I did not shop at wal mart for a number of yrs, for a number of reasons, but I have since relented. when you need bait at 3 am you gotta do what you gotta do.
I had several customers who were current or previous Walmart employees and a close family member who dealt directly with Bentonville. No one seemed too happy with the company. A complaint that I have with the company is their seemingly underhanded dealings with local governments for special zoning, traffic controls, etc., that the local business owners are never given.
But I still find myself visiting there often. Walmart has been successful in breaking the backs of all local discount stores. Three shoe stores, a sporting goods store, several home entertainment shops and a gardening center have closed in recent years.
If stores in my area had the selection that Walmart has…I would not shop there. I like to support local merchants but I also want the items that I purchase. The price is usually better at Walmart as well.
In some areas of the country, people really have no viable options other than to shop at Wal-Mart. After Wal-Mart has driven the smaller merchants out of business, some folks really have no other options, and that is really sad…except for the Walton clan.
When you need bait at 3 am that’s the perfect time to go outside and grab some night crawlers from the lawn. Unless it’s winter. 
I always live the “LIVE BAIT” signs, I like dead bait as much as any other guy, pork rind and preserved leeches etc. There was a gas chain, coffee, it’s fresh or it’s free, always tempted to go in and ask for the free stuff. Live bait, it’s alive or its free.
I prefer to support small local retailers on principle, but cannot afford to pay premium prices to do so. Besides, WalMart has everything I need, the small local retailers rarely do. And, in truth, WalMart does provide a lot of jobs.
WalMart is not evil. They’re just a retailer who has been more successful than the others due to smart management at the top. Nothing more, nothing less.
@jesmed, you are right of course. if you can find a bug, you have good bait.
Around here our options are a bit limited so Wal Mart is it for the most part. Wal Mart gets ripped because they’re the 800 pound gorilla in the room; much like McDonalds.
Shut every WM down within the next week, bulldoze the buildings, and another retailer will take that gorilla’s spot be it Target, Big K, or whomever.
WM is accused of selling Chinese junk. True enough, but who isn’t? WM sells the same worthless crap everyone else peddles.
Before the WM Supercenter was put in here they fought with the city for 5 or 6 years. In this particular case WM was not trying to gain concessions. What was happening was that the city tried to extort a lot of money out of WM for road improvements 2 or 3 miles away. The city’s position was that traffic would increase on that road leading to more expenses, etc, etc.
However the city willingly gave a farm and ranch store right across the street a ton of money for “economic development” and had no problem with cluttering up that same road with a fleet of semis. WM trucks do not even travel on that road at all.
Of course after the farm store got the money with the promise of “creating many well paying jobs” they started laying people off right and left, closed their tire department, slashing inventory, etc, etc.A friend of mine who worked there for a long time was one of the first ones to exit.
Walmart ask for perks just as any large company does. When was the last time you heard of a large manufacturer looking for a new plant that didn’t demand tax breaks and special access roads at taxpayer expense?
I have only heard vague references to the fact that many walmart employees are on government assistance due to the low wages, so your savings at the store are extra tax dollars in the end.
“Wal-Mart’s poverty wages force employees to rely on $2.66 billion in government help every year, or about $420,000 per store. In state after state, Wal-Mart employees are the top recipients of Medicaid. As many as 80 percent of workers in Wal-Mart stores use food stamps.”
I have a new crow to pick with Wal-mart due to some under handed lobbying(along with a few other retailers) there was a law or bill people all over the state wanted approved for years and due to the efforts of the Wal Mart lobby and a few others it died a quiet death(it was almost a done deal too) so all I can say is that Amazon Prime looks better all the time-Kevin
@ok4450
I like your ( and everyone else great comments) of what happens in a town, city, county, state…even country without a long term plan and the finances to back it up.
When everyone’s private economy is so dependent on expediency, the moral high ground becomes an illusion.
We used to laud “American made”. But when you and I try to buy that way, we find the biggest offenders, huge corporations who retail the products, who really control the success American made products, buying elsewhere for profit.
We can try and look for all the American made TVs you want. But, you’ll have to make it yourself. That wasn’t your and my decision.
@Dagosa ,gave up on that a long time ago,remember when Wal Mart touted proudly made in America by Americans? Wonder what Sam would say now?-Kevin
One of the right wing radio talk show hosts plays a C-W tune with the line “I’ll put a boot up your rear that says American made” and wonder where you might buy such a thing. Even $200 Allen Edmonds deck shoes are made in the Dominican Republic.
Walmart gives us what we want I guess. Like $19.99 quick oil changes and free credit scores we want bargains and then can’t believe how much they cost US in the end.
I don t know if they are still in business, but a company named Iron Age made a good boot a few years ago. in the u.s.a.
I suppose when Henry Ford did the unbelievable for the day, raise the minimum wage at their plants by doubling it to $5 an hour, he did it with the idea that his own employees could then afford to buy his cars and enjoy the fruits of their labor. It would be nice if Walmart had the same empathy. Maybe they do and it’s just a different approach with the $19.99 quick oil changes for their poverty wage workers on food stamps. Of course, they will then have to buy everything there, including using their food stamps. A circular self supporting economy.
Where to start on Walmart? There are just so many issues. Do you really think the selection is that great? They expand the size of the stores but drop the variety of merchandise. If companies don’t meet their stringent cost and delivery requirements, they are not stocked. Try to buy certain brands and products that are at Target and other stores and you’re out of luck. Then of course you have to be very careful that the products bought there are not the same as the same brands elsewhere. One of the things I do buy is TP but last time the rolls are actually 1/4 inch narrower. Geeze, like I’d miss the extra 50 cents for a full package? Then of course the Walmart versions of lawn mowers and snow equipment-be watchful, very watchful. They aren’t the same.
In Sioux Falls they have been fighting public opinion for another store. Low and behold it was found that a letter writing support group was secretly funded by WM. I’ll agree the one benefit is they are open 24/7 but forget the variety, and prices are often higher than Target. And the clientele at Target is much better.
As far as old Henry goes, and I’m an admirer and realist on him, he had a heck of a turn-over problem, and upping the wage was one way to deal with it. Plus he hated unions. What he did to Edsel was a crime that no father should have treated a son that way. Had it not been for Edsel, Henry would have lost the company, IMHO. I think what Sam would do to his kids now though would pale in comparison for taking WM in the anti-American direction they have taken it.
I am only going to say one thing and then try desperately to ignore this thread - and I know that’s not fair, but…(I probably won’t succeed in ignoring it anyway). Back in the early days of the republic when the fabled “founding fathers” were laying out the vision (in no small part through the influence of the same ideas that spawned Smith’s The Wealth of Nations - you know, 1776 was fine year) the corporate form of business organization was considered to be the antithesis of private enterprise and free markets. It remains so. But through the 19th century the new finance aristocracy building these new business forms were clever enough to obliterate the distinction between corporate and proprietary forms of business in the culture and legal systems of the US. It’s sort of like obliterating the distinction between a semi and my Ford Escort in a demolition derby.
The gorillas don’t become what they are because they are a bunch of smart peeps who make the best lemonade stand. They become that through sheer size of capitalization and the ability to control markets - NOT leave them “free” or engage in “free enterprise.” The corporate strategy is always market control, and based on economic power. Not superior rationality, and certainly not any totalizing utilitarian rationality of the “greatest good for the greatest number.”
It saddens me that our current political discourse in the U.S. has no room to make distinctions between markets, capitalism, and corporate capitalism. They are NOT the same thing. In the early days, the corporate form was vociferously opposed by those wanted free markets and free enterprise for the same reasons that the separation of powers was put in place. The idea there was to not let too much power pile up in one place. Well - that didn’t work. And it’s not because of the government which, at the federal level, remained tiny and weak long after corporations had become massive and powerful. de Toqueville saw it coming and he was right.
I’m not a fan of Wal Mart corporate policies and some of their upper echelon employees get trampled on quite a bit also. About a decade ago WM started pushing out long time managers and replacing them with much younger, and cheaper, versions. The one here looks like he just got out of high school and those managers are put under a LOT of pressure.
Stopped at WM this evening and noticed for the 3rd time in a row that their automotive center there is almost dead. While checking out I noted 2 cash registers up front being run by the TLE (Tire, Lube, Express) personnel.
My wife worked for WM for a lot of years but her job was handling the money and paperwork in the office; out of sight and out of mind. She had to put up with BS too and I think she even got to meet Sam Walton.
At one time she discovered a glitch of some sort regarding accounting and merchandise sales to employees. She pointed this out in a memo to corporate in Bentonville and to her stunned surprise she received a letter personally signed by the CEO thanking her for pointing this out to corporate and that changes would be made immediately.
She still has the letter but my first comment was Jeez, couldn’t they at least throw a C-note in there since you just saved them a small fortune? 