I hear a lot of people here complaining about walmart, saying that it is an evil empire, that it will be the doom to small business, etc. What they don't realize is that at one time, Sears was the same way. They were absolutely huge.

Just wait, Wal-Mart won't be huge forever.

 

I think that what they fail to realize is that for no longer than we americans keep items, we don't need the best. It needs to be able to function ONCE. Wal Mart offers these products at a great price. It used to be that Sears WAS the place to get things, with the price savings Wal Mart is now THE place to get them.

 

Being a large corporation and being competitive with smaller stores is not the only things people are complaining about, though. Everything from labor relations issues to political issues to land use, you name it they're getting blamed for it.

I don't shop at Walmart that much... not for any of those reasons, just because I hate going in to Walmart. It smells funny, there are too many people, there are TVs everywhere telling me how great Walmart is... not a great atmosphere.

 

they also sold products made in this country.


I watched WM start to tear apart a small town firsthand, My college towqn. When I started visiting the town (pre enrollment) untill driving throught it this day, walmart started as a regular one, then they added the gas station and became a superwalmart. Then 2 grovery stores closed, lots of small shops on the town square shut down.

Thankfully The city will not grant WM a liqour licience, I'm sure they'd undercut that business as well.

Walmart is known to come to a rural town, with bottom of the barrel prices, so everyone shops there, THEN stores close, leaving only WM and then WM raises thier prices.

Its also a known fact that the specific walmart Im refering to pays zero property taxes, yet the cops are called out there as many as 5 times per day..

"way to give back to the community"

 

It was just announced here yesterday that Wal-Mart will start building more Superstores to compete with our Huge Grocery chains.


I was in a Wal-Mart Superstore in Cottonwoood Az this fall.

That store was humoungoid

 

JakeOO, you are absolutely correct about them coming in and undercutting all other businesses until they are the only ones left. They are now wanting to get into the banking business, car sales, and others businesses as well. I am all for business competition but there has to be a point where enough is enough.

 

I'm pro wal-mart. Without places like wal-mart the small business man gets lazy. We've had 1 grocery store and a couple small shops close here because of WM but to be honest all they did was weed out the crap. The small businesses still around have something to offer that wal-mart doesn't, customer service. You can park an old man at the door to say hello but what you really need is an employee that knows the difference between a screw driver and a hammer. That's something WM will never be real stong in. No matter how big WM gets there will still be room for the little guy. The only difference is the little guy is just going to have to be smarter.

 

The new supercenter wal-marts are too big. We have one up in Fargo, and just recently got one back home in the Cities. It honest to god takes a good 5-10 minutes to walk to the back of the store depending on how busy the store is. Thats ridiculous.

 

We have one of the old small Walmarts here and I love it. Not a full line of groceries, but that's ok as I work in a grocery store. I can get oil and filters, clothes, electronics, cat food and litter, pistol and rifle shells, furnace filters, basic plumbing and electric supplies, tools, lawn mowers, girley stuff for the wife and almost everything else I need. I hope we don't get a SC.

 

and the walmart where i live now, the lowest of the low class shop/steal there. Withen 1 block there is a kmart, target, kohls and a few other stores, so the lowest common denominator shop at walmart, and anyone who doesn't look like scum looks like theyre on the sex offender registry.

 

It maybe be cheap to buy things at walmart but you will pay in other ways !

In the last fiscal year, the state government spent $270.2 million for MinnesotaCare, a program that provides assistance for people who don't have access to affordable insurance. Yet no one in the state government knows which employers have the most workers enrolled in the program.

"If it's true what people say, that big multinational companies are outsourcing health care to taxpayers, then it would be good to have a handle on which ones," said Rep. Sheldon Johnson, DFL-St. Paul. "It's just information."

But it's information that Wal-Mart fears, and for good reason. In other states that have compiled such lists, Wal-Mart has come at or near the top among employers with workers enrolled in state medical assistance. Once such findings are made public, they can be used by opponents of Wal-Mart to stir up support for punitive measures against big-box retailers.

By Chris Serres - Star Tribune
June 1, 2005
Walmart is bad,low wages,no benifits.

 

Yep,if you want to see white trash walmart has it in stock.

 

Ha ha! That sounds exactly like our walmart.

My wife worked at the one here for a while, and told me that one day she saw some little girl squat down and pee on the floor in the corner of the dairy section. I guess they also had a little boy drop a stink pickle in the middle of the toy isle on another occasion.

 

Walmart is fine IF you know what you want and just want it for the lowest price. If you need help deciding what you want, or how to use it (plumbing, etc), you don't go to Walmart. Walmart's pay structure pretty much guarantees that they're not going to employ a lot of people with a lot of experience in anything except retail. That guy greeting people at the door may be a retired plumber or carpenter, but you're not going to know it, and they're not going to let him help you even if he is.

I guess I'm not too sympathetic to banks. They've had a good time nickelling and diming their customers with fees and charges the last few years, now it's time they suffer a little too. I'm not going to bank with Walmart myself--happy with two credit unions--but if they want to try banking, hey, good for them. I do think they'll have to consider a different pay scale for bankers, as opposed to shelf stockers and checkout clerks, though.

 

BAHAHAHAHA....
We're not biased in anyway are we?