Another Walmart Rant "FISHING"

[swamptiger]

Quote:

I glanced around and wondered where the hunting and Fishing department would be located and a sudden chill started to sink in... long story short there is NO hunting or FISHING department in the New Walmart...NONE/NADA!

Good...gives me one more good reason not to go there...

[DTro]

Who says that dollar spent at the next retailer is any better? Wal-Mart takes the heat because they are the biggest. It’s like making a movie about how unhealthy it is to eat McDonalds food for 30 days, when you could’ve plugged in fast food restaurant X, Y, or Z in there with the same results.

Wal-Mart is giving people what they want. It’s Capitalism at its finest.

I ask you this? What should Wal-Mart do?

[UdeLakeTom]

The Walton Family is one of the richest families in the world, their wealth inherited from Bud and Sam Walton, founders of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. The five most prominent members (Jim, John (d.2005), Rob, Alice, and Helen (d.2007)) have consistently been in the top ten of the Forbes 400 since 2001, although Helen dropped to #11 in 2006, probably due at least in part to her extensive philanthropy. Christy Walton took her husband John's place after his death in 2005.

..

Collectively, the Waltons control over 39% of the company, and are worth approximately $17.6 billion each, for a combined total of $75.5 billion (as of March 2009).[1]. After Helen Walton died in April 2007, her fortune will pass to charity over the next few years.

[edit] Walton's family fortune

List of Walton's family fortune as of March 11, 2009 published by Forbes The World's Billionaires.[1]

Jim Walton US$17.8 billion

Alice Walton US$17.6 billion

Christy Walton & family US$17.6 billion

S. Robson Walton US$17.6 billion

Ann Walton Kroenke US$2.6 billion

Nancy Walton Laurie US$2.3 billion

Total: US$75.5 billion

READ FOR YOURSELF:

Wal-Mart's Descriptions of Pro-Union Associates that Bentonville Doesn't Want You to See!

How Wal-Mart Uses Innocent Questions to Arouse Suspicions and Target Union Supporters!

Techniques Managers Are Taught to Get Workers to Reveal What's Happening in Organizing Drives!

The Questions Managers Are Supposed to "Plant" in Workers? Heads!

Wal-Mart's TIPS for Managers to Use in Defeating Union Organizing Drives!

How Bentonville Pulls the Strings on Every Action Managers Take in a Union Campaign!

Wal-Mart's Top Secret Union Hotline Number!

Why Wal-Mart Believes Employees Turn to Unions!

How Grass Roots Surveys and Open Door Meetings Can Identify Union Activity in Stores!

Rate How Vulnerable Your Store Is to Union Activity!

Read the Scripts Managers Are to Use in Talking About Unions!

Why Wal-Mart Wants to Stop Union Activity Before Associates Can Vote!

How Wal-Mart Rates Different Types of Union Activity!

The Themes Wal-Mart Uses in Every Organizing Campaign!

The Types of Managers Who Cause Employees to Want a Union!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW DOCUMENTS LISTED BELOW: (Download PDF)

1. "A Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free"

2. "Labor Relations and You at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center #6022"*

3. "Sam's Club Supervisor's Handbook"

*[NOTE: This manual contains much of the material from the notorious Wal-Mart publication "You and Your Labor Relations, What a Wal-Mart Supervisor Should Know About Labor Unions," which is used in manager training sessions

Unfortunately I ahve a wife and daughter that like that place

[mrklean]

I find it funny everyone hates wal-mart because they kill the local businesses, but if it wasnt for wal-mart and there low prices everyone would complain about how expensive those small local shops are. If you look at some of the more rural areas where there isnt a wal-mart, target, anything within 50 miles they jack the prices up because they can, they know people have to buy there because they have no place else to go. I use to work in a small market and there stuff was so expensive it wasnt even funny, i was talking with my boss one day and asked him about it and he even said its supply and demand, they need grocherys they will pay a higher price or drive 20 minutes away to pay less its up to them. Wal-mart sells stuff cheap because they can and they do a dang good job doing it.

[Steve Foss]

It's just people wanting to be mad or outraged at something. Darren is right. And those angry at WalMart are in the minority. Most will shop there no problem.

In America, it's certainly fashionable to rip on big corporations. Some of them are evil, and there is a lack of human sensitivity/focus on profit inherent in the largest corps. But I've worked at mom-and-pop operations where the mom and pop were more evil than any WalMart corporate head, or at least I couldn't imagine grater evil.

So some business owners are saints, some are the devil, and most are somewhere in between. It's really only a matter of scale, and of course WalMart's actions, whether good or bad according to your own code of ethics, take place on a grand scale.

And, well, of course we in this country like to plug for the underdog. Every other business that sells the same things WalMart sells is now the underdog.

I don't mean to appear insensitive to small business. I'm a small business owner myself. But things change all the time, and a person has to weather the changes or go out of business. My competition is not so much other professional photographers, but the (many of them quite talented) amateurs who are working at other jobs and doing photography as a way to earn extra money to pay for their hobby or help make ends meet. So they can undercut what a pro charges and get some of that business. I develop strategies to separate myself from the amateurs, just as the small businesses have to develop their own strategies. And there will never be a way the WalMarts can effectively compete with truly sincere small-business customer service, or that fact that mom and pop know the names and lives of so many of their customers. WalMart can always underprice but the costs associated with beefing up customer service to the point that it competes with the small folks are prohibitive, and I suspect in WalMart's case it's more marketing ploy than reality.

And I do have to agree with mrklean's comments on prices in the middle of nowhere. It's what led me to coin the motto . . . "Ely, where the End of the Road means the End of your Wallet." Somehow I don't think it's one the local chamber of commerce would go for.

All that being said, the small businesses in out-of-the-way places will keep a share of their markets because of people who won't drive to a bigger city (or who need something right now and don't have the time). Will that be enough share to stay in business? In Ely, the answer is yes. In small towns closer to WalMarts, the answer likely is no.

[T-water]

We've all been through the Wallmart arguement a thousand times on this site. I'm not a zealot, I shop at the bigger stores but I also make a strong concerted effort to spread my dollars around.

To me it seems there is an end game to everyone shopping the 1 or 2 biggest/cheapest stores. At some point the store has more power than the consumer. The people who own the smaller stores are our friends and neighbors, they actually care about what we think and what we want, they are also more likely to carry tackle and other products from smaller manufacturers that aren't able to get into Wallmart or Cabelas. This isn't a hard, life changing decision, and I love going into a small baitshop knowing I can talk to someone who actually fishes, small stores are something I can easily support.

[glenn57]

Who says that dollar spent at the next retailer is any better? Wal-Mart takes the heat because they are the biggest. It’s like making a movie about how unhealthy it is to eat McDonalds food for 30 days, when you could’ve plugged in fast food restaurant X, Y, or Z in there with the same results.

Wal-Mart is giving people what they want. It’s Capitalism at its finest.

I ask you this? What should Wal-Mart do?

paying them a livable wage and benefits for starters would be nice.

[glenn57]

heres what i see. st cloud wallyworld and sams club are shutting there stores down to build a super whatever elsewhere. NOW st cloud has 2 empty buildings with no tax base, or new tenants, if they where even paying any. sure hope COSTCO comes to town.

[Kidd]

sure hope COSTCO comes to town.

Snip:

The company's employees in Washington state are not unionized. But at a time when some grocery companies say they have to contain their labor costs, Chief Executive Jim Sinegal believes in compensating the people who built the $42 billion business into what it is today.

"They're entitled to buy homes and live in reasonably nice neighborhoods and send their children to school," he said during an interview last week at the company's corporate headquarters.

End Snip.

So, think one of the Waltons would ever say that?

[mrklean]

glen, st cloud pretty much pushed wal-mart out the door with there taxes, i use to go to school there and from talking to people who owned homes the taxes went through the roof when the new library was built and wal-mart didnt want to pay them. Little side note on that i thought back when the super wal-mart was being talked about they were just gonna move to wait park because property taxes were much lower???

[glenn57]

they are building out on hwy 15, by hennens. gonna rip sartell or suak rapids now. i dont know aldis is moving into petters old building as well as others. this is just the way they operate. they dont want to pay ANYONE but themselves!

[mrklean]

thats right, i forgot about that, just need gander to move into the olds sportsmans now give them some room to move.

[shizzy]

I work for walmart, but I dont bleed blue and Khaki. I got laid off from a high paying job last March and guess who was the only place hiring? Wally world. Yes it was half what I was earning, but it was a job so that kept me from collecting unemployment (your tax dollars) with no worry of being laid off. The store I work at employs about 200 some workers. they are very active in EOE practices and find places in the store for anyone willing to work regardless of their mental or physical abilities/disabilites. Again, the pay was low, but that just meant I needed to work extra hard and sure enough 3 months later I have been Promoted to a Management position and recieved a pay increase of almost 50%. Im still nowhere near what I was getting paid at my previous job, but that place doesnt pay me anymore. Hard work is the way one makes money. it always has been and always will. If you show no extra effort guess what? you will be making $8 as a cashier forever. In this Economy I believe I have done the best with what I have. My resume will now read Manager so once the economy picks up Ill be able to find better work elsewhere.

full time employees do get benefits. they arent the best, but they are offered. I have worked at many small businesses and the benefits were useless.

Again, I dont bleed blue and khaki and shop at Target as much as Walmart. Im not spending $4 a gallon for milk but I will spend all my money at Joes' sporting goods o equipment.

[Muddog]

It appliers to me that Wal-Mart is no longer trying to give us the things we want but trying to dictate what we want. I will be looking for Office supply and sporting goods specific store in the near future under the Wal-Mart flag..

If you have to walk 2 miles to get all the things you need it is not convenient. In other words there stores are getting to big.

[pikedreams]

Here's my beef. I'm a name brand guy. When it comes to aspirin, milk, paper towels and window cleaner whatever, I really don't care about brand names on such commodity items. But if I want to buy a new Ambassaduer 6500 reel I expect to get the genuine article. This is not so with WM. I had the experience a few years ago when I brought a reel in for cleaning, the repairman took one look at it and said "Walmart reel". I was astonished. He went on to explain that WM has Garcia produce that reel in mass quantity to their specifications for sale in their stores. In other words....... cheaper. Plastic gears instead of brass, paddle style handle instead of roller style and so on.

Turns out the same is true with most all of their electronics as well. That's why you can never make a side by side comparison with other retailers. The items are not the same. One is the original and the other is a knock off. The knock off will always be lower.....always.

[CJH]

Ditto. You couldn't pay me to buy an electronic item from Walmart. Did that once, and will never do that again. The electronic parts on the inside are not of the same quality that you would get at a BB or electronic retailer.

Toilet paper and Milk I will buy from them. (although I try to support Target as much as I can, since its MN based and I know several people that work at Corp)

[LMITOUT]

Sam's Club in St. Cloud is closed?

[swamptiger]

Quote:

Here's my beef. I'm a name brand guy.

Unfortunately, a lot of previously good U.S. companies have sold their good name down the drain in recent years by putting their name on inferior products produced overseas.

My pet peeve is when you buy a product and go to look at the exploded parts list, and all there is for contact information from the manufacturer is "Made in China"...

[glenn57]

Sam's Club in St. Cloud is closed?

not yet. i believe they are moving with wallyworld into a super store setup out by hennens. dont know if its 2 seperate buildings or not. dont care either. i/my wife goes to sams on a very limited basis but when they close where they are at now we are done. aldis should be fired up by then.

[merkman]

Unfortunately, a lot of previously good U.S. companies have sold their good name down the drain in recent years by putting their name on inferior products produced overseas.

My pet peeve is when you buy a product and go to look at the exploded parts list, and all there is for contact information from the manufacturer is "Made in China"...

Welcome to the disposable economy.

The new generations (x, y, z, or whatever generation is the latest) do not fix things.

They have been trained to throw them in the garbage and buy another.

[Chode2235]

The baby boomers sold our security and independence for cheap chinese made stuff.

History will not be kind to this generation for a number of reasons, including this one.

[shizzy]

Quote:

Here's my beef. I'm a name brand guy.

Unfortunately, a lot of previously good U.S. companies have sold their good name down the drain in recent years by putting their name on inferior products produced overseas.

My pet peeve is when you buy a product and go to look at the exploded parts list, and all there is for contact information from the manufacturer is "Made in China"...

many many electronics and appliance companyies have been doing this for years. GE for instance doesnt make one piece if electronics or appliance. they just sell their name to be placed on the front of the item.

FF doesnt do that with the ABU reels and such too do they?

[LMITOUT]

Hey Pier - I think they moved your fishing equipment to my store! The store here is in the middle of reorganizing and the fishing/hunting/outdoors area appears to be quite a bit bigger with more items. Don't get me wrong it's no Gander Mountain, but at least they're going in the right direction.

[Steve Foss]

The baby boomers sold our security and independence for cheap chinese made stuff.

Sweeping generalizations such as this one sound important but rarely hold up under actual scrutiny.

[Chode2235]

touche.