I just linked that to provide some perspective, but how do you all see these super big retailers? I am really conflicted-on the one hand, I believe that capitalism is cool, on the other hand, I really have a distrust of big business.
And I have dealt with Walmart on a different level than as a consumer; dealt with them as a carrier for their freight. Never did they do anything illegal, or anything even approaching that, but they sure are a big lion.
And I guess that is at the bottom of my concerns, and so I suppose my concerns are mostly emotional-Walmart is just so powerful that, while they may be rather benign now, they could at anytime turn on us all.
I have no agrument either way, I just want to hear your opinions.
Illegal? Slave labor made of illegal immigrants… unpaid mandatory overtime… women can’t get promoted… I’ll let someone else Google it but that’s what comes to mind right off.
Cheap is good, but they’re totally evil. Need serious regulation of their labor practicies, and possibly monopoly enforcement, considering the market power they have.
And I have dealt with Walmart on a different level than as a consumer; dealt with them as a carrier for their freight. Never did they do anything illegal, or anything even approaching that, but they sure are a big lion.
Do you mean as a trucker? Because if so, you got screwed.
Wal-Mart, because it is EVIL, hires fewer truckers to work longer hours. Now, they do get paid more accordingly, but it’s very stressful for everybody involved.
Why?
Well, duh. Cheaper to support fewer workers working longer hours. They tantalize others in by promising higher wages, which they deliver, but at a great cost to your well being.
This is how Wal-Mart operates. This is how they have operated for the last decade at least. This is how they will always operate. They are an evil company that just by existing in a community slowly drives down wages of everyone involved.
Illegal? Doubtful. Just iron fisted and repugnantly evil.
I went into a Wal-mart for the first time a few weeks ago – it was different than I expected.
For some reason, I thought it would be different, and more impressive, than the typical discount department store…and I guess its size and atypically broad range of stuff make it different, and some very cheap deals (I was going on a trip, and ended up picking up a DVD Player for $30, which worked fine).
But it seemed pretty much the same as other discount department stores - I guess I was expecting something more innovative or unique (Home Depot?, Sam’s Club), instead it just seemed like a version of a department store that’s more in touch with what the average consumer wants (unlike Sears, etc.).
Around here, at least, Target stores are much cleaner, well-organized and modern. Walking into the local Wal-Mart and K-Mart that are located within the sprawling suburbia here is like stepping into a disorganized mess populated by the lovechildren of the cast of Deliverence and the worst trailer park trash stereotypes.
It really is, though. I think most people would attribute its success to aggressive pricing rather than to any compelling feature of the stores themselves, though, so it’s not surprising that you found them unimpressive.
Add me to the Target crowd. As discount department stores go, they sell nicer stuff.
This reminds me … we haven’t had a good “Customers suck!” “Salespeople suck!” “Retail sucks!” thread full of store horror stories afterwhich everyone argues over who’s the evil bastard in the story.
A few months ago I was in the checkout line at the local Wal-mart with an obviously new high school girl being trained on the register. Now, the teenager wasn’t the problem here, it was her trainer.
The total was $11.33, so I handed the young lady a twenty dollar bill, along with three pennies, as I hate getting pennies back. The girl simply entered $20.03 into the “cash tendered” and the correct change, $8.70 came up, which the teenager began to count out. The trainer stops her and casually says, “These machines always ring up incorrectly. You owe him $8.64.”
No amount of verbal mathematics, either from me or the teenager, could convince her otherwise, and she began to get very angry with both of us. It wasn’t until I forced the area manager over and made him go through the math on the receipt itself that she gave in, though I believe she still didn’t accept it as being right.
