Speaking of wal mart

Around here they don’t make you sign anymore. They just drop it at the door except for Fedex and jewelry. Had to have it delivered to the dock at work for a signiture. I did have a problem a couple times where FE claimed they delivered when in fact they delivered a couple circles down with the same house number. Happens with USPS too. I get bank statements, bills etc. and just drive them over if serious or put it back in the mailbox with a note if not serious.

well, I hardly know where to begin. the commentary so far has been thoughtful and thought provoking; emotional and eloquent. almost every post was worth reading carefully. I didn t want to skim past anything important. rarely do I read things that warrant such close attention. ben franklin s autobiography springs to mind as one thing I ve read that required intense scrutiny. every sentence and paragraph was packed full of info, not a word was wasted. it was the most efficiently written book I ve ever read, …and it took forever! speaking of forever…, I digress. I did, however, want to take a moment to agree with @westward ( and@Rod Knox) regarding the quality, and civility, of the conversation around here.
I appreciate the responses and wish I had been online to participate in the discussion. its definitely high time I opened up a bit too. i ve put off responding, in part, because of my weak typing and novice computer skills. the subjects being discussed are complicated and deserving of serious consideration and comment. it will take me a long time , i think, to express my thoughts.
i suppose i should begin with Wal-Mart… (well, its an hour later, the puppy is walked, i ve attempted to ease the pre- teenage angst of my 12 yr old daughter, and my better half is reasonably happy with me. now where was i ?) …ah yes, Wal-Mart.
first i would like to say that wal mart is only possible (necessary?) (inevitable?) , because of the laws, policies, agreements, etc…, of our government and all that it entails; elected reps., bureaucrats, appointees and the like. so we all, as citizens, bear some responsibility for , and have some ability to change, the status quo…

                  Well guys, i m beat. and Vikings is coming on....(to be cont.).

@wesw‌

You’re correct about WHY Walmart exists, in my opinion

Now please stop beating around the bush

Do you shop at Walmart?
What are your thoughts on the way Walmart interacts with other businesses?
What are your thoughts on Walmart’s pricing strategies?
Do you have any thoughts about Walmart as an employer?

Are you pro-Walmart?
Are you against Walmart?

Or are you somewhere in the middle?

I m getting there… but for now, lets just say that I agreed with bing and dagosa a lot, and not so much with mountain bike. I m certainly anti- wal mart. and I do shop there occasionally. goodnight.

My first negative experience with FedEx was when I ordered some bags of specialized granular products for my lawn & garden. The bags were very large 40 lb objects, and they were made of paper.
Despite having a very large covered porch, where did the FedEx driver decide to leave the paper bags?
In my driveway, on a day of torrential rain. Luckily, I arrived home a few minutes after the bags had been dropped in my driveway, otherwise they would have been totally soaked, and the product would have been ruined.

The next bad experience had to do with ordering a new computer system, and due to the size of the items (about 10 years ago), this shipment involved 3 fairly large boxes. Because the value of the shipment mandated a signature, and I was not home at the time of delivery, the boxes went back to the local FedEx warehouse for another delivery attempt the next day. I drove to the FedEx warehouse (about 25 miles away), and after being first ignored, and then given bad attitude by the white trash woman behind the counter, I was told that I could pick up the boxes at the warehouse the next day. (Apparently they couldn’t locate them in the building at the time that I was there.)

So, I drove back to the FedEx warehouse the next day, and was told that the boxes were on the truck for delivery to my house–despite having arranged for pickup at the warehouse. So–you guessed it–when I arrived home, there was a notice that they had attempted to deliver the boxes, but couldn’t leave them w/o a signature!

I placed a phone call to the FedEx warehouse, and arranged for pickup at that facility the next day. When I arrived, once again the merchandise was not there, and once again, when I arrived home there was another notice that they had attempted delivery.

To make a long story short, it took 4 visits to the FedEx warehouse–involving a total of ~200 miles of driving–in order to finally retrieve the 3 boxes. At no time was anyone at FedEx apologetic for their screw-ups, and–in fact–they consistently displayed nasty, negative attitudes.

On another occasion, I had ordered a case of wine, which also required a signature. As luck would have it, I was in the shower when they attempted delivery. On this occasion, I had to drive to a different FedEx facility, which was located over 50 miles away. Although the employees at that facility were more pleasant than the ones at the other FedEx facility, they would not wait on me until the take-out menu for lunch had been perused by everyone behind the counter, and until they had all made their lunch selections for the day.

I was finally acknowledged, and an attempt to find my case of wine began. After ~15 minutes had elapsed, I inquired as to why it was taking so long, and I was told that everyone on the warehouse floor was at lunch, and my merchandise could not be brought up front until they all returned from lunch! In total, I had to cool my heels in their dirty waiting area (which had no chairs) for over an hour before my package was turned over to me.

As I said previously, my skin crawls just at the thought of having to deal with FedEx.

I won’t excuse employees for their lack of professional courtesy but FWIW, in parcel delivery the consignee is not the customer and at FedEx Ground, the drivers are contracted and paid based on a percentage of the freight charges on tickets. A return trip by the driver is on his own time burning his own gas. A contract driver will go broke if he/she isn’t able to “get rid” of the packages quickly. I contracted several parcel routes for a regional service and drove one of them myself. My best solution for deliveries to homes was to ignore the tickets the first day and carry them home where I called to make arrangements for the next day. The phone charges I payed were a great deal cheaper than the fuel and time wasted ringing a door bell when no one was home.

my son receives many parcels, usually from UPS. they are mainly parts for his various motorized things. some of these parts are quite expensive, and I m amazed that they just leave them on the porch in full view. we live in a small town, but things are stolen. on the other hand, no one seems to take any of the packages. the drivers don t even knock most times. the drivers are always pleasant when I do talk to them, or sign for things though

@wesw‌

“I am certainly anti- wal mart. And I do shop there occasionally.”

As for myself, I am certainly anti- wal mart. And I do NOT shop there occasionally."

I NEVER shop there

I NEVER set foot in the store

Please don’t say you’re anti walmart if you shop there occasionally

By the way, I respect everybody’s decision whether to shop there or not

But please don’t mislabel yourself

All due respect db4690, I find that an odd thing to say. For one thing, I don’t even know what it means to be “anti-walmart.” It’s inherently ambiguous. And aside from that, sometimes people have to do what they have to do. We don’t get to make our “choices” from an infinite array of possibilities. Most of them, in fact, are highly constrained by things that have nothing at all to do with our individual choices. But you still have to do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.

I am anti-corporate form of business, as I have explained here. That is still pretty ambiguous, but I have filled out with explanation. But to somehow be “true” to my own preferences for less economic deck-stacking and centralized economic control, I’d have to move deep into the Canadian wilderness - or something like that - and find the fruits and berries. I suppose you could call it a “choice” not to do so and then call me a hypocrite for picking up my concrete patch at Lowe’s (since the small family owned business I used to use closed down soon after Lowe’s moved in). It’s quite possible to be critical of a business and still use it on occasion. There’s no “mislabel” there and to make it out to be otherwise really oversimplifies.

Seen what looked like a Delivery package on somebodys disused porch,it was still there a few months later,what happened? dont know,but I expect that happens on occasion.
Speaking of the Wally World,recently went to Wal-Mart(has the worst pharmecy of any wal-mart I’ve ever been in) went to the dropoff window and there was this guy chatting with a rather attractive tech or Pharmecist,I waited patiently then their conversation went to Her apparent survivalist business and finally someone finally noticed me and took the prescription to fill,meanwhile( I’ll never forget this pickup line"So,you have any babies?) I guess I’ll have to try that one sometime.Better wake up Wally World that store is the worst over all I’ve ever seen and I try to avoid it-Kevin

Because of my work hours I’m usually in my local Walmart around 5:30 AM when they have their employee meeting, which is held right out on the floor. They start with the manager having everyone start clapping their hands. Trying to get them enthused for the day, I suppose. But, when the meeting breaks up everyone is pissed about something. One morning the employees hours were arbitrarily cut and as I stood at the check-out, over half their employees just walked out the door. I have friends and relatives that work at two of Walmart’s distribution centers, and even though the work is demanding they get paid over twice what store employees make and feel like their bosses are considerate, especially if they maintain good attendance.

@db4690 …you have to realize that a great part of this country does not have an alternate like Costco or Target where they can shop. Walmart is “it” for a large part of this country’s population. Walmart knows this and builds accordingly. I can drive 100 miles and shop at those alternate stores but the cost of fuel takes that right out of the equasion. Price and convenience is too great of an attraction to pass by. I would if I could but I can’t so I don’t…even though I wish I could.

Target has lost me as a customer, at least for awhile, as a result of the totally avoidable data breach that they suffered last year.

Target’s approach to cyber security is analogous to a home owner who buys the most expensive, most sophisticated door locks available, and then fails to lock his door.

Read this article to see what I am talking about:

Making systems/servers secure takes time and money. And many companies don’t think it can happen to them…so they don’t spend the time and money to do anything about it. I work on some very very very secure systems. Some of our systems are attacked thousands of times a week…and NOT ONE was able to get through. We monitor it closely…and have safeguards in place in case by some chance someone gets in.

Besides designing software that is secure…you need other external software to monitor. And you also have to secure the hardware. We have systems used for Test and production. The Test systems can be accessed by the developers and test team. The production systems can ONLY be accessed by a very small group of people. We limit the access to less then 10 people company wide.

I’ve had to replace my Visa card 5 times in the past 8 years due to some company I dealt with had a security breach. The one nice thing about Target…is that now Visa is going after them for the loss. That’s the first time I ever heard Visa going after a company for the loss. It could be hundreds of millions. Now MAYBE companies will start to take security seriously. If you’re a small company and you have security breach…and Visa goes after you for payment…it could shut you down (and rightly so).

Tehuacan is 2 hours away. Puebla is 2 hours away. But, in the cities, streets in Tehuacan are relatively quiet, except in the very centro. Puebla is large and harsh. When I go there, I usually take the bus and get a taxi.

Let me explain the Mexican criminals in the USA. Most who go to the USA do not want problems with the law. Their only crime is crossing the border without papers. And, if it were possible to get papers, they would gladly do so. It is not.

However, Mexico’s most vicious criminals, I am talking murderers and rapists, run to the USA, and hide in areas where there are many Mexicans. Who dare not call the cops on them for obvious reasons. A few criminals in an area can make for a high crime rate, no matter where they are from.

People in Mexico are horrified by our death penalty. When I get a new English class, I tell them right out if you plan to go to the US with intentions of murdering, raping, and such, don’t whine when you find yourself on death row. If that is what you have in mind, better not go at all.

In the car realm, the most unusual thing I have seen in Mexico is the belief that you need 20W-50 oil or you will damage your motor. Some oil shops don’t even handle 10W or 5W-20 or -30.

"Making systems/servers secure takes time and money. And many companies don't think it can happen to them...so they don't spend the time and money to do anything about it."

But…how do you explain the case of Target, which did spend the big bucks to get the latest & greatest protection for their data, and then…proceeded to ignore multiple warnings from their own employees? I know that a few heads have already rolled at Target, but I suspect that a few more will be on the chopping block before all is said and done.

@missileman‌

You make a good point

hey guys, sorry I have left this discussion hanging. I haven t been feeling well. @db4690. if I remember correctly, you were the one who pushed me to label myself, now you harangue me for choosing the wrong label. sheesh! the subject ismuch more complicated than “pro” or “anti” anyway. I m definitely anti cheap Chinese crap and intelligence insulting packaging, but not anti the people who feed their family by working there. I am not “anti” universal health care either. but I am “anti” obamacare, which forces us to buy a product from the insurance industry. in my opinion ACA is state mandated extortion (sp?) and the insurance industry is an un-necessary middleman. these subjects are too complicated for a simple “pro” or “anti” stance

VDCdriver Your “service” from the 2 FedEx warehouses is totally un-excusable! I hope you reported them to the shipper and they reported them to FedEx Corporate as a serious management problem is indicated. I worked for over 10 years for Purolator Courier which was the “Giant” of the industry until they chose to ignore the little “upstart” Federal Express! I am familiar with the industry and confident that this behavior would not be tolerated by FedEx Corporate.

@wesw‌

I believe that I never mentioned healthcare