Wall Mart Love 'em or hate 'em - your thoughts?

[scootrd]

My wife and I are totally at odds regarding Wall Mart and their Super Centers entering rural communities. I say they prey upon these communities that are  falling on hard times and only provide low paying Jobs with non livable wages , while putting local mom and pops out of business. She argues the low prices help families  in those communities that are falling on hard times to stretch their budget dollars for the better.

What are your thoughts ?

[squirrellluck]

My wife and I are also at odds on wally-world. She shops there, I have to be forced at gun point to set foot in there.

[powderman]

I just quit working for them after 7 1/2 years. I transferred to another dept because of my heart. I had drs orders, FMLA papers, etc. They continued to make me do the things I'm not supposed to do. I was having bad chest pains at work and at home. There were several times I thought I was going to die, yes I took the nitros but a couple times I didn't think they were going to work. I had to quit to live, they almost killed me. I was full time and they are doing everything possible to get rid of all the full timers who have had steady raises over several years. I learned a long time ago that my life meant nothing to mgt, I was only a tool to be used as they wanted. They will replace all of us at the starting min wage and be part time. They have pretty well killed customer service, many depts have no one working. I miss working, the people I worked with, and mostly my old customers. I saw a lady after I quit in another store and she shook my hand and said thank you for helping me all these years. If you ever get what you want at walmart it is in SPITE of mgt, not because of them. Corporate is made up of morons who have never worked a day in their lives, they cost our store thousands of $ a week with the bare shelves, and lack of help on the floor,they do the ordering now. Rant over for now. My income has been cut in 1/2 but at least I am alive. POWDERMAN. 

[gwhilikerz]

Powderman, We have all heard that Wal-Mart doesn't pay a living wage. Could you tell us how much you made per hour while at work there? Sorry about you having to leave. I had the same problem while working for another company. The treatment of employees wasn't much different than what you describe and it was a union shop.

[mechanic]

I love them and hate them.  I've come in the front door and gotten some good deals.  I've come in the back door and seen and heard things that made me mad enough to chew nails.  I once worked on their equipement at several stores.  Hard to please the district mgr. hard to make a buck.  After a year they called me in and told me what I would be charging them the next year.   I quit doing work for them that day.   

I'm  thinking  they could keep low prices, treat their help and vendors with dignity and still make a reasonable profit.....but what do I know, I'm just a mechanic.

[scootrd]

I've also heard due to mounting external pressures they are now offering a bit better health insurance but Few employees can afford to purchase it given the low salaries they are paid they cannot afford the premiums. Powderman is this true?

[powderman]

After 7 1/2 years I was up to $ 10.68 per hour. When I started I got a raise at 3 mo, then a merit raise at 6 mo, and another raise at one year. Since then all merit raises have stopped, no more raises for newbies til they've been there a year, most only last a few months. Their insurance wasn't much good, but now I have none. Insurance rates went up, work hours went down. Last summer when we were really busy they cut my hours from 40 a week to 24-28 per week, pure  greed. They schedule people 4 or 5 hours a day. Some are scheduled to work til 11-12 pm then have to be back on the job at 6 or 7 am. They do everything to keep the stress level high. The higher the stress the more people quit, which of course means the more they can hire at min wage. Mgt there are scared to death for their jobs too. They are like sheeple. If corporate ordered them to all take turns going up front and mooning the customers there would be the darndest race you ever saw. Then they'd argue over who did it first and best. I told a mgr that there will come a day when they meet God face to face and will be asked to atone for all the dirty tricks and backstabbing they do, and for all the corporate lies they pass on, knowing they are lies. Lying is still a sin and if they think that God will say it's OK cause walmart made ya do it, you might be mistaken. POWDERMAN. 

[alsaqr]

I liked it a whole lot better when there were no Wal-Marts full of over-priced cheap junk from China.  There was a huge food store in town that had much more than either of the present Wal-Marts.  There were two Gibson's stores with stuff that was made in the USA:  It was possible to find work clothes that actually fit.  One of those Gibson's stores had a large selection of muzzleloader supplies.  Both had large selections of reloading supplies.  Before Wal-Mart came to Lawton and drove those stores out of business, you could actually buy a pair of good made in the USA hunting boots. 

Wish I could wake up tomorrow and find both Lawton Wal-Marts boarded up.

[Oldshooter]

I hate the Place.
I really dont like to go there, but I force myself to find bargains.
I only go to wal mart to buy fishing lures and bullets.
I have been to Wal Mart to get Tires and Batteries, but I stopped doing that a while back.
I have been food shopping at Wal Mart to get emergency food before hurricane arrivals

All of the above are true, but I couldn't, in all honesty, just say one of them.

I think Wal Mart is a plague on small rural communities for the reasons stated in prior post

[DalesCarpentry]

After 7 1/2 years I was up to $ 10.68 per hour. When I started I got a raise at 3 mo, then a merit raise at 6 mo, and another raise at one year. Since then all merit raises have stopped, no more raises for newbies til they've been there a year, most only last a few months. Their insurance wasn't much good, but now I have none. Insurance rates went up, work hours went down. Last summer when we were really busy they cut my hours from 40 a week to 24-28 per week, pure  greed. They schedule people 4 or 5 hours a day. Some are scheduled to work til 11-12 pm then have to be back on the job at 6 or 7 am. They do everything to keep the stress level high. The higher the stress the more people quit, which of course means the more they can hire at min wage. Mgt there are scared to death for their jobs too. They are like sheeple. If corporate ordered them to all take turns going up front and mooning the customers there would be the darndest race you ever saw. Then they'd argue over who did it first and best. I told a mgr that there will come a day when they meet God face to face and will be asked to atone for all the dirty tricks and backstabbing they do, and for all the corporate lies they pass on, knowing they are lies. Lying is still a sin and if they think that God will say it's OK cause walmart made ya do it, you might be mistaken. POWDERMAN.  

I have always liked you PM but I have to ask. If you kill another man in the time of war for your country will God say that is ok? Or will you go to hell? Lying and killing are sins. I have always wondered this and would like your take on it. Dale

[Victor3]

 Nothing new really...

"Thanks to volume buying, to the railroads and post office, and later to rural free delivery and parcel post, they offered a happy alternative to the high-priced rural stores. Years later the company adopted the motto "Shop at Sears and Save." Because farmers could do so in the 1890s, Sears prospered."

[Swampman]

Being poor I shop where things are cheapest.  If that's Walmart then that where I go.

[slim rem 7]

i go there occasionally..thats one place where i don t mind letting them know if im not happy with the service or anything else..they are an primary outlet for chinese goods..don t much like that..
 i try never to voice my complaints to the poor clerks working pt time to try an make a dollar..making my complaints to management instead..
 even management is just following orders.. but if i can find what im looking for in a locally owned outlet ..
 i ll go there an pay a little more..not a fan of walmart..they are just not good for any community in the long run.. jmo slim
 i seem to remember very high markups by some of those small buisinesses though..thats the other side of the coin..
 but don t expect any support if you stop some bully from running over one of there clerks..walmart will end up
not appreciating your trying to help the clerk if they are having thier nose rubbed in dirt by some bully.
 i know many walmart employees.. almost to a person ,,they have disdain for walmart..

[P.A. Myers]

It is your choice in a free market, to take your money elsewhere.

[gypsyman]

They've pushed prices down so far, alot of their suppliers have gone out of business. Sad part of it is, so many people look at the bottom line, and don't realize it'll cost them more in the long run replacing junk that for a few dollars more might have lasted 2-3 times longer. It'll eventually catchup to them. gypsyman

[Old Fart]

I don't really love or hate them for anything.
I kind of like them for a few things.
And I really dislike them for a lot of things.

I really hate the supercenter idea. Just to dang big.
I thought that was what Sams wholesale club was for.
Customer service went out the door when they opened them up.
Not to mention being able to find anything, stuff moves around from week to week.

[guzzijohn]

I don't know how it is now but back in the 90s I had some dealing with a small manufacturer. Wal-Mart was interested in his product. When he met with WM they wanted the following:
180 days to pay him from delivery time.
The option to return all unsold product after a period of time and get back a full refund.
Did not want to pay him what he really needed to have to make any kind of decent profit even at a large volume.
If they all of sudden wanted a large order they proposed to give him an extremely short time to fill it.
He told them to stick it.
GuzziJohn

[powderman]

Just a few years ago walmart leased thousands of trailers before Christmas to keep their competitors from getting their products on the  shelves before Christmas. This past Thanksgiving they sold millions of turkeys at a 40 cent per lb loss to draw folks away from other stores. My former grocery mgr was great at her job and knew what extra she would need for Christmas and other holidays. She was smart enough to know to order ahead of time to be able to supply the customers needs. Corporate cancelled her orders 3X before they would allow shipment, she knew thered be a rush and the warehouse would be empty. The results??? Bare shelves, thousands of $ in lost sales and lost customers and they are too stupid to see it. They have forced everyone to work under a stocking system that hasn't worked in 1 1/2 years. Results??? Bare shelves, lost sales and profits. I personally picked 12 items that had been out on the floor, but in the back, for several weeks, and stocked them myself. I was told not to do that again, let the system handle it. I was thinking of my customers, they don't. They would rather lose sales and customers than admit that a program dreamed up by another overpaid moron at corporate doesn't work. They pay themselves MILLIONS in salary and bonuses every year. One retired exec was paid over 6 million $ while retired, then cutting the hours of the people who made them their fortunes. Remember katrina??? Remember walmart bragging about the 23 million$ in aid they donated?? They never told ya that they cut the hours at all stores for 5 weeks to pay for it. I loved helping people and really miss being able to do that. Many times I've gotten things out of the back room for a customer, not allowed anymore, their system stinks. If Sam came back today he'd fire everybody starting at the top. POWDERMAN. 

[JPShelton]

I have always liked you PM but I have to ask. If you kill another man in the time of war for your country will God say that is ok? Or will you go to hell? Lying and killing are sins. I have always wondered this and would like your take on it. Dale

Kind of off-topic, but killing isn't a sin.  Murder is.  I killed a man once during my law enforcement career.  Aside from a sincere wish that the fellow would have dropped his revolver instead of pointing it at me and threatening to kill me with it, I don't have too many regrets for doing what I did.  After my shooting, the Protestant Chaplain was unavailable, but the Catholic parish priest came to the station to talk to me shortly after the incident.  He said that God puts those whom He wills into positions of authority over men, and as one of those people, I was God's chosen instrument, and since my actions were undoubtedly justified in the eyes of the law and rational men, I had done my duty, and in doing that duty, I had acted within God's will, and had nothing to repent of.  He argued that it was God's will because if it wasn't, He was big enough to protect that man from me, or to play the role of "great physician" and heal him.  I didn't murder the man I killed in law enforcement, though I most assuredly did kill him.  I think the same thing applied when I served in the USMC, too. I didn't murder those people wearing the opposing team's uniform, either.  That doesn't make them any less dead, but I didn't murder them.  If they didn't want to get taken out, they had the option to surrender.  Their choice to surrender or fight or retreat and disengage.  Some chose wisely.  Many did not.

Now, if one of those guys in the opposing team's uniform would have surrendered, and I decided to ignore my own team's Rules of Engagement, my actions would no longer fall under the cover of an act of war, but probably would be something to repent over.  Since I fought under the rules I was duty bound to fight under, my concious is clear.

Now, on this whole Walmart thing and getting back on topic, I loath the place, and won't bring myself to set foot in it.  Powderman pretty much articulated why I chose not to trade with that company.  I don't want to support their business practices and I don't need anymore crap from China.  So I have no need to patronize the place.  It ain't like I've got a hell of a lot of other options here in Tahlequah, OK, but I'll take every one of them I've got or go to some other town and explore other non Walmart options before spending my money there.

Now that I think about it, I guess part of my service to my country in the military had to do with preserving Walmart's right to be the ook-shoon of retail.  Maybe I do have something to repent of for my military service, after all......

Did I mention that I loath the place and all it stands for? 

-JP

[magooch]

As far as I'm concerned, Walmart is just another store.  I don't shop anywhere because of how they treat their employees since as far as I know, they might all be the same.  My wife retired from Sears and she never had anything good to say about how they treated their employees.  I do suspect they were better in that regard than Walmart, but that was many years ago.

Where I live, we've got all the "big box" stores to choose from.  We shop where we get the best products for the best price and that is not any more often at Walmart than several other places.  It's called competition and it's what keeps prices somewhat reasonable.

[powderman]

JPSHELTON. I did answer Dale in a PM but you explained it pretty well, thanks.
Any time you see a bare shelf, or they are out of what you went for, thank corporate, they took over all the ordering. Corporate controls the heat and air, all electricity, even the outside lights. Doesn't speak well of any company that doesn't think they can hire anybody smart enough to turn off, or on a switch. We worked 2 days setting new mods and stocking in dairy. Corporate turned off the electric because another store had a problem, Thousands of $s in the garbage, and man hours wasted. All last summer they didn't turn off the outside lights til 10 am, then turned them back on at 4 pm, more waste. They spent millions of $s on new tv systems throughout the store, even have audio. More waste, I never saw even ONE customer look at them or listen to them, more stupidity. They transferred our old mgr last fall. I told him before he left that I knew why he was leaving. I told him they wanted him gone because he cared about people, he was a Christian and wasn't mean and nasty enough, I told him Kent would be, he took over. I'd known him over 7 years, he brought a new co mgr with him, knew them both. I was right, morale there is at an all time low, full timers are dropping like flies, thats their goal.  Any time you can't find help, call 1-800-walmart and let them know they just lost ANOTHER sale. POWDERMAN. 

[Oldshooter]

Charlie, I like you and have never met you, whats more, I respect you. atta boy!

[Ron/Pa.]

  Have you noticed they took most of the Benches from the Wal-Mart stores? The Missus and I got in the face of the manager after noticing the older shoppers hanging on their carts. No place to set and rest. The reason? A wide open store policy. Told the fat piece of crap that there would be a lot more wide open spaces in the future. Didn`t do any good, still no Benches! I like to follow behind the bozos with the Radios and talk to the Missus about hearing the Union was coming to Wal-Mart. Got some pretty evil looks . I hate the place but, we always seem to end up there.....

[Questor]

Considering that they grew to what they are today by establishing themselves in and staying in rural communities, they must not be too bad for those communities. I like them because they sell some expendable things that I buy, like paper. For durable stuff, I buy elsewhere.

[MGMorden]

I try to avoid it now when I can.  My grocery shopping I do at Food Lion usually - occasionally Bi Lo.  Food Lion's prices are almost as low and it's a lot more convenient (shorter checkout lines).  Bi Lo is good too and their deli section blow's Wal-mart out of the water.  Wal-mart's deli/hot food section is literally all just a pile of fried "stuff".  Fried shrimp, fried chicken, fried onion rings, fried potatoes - fried this, fried that.  I love fried food but come on - you gotta have something else.  Bi-Lo has a few fried items, but they also have lima beans, mac n cheese, cabbage, red rice, roma beans, garlic mashed potatoes, etc.  They also have a nice little area with tables setup for you to eat at.

I still get my oil and tires at a local place called Hill Tire.  They're not much more than the wal-mart service center and their guys are MUCH more knowledgable.

For movies, Wal-mart is straight out.  Their selection is organized (using the word loosly) in the stupidest manner - mostly by price.  I don't want to go browse the $7.50 movies as a category.  If I want something I want it by genre, and alphabetically.  Best Buy has that (or just Amazon - I don't mind waiting).  Not to mention that Wal-mart almost always carry's the full screen version of everything but new releases.  There's no way I'm paying for a movie that has the ends chopped off of the picture.

Video games and movies?  I'm online only now via Steam/X-Box Live (for games) and Amazon MP3 Marketplace (for music).

I will admit though - I do go to Wal-mart pretty often looking for ammo.  If the few local places were prices just a little more competitively I might shop there instead, but the reality is on a lot of items these guys aren't the 15% higher than I might be willing to be, but are instead twice as much or more compared to Wal-mart.   All I buy from gun stores is powder and primers.

[MGMorden]

Considering that they grew to what they are today by establishing themselves in and staying in rural communities, they must not be too bad for those communities. I like them because they sell some expendable things that I buy, like paper. For durable stuff, I buy elsewhere.

They grew to their size because the average consumer is short sighted.  They'd rather buy a $20 DVD player that they'll have to replace 4 times over the next 10 years rather than a $60 one that'll last them 20 years.  Same with clothes.  I have bought a pair of dress pants from Wal-mart and the edges are getting frizzy and frayed within a year.  1.5 years and they're about ready for the trash dump.  On the flip side, I have pants bought at a better store like Belk that are 5-6 years old and still look new.  I might have paid twice as much for them, but that's working out better in the long run. 

The sad truth though is that the market has spoken, and cheap disposeable junk sells better than more expensive things that last.  You can blame Wal-mart for selling junk, because in today's market the natural order of things is that the cheapest junkiest crap will make the most money. 

[burntmuch]

I try to take my money else where. Its another company thats selling our kids future to China.

[powderman]

Walmart did away with fabrics several years ago, they said it wasn't profitable, another lie. Truth is they wanted to expand toys and electronics. Several people returned sewing machines saying, you won't sell me the material, I don't want your darned machine. There used to be a lot of Amish shopping there, they all left, and took ALL their business elsewhere. They did away with layaway. Reason??? They wanted to push their new credit card, we were told to tell customers it was better, another lie. One lady ran a daycare center. She would buy GOOD toys for her kids using layaway,$ 6-7,000  a year. She told me that she also bought over  $42,000 in groceries there the year before. She said she would not be back, and didn't. They continually drop popular items and fill the shelves with crap nobody wants and just sits there. Upper mgt is their own worse enemy. Sam Walton listened to his employees, the new crop refuses to and the company loses out on a lot of good ideas. POWDERMAN. 

[eye shot]

One thing they can't get all from China is food. Our Kroger store has better food at a better price than Wal Mart. The wife and I both agree on that.

[oldandslow]

I guess that I am fortunate in that the local Wal Mart still has benches, new ones at that, in the store. They sell the same brands of food that all the grocery stores handle and their vegetables are usually the best available at the various stores. The fabric department is still there too. As far as Chinese junk goes, everyone sells it. It's where everything is made nowdays. There are a couple of Wal Marts in other towns that we occasionally shop in and we find the same situation in these two stores.