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Why do many people choose not to shop at Wal-Mart?

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I heard that in the east coast, Walmart ist he place to go. I can name like 5 Targets closer to me than a Walmart in my area so that's why I go to Target. Walmart in my experience has been a dump, but then Costco is also crowded and one of the most annoying places to go to also. I'm in the Silicon Valley, and honestly, when I go to Costco, I see a flood of Asians and Indians. Why? We're cheap. I'm a proud cheap Asian, and that's why I go to Costco. But at times it does piss me off when people make the place a dump. I remember my freshman year of college visiting Costco. Someone ran over my foot (a mom) and I gave her a dirty look. No apology either. Thanks. Then someone rams their cart into my side and says sorry and hurries off. Ok, I might be able to take hits like these but I bet if this were someone else they might have made a scene.

So I ask you guys, how's Costco any different?
 
Originally posted by: Lothar
Originally posted by: jjanders
Prefer to support small local businesses
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So by that comment I take it you don't shop at Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, Office Depot, Giant, Safeway, Shoppers, Costco, CVS, Walgreens, etc...?

How are those any more local than Wal-Mart? 😕
If you don't shop at any of those I listed, please list the names of the "small local" businesses you shop at.

Note: By "small local", I'm assuming you don't mean driving distance, and large corporations.
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No, I don't really shop at those stores. I might buy from Target or Best Buy occasionally, but I don't frequent them, except to browse.

I'm not going to name the businesses because you won't have heard of them, but I am lucky to have a local grocer/farmers market/food co-op nearby, a small family run A/V place, lots of great local restaurants, for probably 80% of my needs I can fulfill it at a family run business that's been around for 50+ years.

Of course I can't say I buy everything like that, sometimes I go to chain stores and stuff, I just try to avoid buying from there where possible.
 
Well, where I went to school, there were two Wal-Marts, one 5 minutes away and another 20 minutes away. Both were nice and clean. Workers were friendly. Shelves were always stocked. Customers were not obnoxious. There were always plenty of check out lanes open.

Now, I'm back in my home town. The closest Wal-Mart to me now is absolutely filthy. There's shit (sometimes literally) all over the place. The employees don't care about their job or the customers. I could never find what I was there for. The store is crowded nearly all day long and everyone is very loud and at least half of them are shouting in a random foreign language. And there are very few check out lanes open, and the ones that are open have a ridiculous amount of people in line.

Same stores, different locations - COMPLETELY different experiences. I've been to that Wal-Mart once since last June when I moved back to my home town. I will not be returning ever again. There's a Target and Kroger right next to it anyway.
 
The Wally-World closest to me is a pig-sty. No, wait...that comparison would give pig-stys a bad name...this place is filthy, smells bad, seems to be staffed by rude morons, and in general, is an undesirable (to me) place to shop. I have been in Wal-Marts that were clean, staffed by helpful people, and seemed to be nice places to shop, but they sure ain't here...

I'm proud to admit that I'm one of the Wal-Mart haters. There are news articles periodically in the locap paper telling what percentage of the Walmart employees are drawing public benefits, such as food stamps, Medi-Cal, and even welfare to supplement the low wages. When Sam was alive, he was proud of the high percentage of Made in the USA products they sold, even though he used his leverage as the largest retailer in the country (in the world?) to gain a competitive pricing structure from his suppliers, treated his workers like a bunch of sub-standard humanoids, and often sold low quality goods under his "house brands."

I might go into one of the local Wally-Worlds once or twice per year, but only if I either can't find what I'm looking for at a different store, or if it's "after hours" and I need something now, instead of waiting until tomorrow. It always seems like my IQ drops 20-50 points as soon as I walk through the door....😀 (and hopefully, once I leave, it comes back!)
 
I always hear that Wal-Marts prevent small biz. However, I lived in a town where a Wal-Mart closed down - and NOTHING ever came to replace it.
 
because everytime I go to Walmart I have to deal with the dregs of society. There is always some hostile event happening usually in my checkout line causing a hold up.

 
Surprisingly enough, there just isn't one nearby me. There's numerous Targets, K-marts, etc that I go to instead.

I guess a lot of people don't like Wal-mart's business practices though. Personally, I don't care.
 
Originally posted by: alkemyst
because everytime I go to Walmart I have to deal with the dregs of society. There is always some hostile event happening usually in my checkout line causing a hold up.
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If you are having one of those days where you feel like you have absolutely failed at life....a quick stroll through Walmart is all you need to center yourself again and realize you don't have it so bad.
 
Because there is no reason for me to go and I'm assuming other people who don't go don't for the same reasons. Unless they have some agenda with them that quite frank...

<--- don't care.
 
Originally posted by: NightDarker
I do not approve of how they treat and compensate their employees. I also do not like the crowd of people that shop there.
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i know cashiers who work at walmart and they start around 9-10 dollars an hour... where i live, thats pretty frickin good hourly compensation.......
 
Originally posted by: GiggleGirl
Originally posted by: NightDarker
I do not approve of how they treat and compensate their employees. I also do not like the crowd of people that shop there.
Click to expand...

i know cashiers who work at walmart and they start around 9-10 dollars an hour... where i live, thats pretty frickin good hourly compensation.......
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In my high school senior year (6 years ago), I was offered $10/hr to start as a cashier at Wal-Mart.
Target only offered me $7.25/hr, BJ's offered $8.25/hr at the time, but I didn't apply. Minimum wage was still $5.15 then too.

That is why I'm just as surprised as you are when people say Wal-Mart compensates their employees like crap.

I rejected both offers because I decided I wanted to just sleep, watch movies, and most importantly...play video games all summer.
Ahh...The good old days.
 
Originally posted by: jjanders
Originally posted by: Lothar
Originally posted by: jjanders
Prefer to support small local businesses
Click to expand...

So by that comment I take it you don't shop at Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, Office Depot, Giant, Safeway, Shoppers, Costco, CVS, Walgreens, etc...?

How are those any more local than Wal-Mart? 😕
If you don't shop at any of those I listed, please list the names of the "small local" businesses you shop at.

Note: By "small local", I'm assuming you don't mean driving distance, and large corporations.
Click to expand...

No, I don't really shop at those stores. I might buy from Target or Best Buy occasionally, but I don't frequent them, except to browse.

I'm not going to name the businesses because you won't have heard of them, but I am lucky to have a local grocer/farmers market/food co-op nearby, a small family run A/V place, lots of great local restaurants, for probably 80% of my needs I can fulfill it at a family run business that's been around for 50+ years.

Of course I can't say I buy everything like that, sometimes I go to chain stores and stuff, I just try to avoid buying from there where possible.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.
I usually don't do my food shopping there either.
The main things I buy/bought from Wal-Mart are underwear, socks, electrical appliances(iron, toaster, microwave, blender), and disposable college stuff like reading lamps etc...

If I happen to be in a Wal-Mart and check their food aisle, I buy brand name cereals and juice from them since they're cheaper than all other stores here. (Besides Costco/Sam's Club/BJ's/other member warehouse clubs). I would never buy things like bread, bagels, or other perishables at a Wal-Mart.

Safeway, Shoppers, Giant, and *.*(doesn't include the others I mentioned above) will charge you $3.50+ for the same box size of brand name Rice Krispes, Honey Nut Cherrios, and those Quaker flavored microwavable oatmeal packets that you can get at $2.50 from Wal-Mart.
Of course you can go to to Costco/Sam's Club/BJ's/other warehouse clubs and get those fat double bagged family cereal boxes for $5-6 and save even more, but fact is Wal-Mart is cheaper than most if not all other major chain stores.
 
Their corporate policy of reclaiming sales tax revenues and not having to pay them to the state or local governments. is a disgrace.
It is state sponsored theft. since that sales tax money is supposed to go to the community and not a private party, Like The Walton family.
It is explained in detail in "Free Lunch" by David Johnston.
 
So I used to think that people who would not shop at Walmart were crazy. I never really had any complaints about the store that I went to. They usually had good stock, fairly clean, employees with half a brain, etc.

With this trip to California, I finally get it. I've been to two Walmarts, one in Mountain View and the other in San Jose. They were absolutely terrible. Nothing but dirty people. The stores look like the hadn't received stock in weeks, and the employees were just plain idiots. It makes sense now where some of you are coming from.
 
Originally posted by: Pale Rider
I get groceries from a local, small grocery store/butcher that has been around since the 1940s. They have everything a grocery store should have and nothing they shouldn't (trash cans, garden hoses, tires, suit cases). This store buys and sells locally grown veggies and fruits when available and almost all of the meat from the butcher is local but the seafood.

I buy household products from a local, small general store that has been around since the 1960s (bathroom products, cleaning products, kitchen/cooking products, etc).

I buy home improvement supplies from a local hardware store/lumber yard that has been around since 1910 and is family owned and operated.

Almost all my electronics come from Newegg these days but for larger appliances there are several local stores that have everything you will find at Home Depot/Lowe's for usually less $$$.

It's hard to buy clothing at local stores though and I usually have to go to a national chain which is 90% of the time Kohl's or Sears. Sometimes Old Navy for casual clothes. We do have local clothing stores for women but none for men.

There is an excellent wholesale furniture store that is local and family owned/operated that has everything you can find at Haverty's or other big chains. The best part is you don't have some shmuck in a suit following you around the store.

I go to a local pharmacy, local tire shop, local auto-parts store, local video rental store, etc, etc. BTW when I say local I mean a non-chain small business.

As for Wal-Mart, I just never have much of a reason to go in there. I also find it annoying to find a parking spot, walk through the 100,000 s/f store, deal with employees who don't give a damn, cheap products, etc.

At my local stores I know everyone, I get great service, I am supporting my local economy and I like to do it. Those are my reasons. If someone has a problem with that I say you are the elitist then for trying to tell me how to spend my own money.
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You must have a million billion trillion dollars. I personally can't afford local stores prices.


When I lived in WV, we would regularly go to the super walmart in Hagerstown(MD). I would get a headache within minutes of walking in the doors, hell practically before I cleared the entryway. Never had a problem at the one in Martinsburg, only the H-town one.

Here, the Superwalmart out on Greenwood is the cleaner, quieter of the two in town. The one on SPID is always crowded and noisy. It's far from filthy, though, and I shop there on a regular basis.

As for "predatory business practices", fuck it. I don't give two tin shits.

Originally posted by: GiggleGirl
Originally posted by: NightDarker
I do not approve of how they treat and compensate their employees. I also do not like the crowd of people that shop there.
Click to expand...

i know cashiers who work at walmart and they start around 9-10 dollars an hour... where i live, thats pretty frickin good hourly compensation.......
Click to expand...

That's better then what I get paid hourly to make the resistors in your electronics!
 
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