<p>Thank you all for your interesting posts.</p>
<p>Here is what I do. I grew up in a small resort town filled with locally owned stores. Every locally owned store paid minimum wage to staff and provided no benefits, yet charged exorbitantly high prices because they sold stuff to tourists. When Wal-mart came to town, everyone cheered them because their pay and benefits were better than the locally owned stores that were fun to shop at.</p>
<p>So, I do shop at Wal-mart. They have the lowest prices, and I generally like the quality of their stuff. It works and it doesn’t break on me, and it’s inexpensive. The prices of groceries are sometimes 1/2 of that at Safeway, and I don’t see how shopping at Safeway adds value to me.</p>
<p>But I’ve also never viewed myself as someone whose purpose is to help keep the economic wheels turning…</p>
<p>Probably the biggest reason I shop at Wal-Mart is time. My wife or I can go there and get auto supplies, cleaning supplies (for cheap), light bulbs, prescriptions, and groceries all in the same trip, and I have confidence that I am getting the price in town. If I tried shopping locally, I’d have to make 5 or 6 stops and it’d take 4 times longer.</p>
<p>I also buy online whenver possible.</p>