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<p>This made me laugh. Thank you!</p>
<p>About 15 years ago, Wal-Mart wanted to build a store about 2 miles from our house. I was excited, because even though we lived in an affluent area, we didn’t have many services close to us. I was a career mother of two young children, barely keeping my head above water, and the thought of having a store near me where I could buy so many of the necessities that required an extra trip (my commute to work did not take me near any services), was exhilarating.</p>
<p>So imagine my surprise when a neighbor woman came to our door with a petition opposing the new Wal-Mart. I was so dumb I had to ask her why. The group managed to kill the Wal-Mart plan, and Wal-Mart built a store that was on my commute to work, so my life still became easier.</p>
<p>However, just last Wednesday, a Target opened its doors at that very same location that Wal-Mart wanted. Funny, no one protested it.</p>
<p>I think what’s going on with the book retail market right now is of real concern. The loss of Borders, the maneuvering of Apple and Amazon . . . I really do worry we will eventually have not real choice of retailers for books. Movies also. Netflix seems to be in real turmoil. That worries me. Not Walmart.</p>
<p>I think growing your own food is a great idea ( I am involved in urban agriculture in my area). Not only is it cheaper & healthier, but costs to haul it from one end of the country to the other aren’t incurred.</p>
<p>I live in the city and my neighbors ( actually quite a few of them) have chickens. I am not so much interested in chickens, but if I had the room, I would like a goat.</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone in most retails stores that are making any real money or have real benefits. My husband is one of those employees and he’s making what’s he’s made for the past 10 years and each year his benefits get worse and he has to pay more for them. Retail just stinks all the way around - it always has.</p>
<p>PS - he doesn’t work for walmart and he has worked for big box outfits and smaller (5-6 stores) chains. Either way the hours are long and the pay and benefits are lousy.</p>
<p>I wonder how many Walmart critics have Walmart stock in their 401K mutual funds?</p>
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<p>Of course they can. And any of those churches can allow their message to be co-opted by the God of Everyday Low Prices. It’s a free country, thankfully.</p>
<p>But what was that God told Moses about worshipping idols?</p>
<p>I am a Walmart critic without any stock or 401K mutual funds.<br>
I own no stock at all, but that is pretty much just blind luck :)</p>
<p>Regardless of what you think of WalMart, I have always just wondered why there seems to always be a parade when one opens. Why is the hgih school band playing at the opening of a business?</p>
<p>Nobody needs to have money supporting businesses whose values they don’t share.
[The</a> 7 Top Funds for Ethical Investing](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/the-7-top-funds-for-ethical-investing.html]The”>The 7 Top Funds for Ethical Investing | Kiplinger)
It’s bad enough we don’t have more say over where our taxes go.
;)</p>
<p>I currently live in a suburban area with access to Walmarts, and I see no drain from the community. I don’t really go there much, I find the selection not that great, and they never have enough cashiers.</p>
<p>However, I used to live in a resort area that had a plaza with a succession of discount stores, ending up with a Walmart. And it was a total necessity to the working class. People would drive from 30 miles away to shop there, since it was the only affordable option. The surrounding towns had expensive boutiques and high end food shops. Even the supermarkets prices were very high.</p>
<p>I went back to the area at the beginning of the summer for my mother’s funeral. My son forgot his dress shirt, and drove into town to get one last minute. He could get nothing remotely realistic in price, so he drove 15 miles to the Walmart. Like any local would do.</p>
<p>Where I live now, I would not shop for clothes at Walmart, but I can afford not to. Some people don’t have that option.</p>
<p>There was an article in last weeks Boston globe about how the Boston mayor won’t let Walmart into the city, and the poor have no options but the expensive, poorly stocked corner stores.</p>
<p>I can see the negatives to Walmart - the wages, the impact to existing stores and the community, but I think in reality it gives options to people who would have to do without otherwise. I think there is room for Walmarts and room for more upscale offerings, if the community is willing to support that. It sounds like in many cases, local stores were not offering products or services superior enough to what Walmart ofered to keep their clientele. We have a local hardware store that has gone all out in customer service, selection, and rentals, and they have a thriving business. If they kept to a more standard product line, they probably would have gone out of business.</p>
<p>I am sure millions of Americans are thankful for a Walmart in their locality. We are one of them. Without Walmart we can’t pay full load at a private school, $60K a year, to help some of those who despise Walmart and on financial aid ;)</p>
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<p>Because Wal-Mart is part of the community? I do have mixed feelings about Wal-Mart but I will say that for the twelve years that my daughter was in girl scouts, the manager at Wal-Mart always let us set up a table to sell GS cookies.</p>
<p>If the Wal Mart wages are a problem, I ask the question “are no jobs better than Wal mart jobs?” Hereabouts, some elected officials really believe that no jobs are better than certain jobs and keep those jobs out.</p>
<p>In my home town, the Wal-Mart drove other, even more crummy, chain stores out of business. There were some nice stores downtown, but they were driven out of business by the departure of all the local manufacturing to foreign lands.</p>
<p>I agree with annasdad’s disgust, though, because getting a Wal-Mart is certainly a mixed blessing, and the local leaders shouldn’t be fawning over a store like that, anyway.</p>
<p>It is ever so fashionable to bash Wal-Mart. And yet…</p>
<p>[The</a> Great Grocery Smackdown - Magazine - The Atlantic](<a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/the-great-grocery-smackdown/7904/]The”>The Great Grocery Smackdown - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>Yes, Wal-Mart, not Whole foods, may be the source of a resurgence in local and organic produce.</p>
<p>But, one does not get the same ego boost parking the Prius (with battery from China) in a Wal Mart lot as one does pulling into the ‘eco’ car spots at Whole Foods. 
Any $5.99 strawberries must be so much more ethical than $2.99 ones.</p>
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<p>Indeed.</p>
<p>As for goats and chickens, Emerald. My brother had a neighbor with those and there was some serious sanitation consequences, intervention by the city water department at one point. It would be very nice for us all to grow our own food. Until that Utopian dream comes true it’s good that we have zoning.</p>
<p>*I have no problem with Andersen making different classes of windows at different price points. I <em>DO</em> have a problem with the fact that the windows are simply marketed as “Andersen,” and the customer is not told that there is a difference: I think it borders on false advertising. The consumer is not making an educated choice on price vs quality. *</p>
<p>Oh please.</p>
<p>If I go to a discount store and they have a cheaper Whirlpool washer model, then I’m going to know that it’s not the same quality as the better Whirlpools models that are priced higher. The salesman isn’t going to say, “Hey now…just so that you’re sure…this isn’t the same as the $1000 HE washer that Whirlpool also makes.” :rolleyes: Your worries are baseless. You’re acting like HD shoppers are morons.</p>
<p>*This is a private company. They can thank God, Jesus, Allah or the Sun God if they want.</p>
<p>=============================
Of course they can. And any of those churches can allow their message to be co-opted by the God of Everyday Low Prices. It’s a free country, thankfully.</p>
<p>But what was that God told Moses about worshipping idols? *</p>
<p>The ceremony opened with a prayer, at which a local pastor thanked God for bestowing his blessings on the community by bringing it a Wal-Mart and asking that he continue to bless Wal-Mart and make it thrive and be successful - all in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>What I have a problem with is conflating Wal-Mart with religion (asking God to bless Wal-Mart’s success, in the name of our Lord and Savior?) and patriotism (the American Legion, really?), with city officials giving Wal-Mart breaks that are not available to long-established merchants, and with people treating Wal-Mart as though it is some special benefactor for a community.</p>
<p>What is the evidence that any “worshipping of Walmart” was going on. People thank their God for all kinds of things…including some material things …that’s not anywhere close to the definition of “worshipping” the item that is being thanked. The worshipping that was going on was to God…not some company. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with anyone “thanking God” for bringing a major company to an area and also praying that it will be successful. </p>
<p>Your title implies that having a reverend say some kind of invocation that mentioned thanking Jesus is somehow “sick”. A Rabbi would have thanked G_d by thanking the Lord, a Muslim cleric would have thanked Allah, etc,…none of those thanks would have been sick…and those present (believers or not) should be able to tolerate a few seconds of giving thanks and a request for blessings.</p>
<p>As for having the American Legion (or other military/veterans related people) present…who cares. Ever been to a college football game where there’s a “fly over” or the ROTC comes out and marches? If the AL didn’t think it was appropriate for them to be there, they wouldn’t have shown up. Wal-mart didn’t order their presence. Your issue, if there is one, should be with AL, not Wal-Mart. They agreed to come.</p>
<p>“It is ever so fashionable to bash Wal-Mart. And yet…”</p>
<p>My local paper periodically does blind taste tests by local chefs of products from different area grocery stores and national brands. Frequently the Walmart brand (Great Choice?) comes out on top. </p>
<p>I can buy the the same national brand cereal at Walmart for $1.99 that is $3.99 at the big chain market in my area and $5.99 at Fresh Market. And since I am an avid label reader I know the products are identical.</p>
<p>Walmart does not just kill local mom and pop stores, it crushes manufacturing jobs across the country.WalMart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas. I hate Walmart for this reason.
If you are interested watch: <a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>Walmart the High Cost of Low Prices.</p>