<p>Walmart is not nearly the bargain palace they make themselves out to be. There are niches that I find a good value – store brand painkillers and antacids plus underwear for me – but most products can be purchased cheaper and often better made elsewhere. Aldi’s is far better for food, dollar stores for misc. household items that Aldi’s doesn’t carry, Amazon or eBay for electronics or computer supplies, thrift stores for high-quality gently-used clothing that outlasts the new stuff found at Walmart.</p>
And it shows. I LOVE WEGMANS. They opened one in my hometown years ago, and it was a little pricier than the other stores but still worth going to because (a) the quality of their produce and meats were well worth the small price increase and because (b) their store brand is one of the only ones that I actually trust. </p>
<p>Years later I moved down to the Baltimore area, and was suddenly faced with EVERY store in the area offering terrible quality for outrageous prices - I remember walking into the “affordable but nice” grocery store and seeing the strawberries as a solid mass of white mold (but only $3 a lb!!). There was a Wegmans 45 minutes away, 30 minutes with good traffic. I started making a special trip every Saturday morning, before the traffic really started, and not only vastly improved the quality of our food but actually dropped our food bills by a third, AFTER paying for the extra gas!</p>
<p>Wegmans is, to me, the answer to the Wal-Mart problem. If they can do it with a hundred stores, why can’t Wal-Mart?</p>
This is a major issue for me at Wal-Mart - in their drive for lower prices, they eliminate value. When people buy something “durable” at Wal-Mart, they will often get prices 10-20% cheaper, but end up with a product with lesser capability and a substantially shorter lifespan. If you do this as a habit, you end up spending a lot MORE in the long run than if you had bought some decent but modest merchandise (the stuff that Wal-Mart WILL NOT sell) and just kept it.</p>
<p>The problem with the idea that Walmart serves the poor, is that there are very few Walmarts available to the urban poor. Try to get to one if you live in an inner city and don’t own a car.</p>
Can you reconcile these? On one hand you claim that Wal-Mart is not making great profits, and yet on the other hand you note that it is a stock owned in great quantity by some of the world’s most savvy investors. Is there some reason they are choosing to invest in an unprofitable company, or are there profits for which you are not accounting?</p>
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This also seems out of touch with your other statements - they are presumably highly efficient, yet still not highly profitable despite the economy of scale? It seems as if there are a thousand reasons why they should be making a ton of money (prices on par with competition, absolute minimum material costs, lowest labor costs, economy of scale) and yet you are saying that everyone else makes a hogher profit percentage. So are they incompetent or is one of us misinterpreting the data?</p>
<p>I had never heard of Wegemen’s before the last week or so. It sounds like I should wish they were nationwide so more of us could take advantage of them.</p>
<p>What does it mean that Walmart is “important in the lives of many”? Just because it offers cheap stuff doesn’t make it important in someone’s life. My family and friends are important, not the place where I shop. One can buy cheap stuff at more places than Walmart. </p>
<p>I don’t think Walmart is an Evil Empire. I think Walmart wants to make money, which is what corporations are supposed to do. I don’t shop there because 1) I am overwhelmed by big huge box stores and suffer from sensory overload when I’m in one and 2) I don’t like Walmart’s anti-union stance. Unions are the way my family got out of its white trash status.</p>
<p>Lizard, I ABSOLUTELY feel better about buying my foreign, sweatshop labor products somewhere other than Walmart. Where I buy my products says as much about my values and patriotism as what I buy. I deliberately try to shop in stores whose employees earn enough to pay for their own bare necessities. People earning enough money to support themselves is good not only for the individual worker, but also the entire US economy (and it saves me tax $). </p>
<p>Take a look at the CEO/corporate earnings information that BC provided. That information coupled with the fact that Walmart employees have to rely on government handouts is all the evidence I need that “trickle down” does not work.</p>
<p>I want to clarify my response. When we first moved to this house, Walmart was the cheapest and closest place to get items that they carry everywhere (toilet paper, toothpaste, etc). So we did get those things there. Never clothing as the quality didn’t impress us, and the sizing was off (e.g. No European cut clothing for the slim guys).</p>
<p>BUT in the ensuing years, MANY other retail options have opened within a very short drive from our house. Given these choices, I don’t go to Walmart anymore. I don’t need to, and I don’t.</p>
<p>That may be true, but … when I used to shop there, the shelves were sometimes half empty. I don’t care how high tech their inventory system is if they can’t keep the shelves stocked. Nothing is more frustrating than going to Walmart and 1/4 of the items you want to buy aren’t available (or sitting in a back room somewhere). And you can forget about getting anyone who works there to check to see if they have it in the back. They will look at you like you must be crazy. At our local Wegmans, if they happen to be out of an item (which is rare), I will ask an employee and they will promptly check in the back for me. At Trader Joes, if they are run of an item, they will hold that item for you when it comes in and call you to let you know. Now that’s customer service!</p>
<p>I shop at Walmart because, with it’s 10% employee discount, that is where I can afford to shop these days. My Masters Degree husband is working there after losing his professional job. He hates every second of it. </p>
<p>The store is one of the top ten profit-making Walmarts (just had a free lunch to celebrate that) in the country. They have a work force that is now 1/3 of what it was when the store opened 18 months or so ago. The other day the entire super store had two managers, two people working the floor (one for grocery and my husband for all departments other than grocery) and three cashiers. Which is how they achieve their high profits, until customers become frustrated and shop elsewhere.</p>
<p>KK, does it seem like customers are becoming frustrated with it and leaving? Or do they seem to be OK with it for now? I’m curious because I know how busy those stores can get and I’d not be happy with an incredibly long wait even if for cheap prices.</p>
<p>Retailers and clothing brands could make foreign "sweatshop’ sewing factories fire safe for workers by chipping in ten cents for each clothing item made in the factories. Countries like Bangladesh are too poor to make the factories safe…retailers and brands benefiting from the cheap labor should show more corporate social responsibility and not continue doing what they have been practicing. I haven’t seen Walmart OR any other retailer or brand stepping forward to do much to make work environments better in foreign factories making their products. Out of sight, out of mind!</p>
<p>Ah. Walmart is called “the dreaded store” in this household. We buy one item there on a regular basis–a wedge parmesan cheese that our usual grocery doesn’t carry. We buy as many as they have in stock so we will not have to shop there often.</p>
<p>Wegmans expands very slowly. They typically only open 2-3 new stores each year. Definitely not like Walmart that seems to open a new store every day.</p>
<p>KKmama –</p>
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<p>Thanks for sharing your story. I hope that you H is able to find a better job soon. Sounds like he’s in Walmart hell right now.</p>
<p>I haven’t shopped at Walmart for a few years now, for some of the reasons mentioned here. Ours was poorly run, poorly stocked, and dirty. But the primary reason I no longer shop there is because my brother won’t. He’s had an awful economic time since 2007 (which has, thankfully, improved over the past two years). He’s a proud guy who refuses to borrow from a family member. He had to dip deeply into his retirement savings in order not to lose his house. We were talking once about ways to economize and I asked if he had a Walmart Superstore in his neighborhood, wondering if it helped stretch his dollars. He told me that he had never once walked into a Walmart and never would, because he doesn’t like their policies. Made me wonder why I found myself shopping there, since I don’t like their policies either, and ours was poorly run, poorly stocked, and dirty into the bargain. </p>
<p>Now, if you don’t mind their policies, or admire them, and love their stuff - of course you should shop there. (Did I miss the post where someone called for “taking Walmart away” from lower-income people and telling them they’re better off at Goodwill, as post 147 implies?) I don’t eat at Chick-Fil-A or shop at Hobby Lobby since becoming aware of certain policies there. I don’t think they should be closed down. I’m just not gonna give them my money.</p>
<p>I drive to another state every week to shop at Wegmans. Great products, pleasant experience and I save on the order do $70’per week from my local supermarket.</p>
<p>In some locations, the urban poor very much want a Walmart, but their elected officials, as dictated by certain unions, will not allow it.</p>
<p>I used to cover the retail sector when I was an investment analyst. All they preach to investors is they are all about low cost. If you think they treat their employees poorly, speak with their suppliers. </p>
<p>I try my best not to shop at WalMart, as their clothing is such poor quality and I can get better quality at similar prices if I watch sales at Macys, even Gap & Loft. </p>
<p>We don’t have SuperCenters around here, but the few I’ve been into don’t impress me. The chicken has added water and sodium to plump it up (check the labels) and the hamburger has a much higher fat content than the lowest quality at my supermarket (80%). IMO, if you shop sales at a promotional grocery chain you can buy better quality at a similar price.</p>