Razor Blades and Wal Mart

[jinman]

I'm thankful that Walmart came to Bowie, Tx and closed down three of the filthiest grocery stores on the planet. Walmart's Super Center employs at least 100 people while those other places had a combined total of probably less than 25. At the locally owned stores, there were usually no more than three people working in the stores at any one time. Walmart has that many people working just at the deli counter alone. The floors in the local stores were constantly filthy, and I almost had to hold my nose when I walked by the meat counter. When I would get to the checkout counter in the local store, the clerk was normally surly and maybe even talking on the phone while checking out a line of customers.

Our town now has a Walmart and a Tractor Supply. Both have improved the lives of the people in the community. If Walmart was such a bad place to work, why would I see so many Walmart employees back at the store when they are off work? Why would I see so many people smiling and being genuinely friendly? The largest expenses of a company always include salaries. The salaries of the Walmart store in Bowie, Tx go to people in the local community. Then, there are the state and local taxes provided by the store. In the past 20 years, the store has gone from a small Walmart with no groceries to a Super Center store. The business is booming and so is the community and development around the store.

Recently, I went to a locally owned Ace Hardware store to buy some grade 8 bolts for an emergency repair on my tractor's subframe. They had each bolt, nut, and washer priced separately. One 3/4" x 3" bolt was $3.68 each. By the time I got out of the store with my little bag of bolts, I had spent $38. About half-way home, I suddenly thought of TSC. The store has not been here that long and I had not thought to go there. The next time I went there, I selected and weighed the same hardware I bought at Ace. At their by-the-pound pricing, That hardware would have cost me $8.85 at TSC. Holy Smoke! I wasted almost $30. The phrase "highway robbery" comes to mind. . . .

I don't understand the vicious hatred of Walmart or any other big box store for that matter. I tend to focus on the positives and look at single incidents of lacking service or product quality as not endemic to the big stores. I will even go back to my local Ace Hardware store to buy self-drilling fasteners for sheet metal because their prices are better than anywhere else. The lumber yard there also has very competitive prices and quality lumber. I got burned badly on a bolt purchase, but I don't want Ace Hardware closed down. I will continue to prudently give them my business.

 

[tallyho8]

When the founder, Sam Walton, was alive, he strived to have Wal Mart be a very patriotic business selling mostly American made products and having signs hanging everywhere saying "American made".

He left each of his kids several BILLION dollars each and then it seemed like Wal Mart departed from the family views and went corporate concentrating only on profit and forsaking the founder's beliefs.

By pressuring their suppliers to sell them products at lower prices or else lose their contracts, they forced their suppliers to get their products manufactured overseas where labor was cheaper, closing down many American factories and putting many Americans out of work.

To compete with Wal Mart, other retailers had to follow Wal Marts example and more and more American factories shut down.

Now Americans are able to buy goods cheaper than in the past, but at what price? Many Americans have lost their jobs but many Chinese have gained jobs. Over time, as the Chinese economy builds, their labor costs will increase, increasing the price of our goods, but they will have the jobs instead of us leaving many Americans with less income and higher priced goods.

This trend appears to me to be irreversible and history tells us that America will inevitably follow the same path as the Roman Empire and other world dominators.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

The small grocery stores around here sell fresh vegetables and fruit from local farmers.

Walmart gets vegetables and fruit from China...with the chemicals.

Yes Walmart is a big store...BUT... Why is it that when you go to check out, they have 30 + cash registers and maybe 3 cashiers working???__Or you can check out through a self check out...and that shows that they don't want to pay employers to stand there.

And there is always a long line waiting.

But in a small store they have all registers open, with the cashiers standing and waiting for you to check out.

Walmart will probably have no cashiers working in another year.

Walmart is just GREEDY.

Don't know why TSC, Lowes and Home Depot was even brought up

 

[Bird]

Yes Walmart is a big store...BUT... Why is it that when you go to check out, they have 30 + cash registers and maybe 3 cashiers working???__Or you can check out through a self check out...and that shows that they don't want to pay employers to stand there.

And there is always a long line waiting.

But in a small store they have all registers open, with the cashiers standing and waiting for you to check out.

Walmart will probably have no cashiers working in another year.

Walmart is just GREEDY.

Greedy? Now that's hilarious. What business do you know of that isn't trying to make a profit? Some are just more successful than others. And as long as they're doing it honestly, I've no problem with that. Yep, some of their produce comes from other countries (peaches from Chili recently) and it's clearly labelled as such. How often has it made you sick? I believe the most recent "scare" and recall was peanuts grown and processed in the USA. By the way, I'm a peanut addict and I didn't quit eatin' peanuts, even ate some of those Austin peanut butter cheese crackers that were included in the "recall" with no ill effects.

And I've no doubt at all that different stores are different because of different managers and employees. I'll assume you're right about your local Walmart, but in the two stores I most often use, we never have any long lines waiting to check out. It's rare for me to have to wait on one or two people ahead of me (one this morning). One of the stores also has the self check out (which I like) and the other does not.

And the local Kroger's and Albertson's grocery stores also have the self check out, as does our local Home Depot.

 

[MossRoad]

Ha! Bird, you should come to our Walmart. There are usually not enough cashiers and honest to goodness the lines are usually 6 deep. If you go to the self check, there are usually 3-4 people in each line. That is one of the main reasons I hate going there.

Second reason I hate going there is the shopping carts are all over the parking lot and the lot is sloped, so they all roll with the slightest breeze. I usually park on the downhill side of a landscape island in hopes of not having my car dinged, but that means a hundred yard hike to the door!

Third reason I hate going there is the size of the place. Good grief it is huge. And it seems that everything I want is at the back of the store, so no matter what door I go in, I have to walk through ladies clothing or bicycles to get there.

Fourth reason I dislike going there is the staffing. They are not very friendly, seem a tad lazy when asked to help, and none seem to be high-school age kids. This is important to me, because the local grocery chain employs adults AND high school kids. The high school kids stock shelves, cashier and bag groceries. Yes, they bag them for you still.
I will say that the food items at Walmart seem to be quite a bit less expensive than our local grocery store chain. However, our local chain seems to have more variety, a cleaner looking store and more people that know where to find stuff. The local chain also has a butcher on staff most hours. So, given the choice, I will spend $10-$20 dollars more a week just to get the friendly, competent service at my local grocery chain.

 

[Bird]

Yep, David, I'm sure it's different in different places. And while I'm a frequent shopper at Walmart, we usually buy frozen items, such as chicken breasts and fish fillets from Sam's Club; larger bags and better prices. I seldom buy any meats from Walmart; sometimes buy some fresh meats from Sam's Club, but we periodically put an ice chest in the car and drive 50 miles to buy meats from a real meat market; better meats and better prices at Fischer's Meat Market. If our Walmarts were as some of you are describing, I'd probably not shop there either, and I certainly don't blame anyone who doesn't want to do business with Walmart; just glad we all have the freedom to choose where we want to spend our money, but our Walmarts usually have friendly helpful employees.

Of course, in spite of the similarities, there are also substantial differences between even our stores less than 10 miles apart. And certainly they do some things I don't like.

I buy some cheap birdseed for our bird feeder. Both stores pulled that brand off the shelves for about a month. Then they both put it back, but with a considerably higher price.

I like canned new potatoes and the Great Value are just as good as the name brand stuff. Awhile back both stores did the same thing they did with the birdseed. They pulled it all off the shelves for 2 weeks, then put it back with a 48% price increase (still cheaper than the other grocery stores).

Both stores have the Great Value "wheat" bread, but only one also had the Great Value "whole wheat" bread; much darker, better flavor (to me), and stays fresh longer. So I always had to go to that store for bread. Well, now neither of them has it, so I'm buying the higher priced name brand whole wheat bread.

Both stores have DeliMax tamales, and for my taste, they're terrible, but one of the stores has Pedro's Fiesta tamales from Lubbock; much, much better tasting tamales AND cheaper than the DeliMax.

One store does a good business, but not real busy so parking close is easy. The other store is really busy, and has a high percentage of very old customers. I mean folks who long ago passed the "senior citizen" category. So if you do have to wait in line, it's because some poor old lady is going through her purse trying to find her money, and I can't get too upset over that. I may not be too many years from joining them.

 

[jimmyj]

The best thing about this discussion is that we all have a choice - shop where you want and don't shop where you don't want to.

I work in retail and we have a serious problem with people (usually scuzzos who are drug addicts) shoplift and try and return the goods for a refund. The ideal items to steal are small expensive items, hence the razor blades. It's true too that you have to be very very careful about who you "accuse" or even look at sideways for fear of a lawsuit. The sad part is that the more retailers react the more the vast majority of normal folks are inconvenienced. As it is we can't keep any cash in the till or we'll be robbed, we can't take $100 bills for small purchases or we'll get scammed for counterfiet, we can't let clerks work alone in the evening for fear of rape or robbery, we can't give a refund any more to a nice lady who lost her original receipt, etc etc etc. What's next for goodness sakes.


BTW, I finally went out and bought some sort of Gillette-laser-beam-space-ship-high-tech-nuclear-alloy-robotic-military-grade-razor the other day and it actually works really well. I only hope they can stay afloat with what must be a very slim profit margin on those razor refills!

 

[JohnDeere4300]

1)Greedy? Now that's hilarious.


2) What business do you know of that isn't trying to make a profit?

3) And as long as they're doing it honestly, I've no problem with that.

4) Yep, some of their produce comes from other countries (peaches from Chili recently) and it's clearly labelled as such. How often has it made you sick?

5) It's rare for me to have to wait on one or two people ahead of me

1) Greedy they are, That's what they call them on the news.

2) They build a new store to run the small business owner out, then close down their own store....Yea they want all the profit..GREEDY...

3) I don't think they're doing it honestly, they treat their workers dirty...and i believe they have more Lawsuits against them then any other store in the U.S.___I believe they also got caught up not paying some taxes before.(look up all their dirty work on the Web)

4) Never been sick from Walmart food....We haven't bought fruit, vegetables in over 10 years from any place.
We have a garden and 12 different kind of fruits..and do a lot of canning.

5) I glad I'm not the only one that has seen long lines in Walmart, i think i seen where MossRoad has a problem with that also.
Seems that YOU only Quote me and not the others.
Wal-Mart lawsuit exposes widespread worker abuse | Twin Cities Daily Planet | Minneapolis - St. Paul

Wal-Mart faces fine in lawsuit involving work breaks - International Herald Tribune

George S. May Business BlogWal-Mart lawsuit reaches settlement

Wake-Up Wal-Mart Blog: Breaks at issue in Wal-Mart lawsuit

Institute for Legal Reform: News: Wal-Mart lawsuit settled for $49 million

Walmart-Blows.com • View topic - WalMart lawsuit featured on CNN

Wal-Mart Settles 14-Year Old Disability Lawsuit With Former Pharmacist :: Delaware Employment Law Blog

http://walmartwatch.com/img/blog/tax_avoidance_schemes.pdf


PBS - STORE WARS: Wal-Mart Business Practices

 

[Bird]

Sorry, Bill. I didn't mean to pick on you, but it just struck me as funny for someone to say a business is greedy for trying to make a profit. But yes, we've lately heard of lots of "greedy" people, like those at AIG, car manufacturers, mortgage bankers, etc. So yeah, I guess you'd be right to say someone at Walmart is "greedy", too.

And it doesn't surprise me a bit that any company as successful as Walmart is being sued. I'm sure it didn't surprise their management either. When people find out where the money is, that's who they're most likely to sue.

And can you imagine any company even a tenth the size of Walmart that doesn't have some unhappy employees. But if the majority of them were unhappy there, why have they not quit and gone to work elsewhere?

And are those employees unhappy with the company, or with their individual supervisors?

And they build their store to run the other businesses out, then close their store. OK, I've heard and read that before. How many times has that happened? I don't know. I only personally know of one Walmart in Texas that closed without a new one being built very close. But as I said, I don't know how often it's happened, so maybe more frequently than I'm aware of.

I know you hate Walmart and will do anything you can to hurt their business. Maybe you and others would be better off figuring out how the smaller companies that you like can compete. But as I said, and I was serious, I'm glad you and some others refuse to shop there. That will help keep those lines shorter for those of us who do shop at Walmart. There are actually some smaller businesses that have learned to compete quite successfully, by either providing better products or better services, and in some cases, even better prices. And I do want Walmart to continue to have some competition to keep them on their toes.

 

[2manyrocks]

Back to what I was saying....for hypothetical discussion purposes, is it better for a rural community to have a diverse business base of independent businessmen and women making $60-80K a year or do you want to have a large chain paying a only a couple of local managers this level of compensation with the profits from the operation sent out of state to the corporate main office where the compensation levels and payments to shareholders are significantly higher? The rank and file employees may or may not receive the same compensation and benefits at a chain versus a local business. But over time, more wealth is transferred to a more concentrated economic base with the large chain, and the ability of any local person to enter the same market is significantly diminished. The chain has the resources to demand the best prices from suppliers, but also may attain such a dominant economic position that no one else can compete with them. Historically, this has not turned out well for the local consumer. E.g., the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.