one relatively short post. If you think even 10% of the retailers you do shop at are treating their workers well, you're out to lunch. Considering this is the United States, the joke of the west as far as labour laws go, one would be lucky if 5% of said retailers treated their workers well, maybe 1%. And you're a fraction above the poverty line? Great. Try being at or below it. With kids. In a city more expensive than Pittsburgh.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by PB&J O'Rourke

So you bought a cheap generic product that any store could have stocked and somehow it's Walmart's fault?

Well, that's where I bought it.