A New "Wal-Mart is Evil" thread...

Not to mention benefits.

Our neighbour worked partime at Costco for a few months. He said a casher after about three years of service makes about $40,000.

And Costco turns a nice profit.

 

I realize Wal-Mart is at the top of the food chain and will be targeted, but the contempt people hold for it is amazing.

Walgreen's has opened four branches here in the past 10 years. The number of small, locally-owned pharmacies has dropped by 50 percent. Best Buy put a serious hurt on the local electronics stores, but most people love that chain.

 

Putting aside the worker displacement issue, I think Wal-Mart's labor and human rights abuses are the things that get people really mad.

 

Hey, I'm consistent. I started the thread about Barnes & Noble.

 

Yeah, it's not just driving out mom and pop, it's being cheap to employees while raking in billions, it's putting it suppliers out of business by demanding they continue to cut profits on products they sell to wal-mart, it's the blue-collar good ol' USA front they present off the backs of cheap labor in china.

 

This is purely anecdotal and I have no studies to back this up, but just about everything I've ever bought at a Wal-Mart either falls apart, breaks or fucks up in some other fashion even more quickly than most products in this age of fall-apart crap.

In times of poverty, I purchased clothes at both Target and Wal Mart. The Target clothes held up. The Wal Mart ones did not. The Wal Mart shit was slightly cheaper, but a much worse value.

Last thing I bought at Wal Mart was a cushion for my bicycle seat. After just a few weeks, it started to show signs of wear. The one day, it started leaking all this silicone spooge crap. I finally swore off Wal Mart after that. And no, I'm not fat, nor was I taking my bike on BMX courses. Wal Mart sells lots of shoddily made garbage.

Finally, I know that Wal Mart gets lots of hate, but I should point out that in a few small towns where I've lived, Wal Mart is viewed with near-reverential status. These are the same communities where the local main street is a graveyard of mom-n-pop businesses that bit the dust. Damn near everyone loves "Wally World;" going there is their local equivalent of Cheers, where everyone knows their name and there's lots of chatting and good neighborly fun. No one gives a fuck about the local businesses that died except the proprietors and employees of said businesses. Whenever I made an anti-Wal Mart comment, I encountered shock and horror, like I had put a model of "Piss Christ" by my computer monitor. So maybe snooty city folk scoff at Wal Mart, but in many small towns, the cult of Wal Mart is in full effect.

 

When Super Wal-Mart opened in my hick college town, you'd have thought it was fucking Disney World. Dumb hillbillies were actually paying to make plaster hand prints of themselves to be displayed in some grand opening day display. Waiting in line to do this actually, AND paying to do it. Some absurdist writer like Samuel Beckett would have won a Pulitzer penning the scene.

 

I just don't share the hatred for Wal-Mart because I don't really put that much thought into whether or not I'll shop there. My bottom line is price, selection and availability. Plain and simple.

Wal-Mart has better prices on Doritos, underwear, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, shampoo, etc., on average, than the Kroger Signature just walking distance away. So when I need those items, I'll happily suffer through Wal-Mart to save money and get the selection I want. When I need milk, or meat, or other food, I'll go to Kroger.

It's fine if people want to crusade against Wal-Mart because of the way they pay their employees, use slave labor, etc., but when I'm toting my 4-year-old and I'm needing to get some clothes for him (clothes which he'll outgrow in a couple of months anyway), I'm sorry, but I'm not thinking starving people in China or high school dropouts manning the cash register. I'm thinking I can get him an outfit at Wal-Mart for a helluva lot cheaper than I could someplace else.

 

The thing that bothers me about Wal-Mart is how they save money by keeping their workers part-time and they don't get benefits. Those people still need insurance and they end up on Medicare and Medicaid and it costs far more of my money and your money to support those workers healthcare costs.
If Wal-Mart really wanted a national healthcare system in the United States, it would happen. Just by putting all of its workers on the same basic plan would be huge.
I don't shop at Wal-Mart, I disagree with them, that isn't the real reason, I have three grocery stores within a five minute radius. And the closest Wal-Mart is at least 20 minutes and it isn't a supercenter. The nearest supercenter is a 30 minute drive in traffic.

 

Don't let your kid near John Edwards' six-year old. He'll tear your kid a new one for wearing Wal Mart duds.

 

"My kid can kick the ass of your honor student. And he's still smarter than your kid."
--the bumper sticker which will eventually end up on AlleyAllen's vehicle.

 

"Wal~Mart was good, then it went too far."