Anian

If a child's toy is recalled, it is always from Walmart. Too much radium/lead in their Chinese imports.

I saw some kind of Made In America advert for Walmart last night. They didn't actually say what they sold that had been made in America, just lots of short clips of honest Joes doing stuff with machinery.

scrubbedexpat091

Pretty much all soaps, cleaning chemicals, toilet paper, most candy and foods are made in the US.....But not sure what else would be.

I don't find Wal-Mart having anymore Chinese made stuff then any other major retailer does.

Some things just are not made anywhere in North America anymore, so importing is the only option.

sir_eccles

Probably true. Knee jerk reactionary responses to "made in China" misses the point that Wal-mart (and others) continually drive down price with little regard to quality, regardless of source.

scrubbedexpat091

Consumers demand low prices which is the root of the issue, people wont pay more for quality for the most part.

The majority of consumers shy away from paying more for just about anything these days, I see it everyday at work, people won't pay a reasonable rate for a hotel anymore everyone want's 50-60/night, hence why priceline and the like do so well.

Same with airline tickets.

Retail is no different, if one store sells a gadget at 10.00 made in the US and is of better quality lets say, and one sells it for 6.00 and made in China, most shoppers will shy away from the 10 gadget and go ad buy the 6 dollar one.

Flabound oneday

and then b1tch about how there are no jobs and "nothing is made in the good ol USA no mo' cos of them dam foreners"

scrubbedexpat099

I forgot to take an extra pair of shoes, so there was a Walmart nearby. Nice shoes, less that $20, has a Union Jack on the back as well.

I also bought some other bits and pieces, not much, Bananas etc, which cost me more than the shoes.

Times have changed.

yukichon

Where is the best place to buy bread, fresh bread.....like the sort you buy at home. A nice crusty bloomer type?

Bob

Depends on budget.

Plenty of bakeries do a great loaf, but about $6-10 a loaf.

Trader Joes do pretty decent loaves for around $2.50-5 and same for Wegmans.

Giantaxe

Their "dubious" labour practices are part of this, which is one reason I don't shop there.

scrubbedexpat091

Its not that bad of a place to work, my GF works there and has no issues with them, they are actually far more strict on things like making sure employees take all breaks, and they provide a longer lunch then the law mandates, vs my employer who is a small business and we work 8 hour days with no lunch break (loop hole in labor code that permits it.)

Pay isn't too bad either, she makes more then I do, she is just a cashier, makes 12.10/hr been there 1 year.

She also just got 365 dollars in profit sharing.

Its a retail job so it sucks, but from what I can see, they don't pay any-less or treat anyone any worse then any other retailer, but their size just makes them an easy target.

Not to mention its more or less the US labor laws that make Wal-Mart US a less desirable place to work vs other countries with Wal-Mart.

scrubbedexpat099

I do not know anybody who works at Wally world, but I do who work at other big boxes.

How do they differ?

scrubbedexpat091

They don't really. I worked at Target and they are no better to employees, and in the area I worked they also paid less per hour 6.75/hr at Target vs 8.75-9.75/hr at the Wal-Mart down the street. (This was in 2003, but last I knew Target still doesn't pay better then most other retailers.)

Only big box store that would possibly be an okay place to work, with no horrible pay is Costco.

Giantaxe

Walmart has a long history of crappy labout practices:

http://www.workplacefairness.org/rep...t/wal-mart.php

Otoh, it's certainly true that some of its competitors are no better:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-...b_4254981.html

scrubbedexpat099

They are all crap as far as I know.

It is the nature of the biz.

I am moving more and more to online, as I think many are.

scrubbedexpat091

Unfortunately many of the online retailers are no better when it comes to how employees are treated and compensated.