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When did Walmart turn into America's loony bin?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by hondo, Aug 9, 2019.

  1. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    If it makes you feel any better, Walmart is moving toward locking up a lot of things, everywhere. That act is no longer an absolute indication of high crime in an area. Rather, it is a indiscriminating attempt to reduce shrink losses wherever they occur -- which, really, ought to tell you how much of an issue theft is for the stores. Indeed, I live in an area known to be among the safest and most crime-free in the country; nevertheless, our store has locked-up items all over the place, including bike accessories! For my store, it's a fairly recent development, but it has been far-reaching. To wit: Electronics, as a department, is almost entirely under lock and key, or spider-wrap. So, too, is Cosmetics, as well as much of Sporting Goods, including flashlights! And, as you've discovered, the protein drinks in Pharmacy and the baby formula in Infants & Toddlers are included among shrink-sensitive items. (You'd be shocked at how much that stuff gets stolen. Trust me, there's a reason the stuff that's locked up is locked up, and it has more to do with the temptation, desirability and value (or perceived value) of the items than it does the sizes of them (although that element certainly applies when it comes to Cosmetics).

    What the movement toward more lock-ups is about is not Walmart presuming that you, individually, are a thief. The bottom line -- really, it's always about the bottom line -- is that it's just an attempt by the company to control another (somewhat) controllable expense, as much as possible. These customer-/theft- control measures save the stores millions of dollars in any given year. Frankly, they make perfect sense from a business standpoint. And it's standard operating procedure for associates to bring the items up to either the registers, or more often, to the Customer Service Managers' station, to be retrieved by cashiers for the customers once the latter is ready to pay at the registers. If that doesn't happen sometimes, well, then the employees have taken a short-cut, most likely because they're busy and don't want to bother doing it right, or are just tired of going back-and-forth all day. (Remember, they've probably been doing it repeatedly, and had their other work interrupted constantly to do it). You may have to wait for your one item, and have it walked up front. Associates are supposed to do it with every customer who hits those buttons/needs something, so it happens all day long. These measures are much more of an imposition on us than on you.

    Of course, that doesn't address the fact that it's a shame the stores have to do such things in order to save and make money, rather than losing it to theft every day. It doesn't say much for the state of society that that's the case, but, really, Walmart has every right to impose the controls.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  2. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    This this this.

    I'll usually buy the general groceries at Aldi and any of the specialties at the Walmart or the grocery store. Aldi is about 25% less expensive on everything.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  3. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

  4. Oggiedoggie

    Oggiedoggie Well-Known Member

    At those Walmart self-checkout registers, they have asparagus and mushrooms for the same price as potatoes!
     
    DanielSimpsonDay likes this.
  5. Liut

    Liut Well-Known Member

    Nuggets, Rapids. Altitude Sports television, as well.
     
  6. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    At the risk of being argumentative, the address of the owners is never going to be my first consideration in buying choices. I want value and I want ease of access. I'll accept my share of the blame for the loss of small-town America.
     
  7. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    I understand why it's done, and it's a shame. But I have choices as a consumer.

    I was buying some eye drops and wasn't sure which brand I wanted to buy, but felt pressured to just choose one as the associate stood next to me waiting. I would have spent more time looking at ingredients and comparing prices if I didn't feel I was wasting someone else's time.

    Funny story though, after I got the drops and started following the associate, they stopped to help another customer at the condom section. It was a bit awkward as I stood there as they discussed options. When he asked for larger, I didn't want to know if it was size of product or size of box.
     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  8. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    My closest Aldi closes at 8 p.m. WTF?
     
  9. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    We have an Aldi's that is located, literally, across the parking lot from our Walmart store. Direct, close-by competition that you can, seriously, walk to. I don't think many people do it, relatively speaking, of course. When that Aldi's opened up, our store manager and the market administrative assistant took a stroll over and into there to assess the competition. They came back and were, shall we say, not too worried. I went in the next week to check it out and thought the same thing: It's no threat to Walmart.

    I'm sure it has its customer base, and some regulars who shop there, but the merchandise selection wasn't good, the layout was hodge-podge, with the beach chairs piled next to the produce, etc., and the overall availability of everything was limited. The store I checked out was loaded, almost exclusively, with the store-brand items. If people won't buy the Walmart store brands when the nationally known brands are also stocked right next to them, how much will people buy the even lesser-known Aldi's' store brand?
     
  10. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    That is funny:). Story of our lives, though. We're in the middle of doing one thing, and get called/interrupted to do something else, for someone else. What happens is, you end up doing everything on the way, or along the way, to wherever you're going, or whatever else you're doing.
     
  11. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    And people shouldn't be quick to judge Wal-Mart thieves as lower-class lowlifes. In many Wal-Marts, and Targets for that matter, Titleist Pro V1 golf balls are spider-wrapped. Because country club assholes in the past have taken the sleeves out and swapped them out for Wilsons or other cheap balls, therefore turning a $48 purchase into $18.
     
  12. OscarMadison

    OscarMadison Well-Known Member

    I use Instacart for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it keeps the wear and tear on me and my car at a minimum so I can abuse myself doing what I love. (If you ever hear of a cranky old woman being eaten by a cannibal cult in Kentucky or beheaded with a Marshalltown trowel at a late archaic excavation, well, there ya go. I was doing what I love.) It's easy to make a comparison of the grocers they offer. (In my bedroom community, it's Aldi, Kroger, and Publix.)


    At my local Aldi there is one little end cap with maybe three to five organic products in the produce section. Their produce -conventional or otherwise- is always hit or miss for me.

    Ever since they changed to their "upmarket" store design, the arrangement looks like it was determined by a feral cat on bath salts. Paper goods share an aisle with tuna. Soup is situated with soap. Ah dunno. Let the instacart lady figure it out.

    What's good at Aldi?
    They share distributors with Trader Joes, so if you like the following items from TJ's they're as much as 30% cheaper at Aldi.
    • Their house brand cereals are alleged to come from Kellogg and Nature's Path.
    • More than one source has stated their cheese comes from Sargento
    • Their nuts - Same as TJ's, just cheaper.
    • Their chocolate selection might not be as extensive as TJ's but the source is the same.
    • I will jerk someone ball-hetted and call their mama a whore over the last wheel of Aldi goat brie.
    • All of their specialty cheeses and seasonal items are good. They share import and distribution with TJ's and Costco/World Market. That 9.99 Stollen at WM is the same as the 7.99 Stollen at TJs which is identical to the 4.99 Stollen at Aldi.
    • Their German roast coffee is amazing.
    About local stores... I am a big believer in supporting small business. My grandfather ran the local grocery store in a little town southwest of Nashville. However, he was all about treating people with dignity and courtesy. The last time I went into my bedroom community's sporting goods store to get arrows, they asked me if I was buying them for my boyfriend. No? Was I planning on killing my boyfriend? I went to the last remaining locally owned hardware store to buy supplies for a friend's thesis archy project and an elderly man walked up and asked if he could help me. I thanked him and told him I was just in to pick up a few things. He sidled up and put his arm around me, strategically dangling his hand.

    Him: Sweetie? Ah'm jus' trine ta keep you from embarrasin' yerself.

    Me: Go away.

    Him: Aw, honey. Ah'm just-

    Me: Do you know who Jordin Tootoo is?

    Him: Um, yeah...

    Me: Well, one day he taught me how to throw a punch.

    Him: (long stare)

    Me: I've been practicing ever since with the heavy bag in my garage. Do you want to test out whether I'm telling the truth?

    He walked away. I reported him. The store manager told me it was "just him" and "It's the way we do things 'round here."

    A couple of years later, I forgot and went back to get brads for something else. Same jackass. Same verbage. Same non-apology. I am not. even. pretty. I just look available when all I want is to get my stuff and go. Jaysus.

    The managers of the auto shop, the sporting goods department and the hardware sections of the local Walmart are all women. Guess how many times I've had some booger-eating product of married first cousins ask me if I want a Walnetto in Walmart. Their prices are better, too.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
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