The end of the Walmart Era

[isasir]

Uh, was his link ever fixed, or is this just a generic Walmart bashing thread?

 

[electronicmaji]

Walmart in small cities usually rock.

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: codeyf
I don't care for the Walmart near me (164th Lynnwood, WA). Compared to Target, the store feels dirty, cramped, and overall unpleasant. I'm all for a good deal, but don't care for feeling like I'm on welfare (or should be).

Hah...I shopped at the store...ONCE. Never been back for many of the same reasons. I've heard the one in Rainier Valley makes the Lynnwood store seem like Macy's.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: NeuroSynapsis

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Jim Cramer on Mad Money said it best: "Walmart needs an image change. I feel so poor and depressed when I walk in their stores."

This same thing happened to KMart, and look where they are now. Target is the up and coming store: decent stuff, good prices, clean cheery stores. Walmart's bad PR recently hasn't done much for their shopping base either.

The problem I have with Target is they can be quite a bit more expensive on the exact same item you can buy at Wal-Mart. Now if you want to buy clothes or furniture, Target has much better quality stuff in this department. (Why would any one buy furniture at Wal-Mart?)

I'd pay an extra 3 bucks on my purchase to not deal with the walmart crap (crowds, messiness, shittyness in general). I'm pretty sure I've already read the article the OP wants to link to, and it says the same thing: people are willing to pay more to not deal with Walmart

Who'd a thunkit, it's a free country! You are free to shop wherever you want, why waste your time bashing Wal-Mart?

 

[compman25]

Originally posted by: Kaelyn
I loathe this crappy organization and what it does to small business owners in a community.
Some very nice people who had small business that I grew up going to with my Mom and then shopped at later myself... were forced to pack up shop and leave their stores because Wal-Mart basically bought everything right out from under them. It's not so much that these people had to move their business, but the way Wal-Mart handled it. They were given 15 day notices to vacate and none of the people I knew could find a place to move their shop to so quickly. So they were not able to sustain or continue their once thriving small businesses.

I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart in almost 7 years and I will never shop in one again. I hope they eventually choke, and drown. :evil: Die Wal-Mart, Die.

If those business owners truly signed leases that gave the property owner the right to give 15 day eviction notices then they were going to fail anyways. And I find it hard to believe thay thought Wal Mart was buying the land to become property managers and not buying it to open a Wal Mart.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: preslove
In my home town they tried to buy a tract of land to build a superwalmart right over the HEADWATERS of the local river/creek. The city said no (apparently they like clean drinking water) & was willing to give them tax breaks on this other piece of land that the town wanted redeveloped, but wal-mart only clear cuts land for their stores. They ended up trying to force their plan through the city commission, but were, thank god, rejected.

That company is just run by dick heads. I don't have anything against the business model, but the management is evil.

This made me hate this particular corporation. Some companies are just bad news.

lol how the hell did that policy get past legal?

btw you have to be fucking retarded to think you're not allowed to use the fire door when you've broken your ankle.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: preslove
In my home town they tried to buy a tract of land to build a superwalmart right over the HEADWATERS of the local river/creek. The city said no (apparently they like clean drinking water) & was willing to give them tax breaks on this other piece of land that the town wanted redeveloped, but wal-mart only clear cuts land for their stores. They ended up trying to force their plan through the city commission, but were, thank god, rejected.

That company is just run by dick heads. I don't have anything against the business model, but the management is evil.

This made me hate this particular corporation. Some companies are just bad news.

lol how the hell did that policy get past legal?

btw you have to be fucking retarded to think you're not allowed to use the fire door when you've broken your ankle.

How does a retail store pollute a creek?

 

[Saulbadguy]

We had one of the first Wal-Mart "Supercenters" in the country here in Topeka, KS. Although it was called "Hyper-Mart USA" instead of Wal-Mart. People here in Topeka still call it "Hyper-Mart" though.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: cruzer
I read that Walmart is heavily in debt, and that each new store that opens is built using 100% borrowed money. So they need to constantly expand to pay the interest on their debt. Kind of like the USA government, which needs a constant expansion of its tax base(immigrants) in order to have operating income.

you fail at financial analysis

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: yowolabi

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
:thumbsup:I don't shop at Walmart either. I think your description of the store/customers/employees is fairly accurate.

It's not suprising that someone who doesn't shop at walmart has no idea what it's like inside one.

I've been in plenty of them, and none were like the OP described.

And I've been in plenty of them, and every one was EXACTLY like the OP described. The one here is just a few years old.
It's dirty, has stock all over the place, few lines open, the whole Wal Mart experience.

 

[waffleironhead]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: preslove
In my home town they tried to buy a tract of land to build a superwalmart right over the HEADWATERS of the local river/creek. The city said no (apparently they like clean drinking water) & was willing to give them tax breaks on this other piece of land that the town wanted redeveloped, but wal-mart only clear cuts land for their stores. They ended up trying to force their plan through the city commission, but were, thank god, rejected.

That company is just run by dick heads. I don't have anything against the business model, but the management is evil.

This made me hate this particular corporation. Some companies are just bad news.

lol how the hell did that policy get past legal?

btw you have to be fucking retarded to think you're not allowed to use the fire door when you've broken your ankle.

How does a retail store pollute a creek?

Think about the large amount of blacktop and the runoff from the parking lot into the creek.

 

[PingSpike]

Link is apparently fixed!

I've been to walmarts (in maine) that were actually pretty good and weren't crowded. But the only one near me is as I describe. If their stuff was in stock when I went, I could endure the occasional trip easier. Its such a chore going there that I like to get everything done in one expedition...and then I show up and half the shit I wanted to buy isn't even in stock.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Kaelyn
I loathe this crappy organization and what it does to small business owners in a community.
Some very nice people who had small business that I grew up going to with my Mom and then shopped at later myself... were forced to pack up shop and leave their stores because Wal-Mart basically bought everything right out from under them. It's not so much that these people had to move their business, but the way Wal-Mart handled it. They were given 15 day notices to vacate and none of the people I knew could find a place to move their shop to so quickly. So they were not able to sustain or continue their once thriving small businesses.

I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart in almost 7 years and I will never shop in one again. I hope they eventually choke, and drown. :evil: Die Wal-Mart, Die.

Having lived in a small town, a lot of small business owners needed to be driven out of business. I bought a refrigerator when I lived in a small town. The small town store wanted twice as much for the same model as Lowes just 25 miles away. A lot of these small business owners jack up the prices and then appeal to townspeople to support local businesses. In the town I lived in almost everything was ridiculously over priced at the mom and pop shops. Why should people support businesses that are local for ripping them off?

What is funny is the small stores that decided to become more competitive not only survived, but thrived in that town. Wal-Mart only killed the ones who refused to put a better business model in place and quit ripping folks off.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

I buy furniture at Walmart, partly because I'm a broke-ass grad student.

You should try garage sales and consignment stores. For what you paid for that cheap particle board furniture, you could have had a quality used item instead.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: preslove
In my home town they tried to buy a tract of land to build a superwalmart right over the HEADWATERS of the local river/creek. The city said no (apparently they like clean drinking water) & was willing to give them tax breaks on this other piece of land that the town wanted redeveloped, but wal-mart only clear cuts land for their stores. They ended up trying to force their plan through the city commission, but were, thank god, rejected.

That company is just run by dick heads. I don't have anything against the business model, but the management is evil.

This made me hate this particular corporation. Some companies are just bad news.

lol how the hell did that policy get past legal?

btw you have to be fucking retarded to think you're not allowed to use the fire door when you've broken your ankle.

Well, when they called the manager he apparently came and unlocked the door instead of just saying "use the fire exit."

The policy allowed employees to be locked in when there is a manager with a key inside. Store managers took it upon themselves to lock employees in by themselves. They do things like that in response to pressure from headquarters to keep costs down. Making a manager work overnight is a waste of money, and letting employees work unsupervised with the doors unlocked results in theft. So the managers do things that are unethical or illegal, and Wal-mart can blame them.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Kaelyn
I loathe this crappy organization and what it does to small business owners in a community.
Some very nice people who had small business that I grew up going to with my Mom and then shopped at later myself... were forced to pack up shop and leave their stores because Wal-Mart basically bought everything right out from under them. It's not so much that these people had to move their business, but the way Wal-Mart handled it. They were given 15 day notices to vacate and none of the people I knew could find a place to move their shop to so quickly. So they were not able to sustain or continue their once thriving small businesses.

I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart in almost 7 years and I will never shop in one again. I hope they eventually choke, and drown. :evil: Die Wal-Mart, Die.

Having lived in a small town, a lot of small business owners needed to be driven out of business. I bought a refrigerator when I lived in a small town. The small town store wanted twice as much for the same model as Lowes just 25 miles away. A lot of these small business owners jack up the prices and then appeal to townspeople to support local businesses. In the town I lived in almost everything was ridiculously over priced at the mom and pop shops. Why should people support businesses that are local for ripping them off?

What is funny is the small stores that decided to become more competitive not only survived, but thrived in that town. Wal-Mart only killed the ones who refused to put a better business model in place and quit ripping folks off.

yeap.

we had a few small appliance stores. we needed a new stove (this was like 12 years ago). so we figured we would go buy from them (we also know the owners). we paid $700 for it, $100 for instalation. (no we did not shop around. dumb i know).

it broke 2 months later and the store said to bad we are not doing anything unless i paid them $200.

i drove to the lowes that opened up and they had the same fricken stove for $499 +50 delivery/instalation oh man i was pissed.

we checked back when we needed a new stove (new house) and it was the same. everything was nearly %40 more.


BUT they had signs in the window saying support local business. Fuck that. I want to support my family and buy the items for a decent price.

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Jim Cramer on Mad Money said it best: "Walmart needs an image change. I feel so poor and depressed when I walk in their stores."

This same thing happened to KMart, and look where they are now. Target is the up and coming store: decent stuff, good prices, clean cheery stores. Walmart's bad PR recently hasn't done much for their shopping base either.

my :heart: belongs to Target

 

[Kadarin]

I very much dislike Walmart. Usually when I want to buy something, I want to buy a nice something, and I don't want to feel like I went to the ghetto to get it. The last time I was in a Walmart (bought a dvd player there a couple of years back), the place was unclean, and I didn't get a good impression of the place. I'm also all about convenience, meaning that I want to go in, get my stuff, and get out quickly and without hassle. I can do that at a nearby Target.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: waffleironhead

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: preslove
In my home town they tried to buy a tract of land to build a superwalmart right over the HEADWATERS of the local river/creek. The city said no (apparently they like clean drinking water) & was willing to give them tax breaks on this other piece of land that the town wanted redeveloped, but wal-mart only clear cuts land for their stores. They ended up trying to force their plan through the city commission, but were, thank god, rejected.

That company is just run by dick heads. I don't have anything against the business model, but the management is evil.

This made me hate this particular corporation. Some companies are just bad news.

lol how the hell did that policy get past legal?

btw you have to be fucking retarded to think you're not allowed to use the fire door when you've broken your ankle.

How does a retail store pollute a creek?

Think about the large amount of blacktop and the runoff from the parking lot into the creek.

Apparently he would drink that water.

 

[Rogodin2]

Once transportation costs rise too high Walmart will die.

Rogo

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Rogodin2
Once transportation costs rise too high Walmart will die.

Rogo

You do realize that, if anything, rising transportation costs will drastically help wal-mart, right?

Ship transport is a shockingly efficient way to move things, electricity has substitutes for oil (coal, nuclear, hydro) and trains run on electricity. Wal-mart enjoys the massive advantage of being a single destination for consumers. If people can't drive (or are relutant to) because of fuel costs, they enjoy a staggering incentive to shop at so-called "super centers" while wal-mart will enjoy economies of scale on getting goods to it's stores as compared to smaller retailers having to purchase things in smaller shipments.

 

[MrPickins]

YAWHT

Yet another Wal-Mart hating thread.

 

[sandorski]

Good riddance. Although, it will be a long time before Walmart goes tits up. If they do.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: waffleironhead

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: preslove
In my home town they tried to buy a tract of land to build a superwalmart right over the HEADWATERS of the local river/creek. The city said no (apparently they like clean drinking water) & was willing to give them tax breaks on this other piece of land that the town wanted redeveloped, but wal-mart only clear cuts land for their stores. They ended up trying to force their plan through the city commission, but were, thank god, rejected.

That company is just run by dick heads. I don't have anything against the business model, but the management is evil.

This made me hate this particular corporation. Some companies are just bad news.

lol how the hell did that policy get past legal?

btw you have to be fucking retarded to think you're not allowed to use the fire door when you've broken your ankle.

How does a retail store pollute a creek?

Think about the large amount of blacktop and the runoff from the parking lot into the creek.

Apparently he would drink that water.

Apparrently you live in a town with no paved roads or shingle roofs.

 

[vi edit]

They don't have to expand in store numbers to continue profiting. They'll just expand services and raise prices. Walmart grocery prices are WAY lower than any other grocer in my area. I save anywhere from 15%-25% buying stuff from them than I do at other supermarkets. This is the same exact name brand stuff, not store brand items.

Simply raising prices by a few pennies on a number of items will bring millions upon millions to their bottom line. They have a lot of room to grow in that regard.