Speaking of wal mart

Maintenance/Repairs
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“I dunno, if I’ve got a list of stuff to get, I can just make a few stops at the Hardware store, drug store, auto parts store, farm store, and grocery store and spread the money around. I like a bit more quality and selection.”

I also prefer that. Many of you will remember or identify the likes of this, but I grew up in one of those classic towns where there was a “real” town center full of small businesses. (Not a fake “town center” shopping mall). The hardware store, the “department store” (which mostly meant clothing and shoes), the drug store, the sporting goods store, the deli, the bakery, the grocery store, etc. etc. It wasn’t “inconvenient” and had lots of upsides. Plenty of “entrepreneurs,” little ability to treat people like crap, actual employment opportunity, real expertise behind the counter, profits that stayed at home, walking into “frank’s Hardware Store” and saying “Hey Frank, how’s it going?” etc. It’s what a free and equal society looks like.

“Perfect?” No (is there any such thing?) Yeah, you paid more for things. No volume discounts for anyone, and in the end it actually means that others somewhere aren’t getting the shaft so that you can have cheap stuff all under one roof. I’ll go for having less stuff and healthy communities rather than living in a place full of nameless, faceless wage slaves with the profits heading off to some far away town. This is one of the things I’ve been saying about having things driven by lowest POS price. The individual consumer gains at that very moment and in the very short run.

In the long run, and taking into account the total costs to people and society its not all so great. “Frank” now works for something close to minimum wage handing the automatic checkout machines at Home Depot where no one knows anything and they sell a lot of junk while the profits head off to Atlanta. And it’s not because Frank was a bad businessman. It’s as simple as not having the capital. Home Depot’s capital often allows it the volume discounts so that it can retail things for less than Frank can wholesale them. And now instead of 40 employers to “choose” from in town, there are now 3, the number of self-employed / entrepreneurs has gone through the floor, and the decisions about worker conditions are made in those same far-off corporate offices where people have become entries in a spreadsheet. And they are not seen as assets, but as liabilities. No wonder they are constantly spit on.

I promise you that it’s not about “nostalgia.” It’s about how the negative externalities multiply with those giant pools of corporate capital.

122

I buy what I like…when I like and where I like. Like I said before…I fully support local merchants and shop in their stores when I can. If they don’t have the item then I go elsewhere which includes Walmart. I might not agree with some of their policies but I don’t let that get in the way when I shop there. I also say that anyone who wants to can quit Walmart or not shop there at all if that’s the way they feel. I’ve been in a lot of Walmarts all over the country and I never went in one that had a skeleton staff or one who’s parking lot was empty. I would like to see that because I don’t like crowds. Unfortunately though, for me, it’s not going to happen in my lifetime.

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Missileman, you apparently missed the spate of stories last year about understaffed WalMarts with shelves not getting stocked up and etc. Somewhere between people not wanting to work there and managers getting bonuses for holding labor costs down (read: incentive to skeleton crew) there were certain areas where some WM stores were getting understaffed and the parking lots were starting to empty out. I’m not saying it’s a chronic “thing” across the company. But it happens.

Here’s one of those stories: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/customers-flee-wal-mart-empty-shelves-for-target-costco.html The one near me is actually pretty bad.

It’s obvious too that big retailers are harder and harder to avoid even if you want to. I don’t like any of them. But I have to go to them sometimes too.

124

What Walmart does is pretty much what a friend who owned a golf store told me drove him out of business when a nearby mall had Dicks sporting goods store that carried golf equipment move in. These places can be open late at night, Sundays and other times while he was not open and could not afford to be. He was open only during during business hours. He could not afford to be open because he specialized as most small businesses do, and could not make sales of other items to pay off hour wages. Dick’s golf people will sell shoes when no one buys golf equipment on Sundays for example.

He lost all the sales during the day that were made at night and weekends in the other stores. Everyone works, and he could not afford to compete off hours. His price was just as good, his sale prices competitive and his merchandise quality as good or better as well as his service and product knowledge was outstanding. But, you can’t compete with a store that is open when you can’t be while nearly every buyer is off work too. It had little to do with prices ! It had to do with availability and convenience. That’s what the Walmarts (and Mall stores ) sell.

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I’m sure some stores have problems but I never seen it with my own eyes. I have seen several KMart stores that were pretty bad. I don’t put any faith in any “Bloomberg” news stories or articles. I did read about supposed Walmart understaffing and empty shelves but I never really believed the stories. I always consider the source and Bloomberg is never a good source for the truth. My apologies to any Bloomberg fans but I think their stories come from the same kind of people who give us “The National Enquirer.”

126

Personally, I don’t do things at 2:00am that would violate my principles at 5:00pm.

There’s a “singles bar” joke in there somewhere, I bet…

127

Actually the grocery store is employee owned. I don’t know what they make but they decide how the money is split up. The hardware store is locally owned as is the farm store. Of course they have some high school kids and adults working there with a varying pay rate but they seem happy and helpful. I can’t help much where the stuff is made-that’s another program.

128

The Kmarts around here are a joke

Mismanaged
Don’t stock anything you’d want to buy any ways
Shelves aren’t well organized

129

The closest K-Mart to me actually actually has better merchandise then the pathetic WM a few blocks away,whats this crapola about discounts for large quanities of merchandise? Gerald Celente will tell you why thats wrong-Good day-Kevin

130

Meanjoe, you may be right…

The K Mart nearest me is really a pretty decent place to shop overall, but the company has had financial problems over the past decade or so and I think it’s shown up in their staffing. For “high maintenance” shoppers who like a lot of assistance, I can see where that would be a problem. For me it’s fine.

131

WM is the most successful big-box type store out there…no more or less.

I worked at Advance Auto for a few months and it was definitely cut from the same cloth…cheap chineese parts, low wages, deliberaty curtailing hours to avoid paying benefits, etc…WM is just a lot better at it! (It was very useful in providing customers for my side jobs, though.)

Saying, “I avoid shopping in WM…Ill go to McParts instead” makes me chuckle. As long as you sell your principles, may as well sell 'em for the best price!

132

Some years ago I was in a home rented out to a young family. It had been a long, cold winter, similar to current weather and the house had a butane tank that had apparently been empty for quite a while and the renter had used the fireplaces to keep the house warm. When the limbs from trees in the yard were used up the husband began breaking out every other stud in the walls and the doors from cabinets. That husband felt justified in what he did and corporate management these days similarly rationalizes decisions for short term profits to keep Jim Cramer, et al, happy while oblivious to the long term costs.

133

I haven’t seen anyone say they’d rather go to McStoreA rather than McStoreB, so that’s just making stuff up to have a straw man. It has come up about 20 times now, but no, WM is not a lonely thing out in its own special place. The world is now awash in mass chain retail. WM happens to be in the name of the thread.

But given that the world is awash in big box retail, many times people don’t have any other choices. (I don’t have a hardware store anymore, for example). In that context, if one is concerned about the big box chain as something that’s not good for people then it makes perfect sense to choose the lesser of what one perceives to be two evils.
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134

You’re right about the Big Retail store chains. The mom and pop stores are going bye-bye. There are some still around. We have a couple of local auto-parts stores (Sanel Brothers and Robins). The are MUCH MUCH better then the ADAP’s and PepBoys. And I just noticed that OReilly’s just moved into NH by purchasing VIP auto parts.

I try not to buy from the chains…but it’s difficult. Lowes and Home Depot are open when I need them to be. The local lumber stores East Coast Lumbar and Cyr lumber are not very convenient. Their store hours correspond to the hours I work. I try to avoid Wallmart, but they are open when I need them to be. And there are things I can buy there that I’d have to drive another 20 miles to get. But if at all possible I buy from a local guy. Some local chains are doing great. Market Basket is building new stores all over the place…and their new stores are really nice.

135

The expansion of stores like Walmart and other “one stop shopping” havens which operate at the loss of small businesses can be partly be traced to needing two, both father and mother in working families and the increased number of single parent families. When everyone is working while kids are at school, no one can shop for food and other essentials and “toys for the kids” including the parents. Hence, store hours were expanded to include Sundays and evenings and small businesses that specialize by necessity can’t compete anymore.

Even though the volume is less off hours, they are critical sales that are taken away from small businesses which cannot sell enough in a specialized line of goods to pay their employees. Add to this the loss of actual buying power and it’s no wonder that the middle class is forced to buy from large distributors using third world labor on a Sunday after noon. Now, the wealth from the profit on the sales is concentrated into the single Walmart brand instead of spread out over many small businesses.

This wealth doesn’t get redistributed into the economy the same way as many small businesses do. When one small business needed, in the past, supplementary working tools, they would order from another small business. Now, Walmart can order all their working “cash registers” for example from a supplier who must buy from, say China. Walmart can control overhead prices more effectively then can a small business. It’s a loose-loose vs win-win while the money is drained out of our economy to make the earth flatter.

136

Isn’t it funny how protecting corporate profits is a high priority for politicians while protecting meaningful employment for working families isn’t even on the table.

137

Here’s a 3 minute video on how greed affects the masses:

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Isn't it funny how protecting corporate profits is a high priority for politicians while protecting meaningful employment for working families isn't even on the table.

Haven’t you heard of trickle down economics? I’ve heard of it. But never heard anyone outside of Fox who actually thinks it works.

139

I will never forget a conversation I had with this guy at work back in the 90s. It was when cell phones were really coming of age and the “smarter” phones were starting to pop up. He told me that those would never catch on, that people actually preferred to carry separate devices (phone, camera, calculator, watch) due to the better quality/performance of separate devices. I told him he was nuts. Yes, the separate devices could all be superior to those in the phone but people would prefer convenience and “good enough”. Lo and behold… The same holds true with shopping at these stores. Nobody I know wants to make 5-10 stops for basics no matter if you have all the time in the world or not.

Brick and mortar stores are dinosaurs anyway. There will be very few of them in the end. Unless it’s something I absolutely need to see in person, I buy online and it gets delivered to the house…sometimes, even from Walmart!

How come no one is b!tch!ng about Amazon??? They’ve cut out most of the labor completely!

The world is constantly evolving. You either make the best of the new order or sit around b!tch!ng about how good things used to be…

140

"How come no one is b!tch!ng about Amazon???"

The same thought came to my mind.
And, the success of Amazon has given me an idea regarding what should be a good investment–namely UPS and/or FedEx. After all, after people buy products from Amazon, those goods do have to be delivered, and UPS & FedEx are the recipients of most of that shipping business.

Hmmmm…