Pigtails

Nicely done Dave, you scared 'em off!

snowbunny

Yes, they call me, and I tell them to ***** off.

They have said they will not build a Wal-Mart in a community that does not want one, and we definitely DO NOT want one anywhere near us. They called again just the other day and I said, gee, nothing has changed.

(I am involved, marginally, in local politics.)

BritGuyTN

Because I'm an asshole and the right-wing capitalist pig side of me is all about me, I don't care that much about the non-union approach of wal mart.

maybe the fact that i haven't been around to see the death of small shops in my area is why i don't give a crap

what i do like is that walmart has given competition to my shitty local supermarket - kroger.

so now I have a nice clean new walmart neighbourhood market 2 mins drive at the end of my street

things i don't like is that the stuff they sell seems to be targeted at a specific demographic/racial profile. i.e. there is a whole wall of fried chicken in freezers

what i will also say about employment it that I am sure that for some of the new employees, this has been their first occupation other than sitting on a porch whilst on welfare [flame suit: ON]

snowbunny

There are no more mom-and-pop shops in the small towns around here due to Wal-Mart. Bit hard to be an entrepreneur if you're competing with a monolith. If Kroger can't give Wal-Mart a run for their money, then who can?

I've watched the death of small shops and it's painful. I *****ing hate going to Wal-Mart (so I don't), and I'm very happy that I live in a city that has dedicated itself to favouring local businesses over "big box" businesses because the latter pay their staff less and put less back into the local economy.

Wal-Mart also censors the music it sells by editing CDs to take out offensive language. However, they do not warn a customer that they are getting the "family friendly" version. Then they sell guns two aisles over from the CDs.

fatbrit

Perhaps you can explain to the neocon twins why Wal-Mart isn't any good for them in the long run, then? They'll probably take it better from you than from me.

snorkmaiden

Well, I use both and I find that the prices will vary on many of the same items. In the two I shop at I find things like water, toilet rolls etc are cheaper in Sams Club, sometimes by as much as $1 and that can make a big difference over time.

But, I prefer the quality of the meat at Costco to the meat at Sams, I prefer Costco's Pizza's and they tend to have better cheese than Sams.

If I am going to purchase something big, I generally look at both stores before buying and go with whoever has the best deal.

I stick with both memberships as both stores have enough to offer to make the memberships worthwhile in my opinion but there are six of us in our house, so I do a lot of shopping

fatbrit

Some care about the world they live in, some don't! Can't help that.

BritGuyTN

well the way i see it it have several choices/thoughts on the matter

wal-mart enables poor people to eke out an existence by providing the ability to subsist on a very small amount of money whilst still enabling the ability to buy crack/beer/cigarettes/whiskey with their minimum wage salary/welfare.

wal-mart also enables people to fill up their houses with cheap shit made in china, causing two problems. it ****s up the trade deficit. it helps twatty brits on holiday perpetuate the myth that 'everything in america is cheap'

i like competition - competition like in the UK where you have a number of companies fighting for supremacy - e.g. tescos/sainsburys/asda/morrisons
wal-mart style competition will probably result in the closure of my three local krogers over the next 5 years.

this works at two levels - poor people in my area (white trash & afro americans) love walmart for cheapness. people like me who hate kroger because their produce is poor quality, rotten and gross will go to wal-mart becasue of the higher turnover and subsequent freshness of food.

in the short term krogers down-fall is corporate complcency in providing a good experience and quality products. over the long terms, wal-marts pricinig will gradually strangle them by reducing trade

when it gets to a certain point, wal-mart will have a virtual monopoly. with that level of power people start to lose options/choices and then can be further exploited, both as customers and employees.

even companies like KB toys and toys 'r' us are living under the continual threat of bankruptcy

Target is only doing well becuase their stores concentrate on providing a more pleasant experience - something that much of the mass market does not care about but is keeping them going well right now

however, bottom line is that as far as food (and only food) I continue to go to walmart as it is the most convenient and highest quality grocery store locally, and Kroger have not stepped upto the plate

fatbrit

Think you summed it up wonderfully. Thank you. Hope the twins were both awake and concentrating.

To your excellent points, I might add the fact that we basically pay for WalMart employees' healthcare, food stamps and general assistance through our taxes since their own company refuses to pay them a living wage.

I too believe in the free market and competition making everything better for everybody. But even though it has been shown to produce the best results, it is not an exact and perfect science. And, regardless, that is not what we have with WalMart, anymore.

Big D

[QUOTE=BritGuyTN]

it helps twatty brits on holiday perpetuate the myth that 'everything in america is cheap'



Everything in America is cheapER - and its not a myth, the vast majority of things over here are cheaper than in the UK - I say majority as I know there are exceptions - this is largely due to the exchange rate.

mdyoung

I agree that selling edited CDs is kind of goofy, since no one makes you by the darn things, but you make it sound like selling shotguns and hunting rifles is like they have crack for sale. The majority of people buy those and use them responcibly for target shooting and hunting or for keeping some lowlife from robbing their home or worse.

dgsyd1

The explains why the book section at the local Sam's is full of books with titles like Why All Liberals Are Evil and Far-Right Conservatism For Dummies .

fatbrit

Yes -- they still sell books at the moment before one of them remembers the best thing to do is burn them. Wouldn't want people thinking, would we?

evoal2003

Call me shallow but I got a great deal on my huge plasma tv in
Sams....and the beers are cheap.

fatbrit

Shallow...but honest!