Evil Walmart?

[Jammrock]

My wife used to work for a Walmart supplier, which will remain unnamed. Walmart is in fact evil. And they're not as cheap as everyone says.

SUre they'll sell you a $3 gallon jar of pickles, but they jack up the prices on items commonly associated with eating pickles and call them 'every day low prices.' That or they sell you such low-end filth that it's not worth the materials it's made out.

There is a reason a company can sell billions of dollars of products a year and make huge profits. And it's not dumb luck. They are very smart, calculating business people.

Jammrock

[MultimediaMan]

Wombat, it is you who have programmed...quoting 20/20 and rags like that who are getting all of their information from Unions.
It's like saying Idi Amin was a benevolent man of the people.

KvH: Are you morally superior for buying a case of Toilet paper for $5.00 rather than $4.00 at Wal-Mart?

Dilletante: Go to a store and have them pull up the Handbook for you..it's all online now.

To all of you: MUST any of you shop at Wal-Mart? No. But many of you CHOOSE to. And that's what this is about.

[isochar]

No offense intended MM, but it's quite ironic that you have an Agent Smith avatar and talking about not being programmed and telling everyone they have a choice.

[Jon P. Inghram]

I'm frightened by you, MM... You work for a megacorporation and actually enjoy it?!? AAAIIEEEE!!!!!

[Elie]

I never ever set a foot in the following stores...

1-Walmart
2-Zellers
3-K-mart which is now I believe Walmart

They are unprofessional pathetic chains the plaig that industry with garbage as products!!!!



Sorry, had to vent!

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by MultimediaMan
KvH: Are you morally superior for buying a case of Toilet paper for $5.00 rather than $4.00 at Wal-Mart?

Like I said, it isn't necessarily cheaper, but yes, I am. I also get in and out more quickly and don't have to wait forever while some 400 lb trailer trash scum waddles her fat ass in front of me or any of the other lowlives who want the cheap crap Wal-Mart sells get in my way and generally pollute my karmic space.

To all of you: MUST any of you shop at Wal-Mart? No. But many of you CHOOSE to. And that's what this is about.

Yes.. some people MUST shop at Wal-Mart or go out of town. As I said in my post, if my aunt wants to buy a spool of thread in her town (pop 15,000) she can't get one anywhere but Wal-Mart. Why? Because the majority of people are sheep and went to Wal-Mart, causing smaller stores to go out of business. Prices weren't even necessarily lower, but the morons who go to Wal-Mart won't check that.. they just believe the hype. Same as the morons who think Bose are the best speakers because that's what their ignorant inbred friends tell them.

Before it closed, I shopped for stuff like paper towels and toilet paper at K-Mart. But a certain unchecked (virtual) monopoly has put them out of business in this city (pop 50,000). Prices immediately went up at Wal-Mart. It was also next to impossible to find everything I was looking for there. I spent three times as long there as I had at K-Mart. I really wish Target would move to town.. at least that would be some kind of alternative.

[Brian R.]

That reminds me. I need some shoelaces. I wonder where I can get some...

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Elie
I never ever set a foot in the following stores...

1-Walmart
2-Zellers
3-K-mart which is now I believe Walmart

They are unprofessional pathetic chains the plaig that industry with garbage as products!!!!



Sorry, had to vent!

I hear ya.

[Brian Ellis]

I agree with UtwigMu that this kind of thing is not unique to the USA. It happens in any country where a given retailer has a major slice of the market (i.e. > 10%), such as Carrefour in France, Tesco in the UK and so on.

My granddaughter is a student but works all day Saturday for Migros, the very major Swiss retailer. The difference with WalMart is that Migros is actually a co-operative and most of the products are sold under Migros' own brands (about 50 of them). I won't say her salary is exactly likely to make her a millionairess, but it is correct for someone with no qualifications: she gets more for one day per week than my grandson who is apprenticed to a surveyor and works 3 days/week plus two days at college. The quality of Migros' products (food or non-food) is very competitive and they treat their customers correctly when they have cause for complaint of any nature. They also have a large social influence within the country. BUT, they do the same as WalMart in the purchasing department. I knew two or three companies which supplied Migros and went to the wall, as a result - and took their suppliers with them, as well. I had one item that interested them; they wanted me to supply them on an exclusive basis and it would have more than decupled our throughput but reduced our profit. I offered them non-exclusivity - they counter-argued with a quantity and price reduction and I then told them to take a long walk on a short pier. If I had accepted their contract, we would have immediately gone into a zero-profit situation and, after a year or so, they would have turned the screws to tip us over the limit.

I hold nothing against Migros - they were trying to do their best according to their needs.

In this country, there isn't a dominant supermarket chain and the three or four main ones (each with just a handful of shops, one in each main city) are all profiteers with high mark-ups, so that the corner mom-and-pop shop is often reasonably competitive - and there are many of them. As just one example, I wanted some pecans the other day. I was in a major fruit shop and two large supermarkets for other reasons and they had them at £5.60, £5.50 and £5.90/kg, a price I baulked at. In the local village shop, I found them at £4.50/kg, and the shopkeeper buys only one 20 kg bag at a time. If anyone blackmails the consumers here, it's the farmers. A couple of years ago, there was a poor potato crop and the farmers banded together and upped the price to £1.50/kg (retail), which made them more expensive than any other local veggie or fruit, including aubergines, courgettes, caulis, carrots, apples oranges etc. Needless to say, the sales plummeted and the farmers suffered most, in the long run, so they sought a subsidy from the government, who gave them short shrift. Actually, my wife found that frozen chips (fries) in the supermarkets were cheaper/kg than the fresh spuds!

[GT98]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
I shopped for stuff like paper towels and toilet paper at K-Mart. But a certain unchecked (virtual) monopoly has put them out of business in this city (pop 50,000). Prices immediately went up at Wal-Mart. It was also next to impossible to find everything I was looking for there. I spent three times as long there as I had at K-Mart. I really wish Target would move to town.. at least that would be some kind of alternative.

Well thats werid thing in my Area, we have several of the Same store type with in a reasonable drive from where I live. I can count 5 Targets with in a 45 minute driving radius and I about 3-4 Walmarts. We still have mom and pop stores here also. I think the reason Walmart gets such a bad rap is that in less denesly populated areas (well thats like 98% of the US when your talking about NJ) is that it drives everyone else out of busniess. I don't care for Walmart myself all that much sinces its dirty and the type of people who shop there (though it does hold a morbid curiosty for me at times to people watch in there) and it doesnt help that I work part time accross the street at Target, where we are anal about keeping everything clean and I get 10% off

[Jammrock]

To all of you: MUST any of you shop at Wal-Mart? No. But many of you CHOOSE to. And that's what this is about.

I avoid going to WalMart at all costs. They're "Everyday Low Prices" aren't really that low. What stuff they do have that is significantly cheaper is more often than not of vastly inferior quality. The stores are all shoddy, poorly kept, bland, filth piles. It takes half an hour just to get through the checkout lines. I find their advertising rather misleading (i.e. their meats and produce are NOT fresh, or cheap, though their ads say otherwise) And knowing people who have supplied to WalMart, I don't find their business practices very ethical.

I go to WalMart ... MAYBE ... twice a year, and then only if their is one or two items that are on exceptional sale, and then only to run in and run out as fast as humanly possible.

If I do have to go to a megastore, I go to Target. Good products and good prices, and you don't have to put up with the WalMart crap.

Jammrock

[agallag]

I only shop at walmart for things that I know are identical to what is available elsewhere (name brand toiletries, snack foods, etc.) and are significantly cheaper. I don't shop there for any other misc. goods like housewares or clothes, because it all looks so damn cheap. You get what you pay for most of the time.

I couldn't buy clothes there even if I wanted to though, they don't carry anything for anyone above the 90th percentile in height. Concidering I'm in the 99.97th percentile, I'm outta luck. My inseam is 4.5 inches longer than the longest pants they stock.

[Kooldino]

Mm, cheap pickles.

[GNEP]

The only effective regulation for large shops ousting "community-building" smaller businesses is in the planning control/permission system. This has, I believe, already been realised by most (local) governments in western Europe. In fact, one of the key determinants on the profitability of petrol retail sites in any country is the local planning laws...

There has to be a balance between maintaining competition by allowing new build, and maintenance of town-centrist local society. The US probably errs on the side of the former, north-west Europe on the side of the latter.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by GNEP
There has to be a balance between maintaining competition by allowing new build, and maintenance of town-centrist local society. The US probably errs on the side of the former, north-west Europe on the side of the latter.

Well, the character of the new build determines whether competition is enhanced or destroyed. There is also a question if there is a single good shop in town that can survive without any competition because of the town's size. This is the only case in which I can see a "monopoly" being a good thing.