I think its just that they have to compete with the low end, like the LCTs from China or whatever they’re called. Sell engines for a hundred bucks and throw them away. I know the Briggs engines at Walmart have plastic carbs but have no idea what’s inside. As long as people would rather buy a $100 engine and not take care of it instead of a quality $400 engine, I guess that’s what they’ll sell. Then again we’ve got plastic manifolds in $40,000 cars.
“Dollar stores and Big Lots can have great deals but they also commonly have cheap crap/rejects”.
@cwatkin–I’ve noticed that items that are advertised on late night television at a special price of $19.95 plus shipping and handling if one calls in to the 800 number often wind up at Big Lots. I saw a clock advertised on television that had a different cat face in place of each of the numbers 1 through 12 and give a different “meow” sound on each hour. I was going to order one for Mrs. Triedaq who really likes cats, but thought better of the idea of giving out the credit card number, spending $19.95 plus s and h, and ordering by telephone. However, the same item showed up at Big Lots a few months later for $9.95, so I bought one for Mrs. Triedaq to take to her office. It did keep good time, but the cat call on each hour drove her nuts after a day and she removed the battery from that section of the clock.
I do notice at Big Lots that many of the electronic and small appliances have, in small print, a notice that these goods are “factory reconditioned”. I am on the house committee at my church where the woman who does our cleaning is hell on vacuum cleaners. I’ve found buying one of these “factory reconditioned” vacuum cleaners at Big Lots every two or three years is cheaper than the repairs on an expensive vacuum cleaner. I pay $39.95 for a reconditioned vacuum cleaner and for two year’s use, that is only $20 per year.
The last time I was at Big Lots, they had Peak motor oil. I assume it is marketed by the same company that makes Peak antifreeze. It had the correct API specifications for my car, but I took a pass. However, I assume it would be as good as any other motor oil.
I remember that talking fish that was all the rage a few years ago. It was something like “Big mouth Billy Bass”. This was on TV all the time but I saw it at discount places for cheap after the fad faded.
AS for the Peak oil, I suspect it would meet all the API specs. The stuff at dollar stores doesn’t try to cover it up.
Peak oil’s being advertised hard here on espn radio. I assume it meets spec.
Back in the early 1960s before the days of WalMart, the concept of a large discount store was relatively new. I was shopping at a big discount store called “Cousin Fred’s”. The little town ten miles down the road had a discount store called “Grandpa John’s”. At any rate, I was shopping for motor oil and picked up 5 quarts of what I thought was Quaker State. The price was very good. Fortunately, I looked at my intended purchase before I got to the check out line. The colors on the can were the correct green and white, but the brand name of the oil was Quaker Maid. I put the oil back on the shelf.
I don’t understand the issue about Sunday and evening hours, but California eliminated its blue laws before I was born so stores (including small ones) have routinely been open Sundays my whole life. They do not pay their employees any more for working on a Sunday than any other day. Why would they? No one here considers it unusual to work then or would expect to get paid more (maybe some union supermarket jobs excepted, and there are fewer and fewer of them.) Small businesses sometimes lose out to big ones, sure. Lower prices, better selection, works every time.
Walmart’s critics find plenty to criticize
@MarkM - I think the issue is one of scale. Walmart can afford to employ a few folks to cover those hours because they’ll have enough volume to make it pay, while a small shop won’t.
For the most part, the issue of paying more for weekend or evenings is a contractual issue between employer and employee. That means that in this time of union busting, places like Walmart pretty much do what they please which now I believe means, they no longer pay that extra measly 1 dollar an hour. But @texases is absolutely right. The inherrant advantages of fewer workers covering more varied products makes larger discount stores more advantageous to shop at. It’s just the nature of the beast. Locally, there are several pro shop owners who sold their businesses and went to work at Dick’s and other department stores selling golf equipment, but now also, appliances and just about anything else. Box stores seem to rule in dictating merchandise quality, wages and unfortunately, quality of life.
Blue laws aren’t the issue @MarkM. Germany has a tradition of worker solidarity and workers there, just like workers here, dislike work schedules that tend to overwhelm any opportunity of a personal life. The German workers stood together on issue after issue as did the independent shop owners and their courts often upheld the demands of the locals.
It is quite obvious that the local Walmart sees that they can keep tight reigns on their employees by scattering their 36 hours across 5 or 6 days with the schedule never having any routine and making it impossible to schedule in hours at a second job. And the path to upward mobility seems to require back stabbing and boot licking. And the sales taxes collected at the local store support local and state finances and makes for a Banana Republic situation.
IMHO, Walmart could not be doing the things is does if it weren’t for the present political climate and general American sentiment that unfettered capitalism breeds “good” business practices that ultimately helps everyone. Just like Henry Ford wanted to make products that hs employees could afford, Walmart sells products for prices their workers at reduced wages can afford. Unions do more then demand higher wages. They work for better training and working conditions and a general acceptance that every worker has a private life that must be respected by his/ her employer. If Walmart and others don’t feel the same way, they do so with rather tacit support of our own politics. The Walmarts of this country are of our wn creation. I don’t blame Sam Walton, I blame myself and everyone else for supporting him.
Yeah, the American public supports Walmart’s business model, but I think there is a different reason; (perceived?) standard of living.
In order to take a stand against Walmart, you have to take a (perceived?) hit in your standard of living. Your money (appears to?) go farther at Walmart.
Whether Walmart actually helps cost conscious Americans make their money go further is a matter of debate, but in any case, they do a darn good job of perpetuating that idea/myth.
I think you nailed it Whitey. It isn’t the first time the public has been ( are still being )dubed. But, it’s an entire mind set and not just Walmart. Fast foods ( unhealthy) and ( not so good ) good deals from the Walmarts are part of the game.
Part of the problem is that we are a throw-away society. When a television quits functioning, it is probably going in the trash anyway. This being the case, if a television costs less at WalMart, then I suppose it makes sense to buy it there.
I was pleasantly surprised when I bought an inexpensive television for our sun room at Target. After we had the television several months, the picture would go crazy and all that was audible was a high pitched squeal. The instructions that came with the set indicated that I had to pay the shipping charge to a service center for repair and I was to get authorization first. I called for the authorization and the manufacturer (Vizio) sent a technician to my house. He came with the correct replacement circuit board and had the television working in ten minutes. My dog took a liking to the technician right away, so he spent another 20 minutes playing fetch with the dog. There was no charge. The television has worked great since that time.
A great example of this is ‘Black Friday’ sales - lots of stuff few people really need, but the carts are FULL of it…
I don’t care how cheap or cheaper a product is at a retailer, especially if I have to wait in line, for 20 minutes for just a single item. Two issues for this company is that they are controlling costs by reducing employee count and they are losing the more affluent customer who can readily move to other venues.
In the 20 minutes in line, I constantly heard the call for “all cashiers to the front”. I complained to the 20yo something who was the front end supervisor, and he told me that all of this qualified people were at the checkouts and the call for additional cashiers was just a ploy to keep the customers semi-tolerant.
I’m a big user of the self-service checkouts. Don’t have to wait or talk to anyone. I wouldn’t wait in line for 20 minutes no how. How come I can’t throw anything away though if we’re a throw-away society?
On several occasions, I have found that grocery items are cheaper at my local chain supermarket than at Wal-Mart. That disparity in prices, coupled with the inevitable VERY long wait for checkout at Wal-Mart causes me to avoid those stores if I can. If any of the local Wal-Marts had a self-service checkout, I would use it, but none of the Wal-Marts in my neck of the woods have this feature.
I go to Wal-Mart–at most–once every few months, and find that my time and my money is better-spent at Mom & Pop stores whenever possible, at Costco, at Department Stores that sell higher-quality merchandise, and at a couple of supermarket chains.
A locally owned supermarket near me gets the majority of my grocery business due to the quality and price of produce and meat, plus the owner is often there and often wearing an apron and working. I have seen him mop up spills, sack groceries and cover a register to let one of the ladies take a break. One of his tellers has been with him over 20 years and her daughter now works there. He employs several high school kids part time who are courteous and capable. Large chains cannot be run nearly as efficiently.
self checkouts (SCO) are ok, If the you are next and the people checkout is more than 2 people long. I find the SCO to be slow, confusing, and stupid besides being a machine. When I use a SCO, I expect to be using a ATM but I find the SCO have different designs and the user interface confusing.