Comments on: Wow, You Guys Have Really Strong Opinions on Walmart

By: Big Daddy

Big Daddy — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:34:58 +0000

The best thing that any of you can do to help the country is to stop working at Wal-Mart. The majority of their crap is made overseas in sweat shops where they have children working for 50 cents a day. There is things about it on You Tube. I worked in management for them for 26 years so I’ve seen more than my share. I am ashamed to admit some of the horrible things that I had to do to people in order to keep my job at the time. No one can beat Wal-Mart prices because no one can buy in the volume that they do. So run every other business in a community out or makes them go under. So, while they are sucking all of the money out of a community and shipping it to overseas companies to make more of their crap to sell, they are at the same time eliminating all of the jobs in the same community. Soon, Wal-Mart is forcing every one to come work for them for very little pay. Now the pharmacy thing. It a great idea, “on the surface” however and is supposed to help people who have trouble paying for their scripts because of all of the economic value that they themselves has sucked out of the community. But what they are doing turning pharmacies into a fast food business. They are not increasing their staffing, or very little. The Pharmacists have Pharmacy Techs to help but they are so overloaded that they are making more and more mistakes filling people scripts and are putting people lives at risk! For every 10% that is added to their sales they are only adding 2% to their payroll. To Wal-Mart is beneficial, but they try to make it look like they are trying to help the community, THEY ARE NOT! The store manager has a base salary of $50,000 a year and a bonus of usually around $125,000. Per year in a decent store. They pay their evening employees about $7.00 per hour. A trained cake decorator can go to any grocery store and make from $14.00 to $20.00 an hour. Wal-Mart refuses to pay more than $7.00. They statement that they like to say to their management is if you cant or wont to it, we will find someone who can! The whole company is about fear and intimidation! John Murphy, a Regional Manager like to talk about how he went to school with Donald Trump. But you know that is just a slap in the face. Also, the long long lines at the checkouts. Is one of his programs. It is supposed to make lines shorter but it doesn’t. They constantly have to call people off of the floor to help. Which puts them behind doing their jobs. But the cashiers are not allowed to help people on the floor get caught up because they are behind from having to help them check people out. Because the computer is monitoring and they have to be clocked in or out with in 15 minutes from the time that they are logged into or out of their registers. The district managers or “Market Manager” as they call them now are all Millionares! At one time, if you were with the company for 20 years you could retire with a million dollars in your profit shareing. I was with them for 26, years and left with $19000.00 After taxes, it went down to $15,000. So the only way to help? IS TO STOP SHOPPING THERE!!!!!!!!

By: Jebbica

Jebbica — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:36:15 +0000

Agreed. I hate it so much. But I go there probably at least once a day. It’s not like we have any alternatives, unless we want to drive 45 minutes away! Even when we do our grocery shopping, we always go through all the papers and try to find the best deals at the other stores. We’d much rather give our business to Bi-Lo or Food Lion if we can help it. But, aside from Aldi’s, whenever we go to take advantage of the sales, the other stores are always out of them! So we always wind up going to Wal-Mart and ad matching instead.

Ever watched the anti-Walmart documentary, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” ? It will make you never ever want to shop there. And I put in about 3 years in working at 2 different Wal-Marts and got screwed at both of them and saw a lot of the ins and outs, so I can vouch that at least some of what they say in the doc is true. :(

By: leclaire

leclaire — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:06:38 +0000

yes chuck , a gun toting,kidnapping,rapist dream paradise. come on guns have no place anywhere other than a gun store.

Wendie- i get it. but i was generalizing, the way she portrayed people at walmart as is they are so dirt poor trailer trash. that somehow because people who shopped they are some how sad or somehow you should feel sad for them. One of her quotes is ‘It just always surprises me that they exist, and in such numbers!’ it’s like wtf? yes people who are frugal exist. people who dont spend ridiculous amounts of money of DOG clothes exist.
ans another quote was ‘I bet they wouldn’t even know how to find the proper clothes for themselves if they had the money. ‘
excuse me? yes sasha all the people at walmart are so stupid that cant picture themselves leading a nicer life. golly i dont know how they walk and talk at the same time?!!?! seriously girl you need to get out more. you can dress a girl up in all the fancy nice clothes you want, like the inmates but a persons self esteem starts inside ( i know it sounds corny but as someone who went to a therapist crying about your childhood you should know that. those clothes obviously didn’t make that better)
I agree about health care in this country it is shameful. Another quote:I have never in my life wondered how I was going to pay for a medical treatment that I needed.’ be grateful and thank god for that.

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:19:28 +0000

You know I love YOU, Erin.

By: lolly

lolly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:48:23 +0000

well i was one of the ones to cried foul at the original post, and i will explain what got to me. it was the more than one reference to the fact that beet never sees “this part of the country” and i was shocked that somebody’s perspective of the country really doesn’t go below wal mart. that would be such a skewed perspective.

it’s another day in paradise for us and even for the poor poor wal mart shoppers compared to many people in the USA and the rest of the world.

also nobody forced an apology out of her, she felt she owed one and gave one (thank you beet but not necessary).

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:33:27 +0000

The only problem with this fix, Sharon, is that we don’t have a Target that also offers groceries, so we cannot compare items purchased. When I say that the savings is $100, that is verses Albertsons. And we usually spend about $200-$300 per grocery trip. Mind you, we buy organic and name brand at both stores and the difference is THAT noticeable.

Also, I don’t spend money on stuff I don’t need. I go with a list and get what is on there…the items on my menu for the week. I don’t cave to sales because, yes it is cheaper than usual, but it is more than if I didn’t get it at all…and I don’t need it.

And what’s the point in taking a stand if it will break you and you get less?

By: lolly

lolly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:31:57 +0000

walking by cheaply made wares and clothing make you feel dirty? girl, you need a wakeup call.

By: lolly

lolly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:28:11 +0000

i agree. check check check.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:55:48 +0000

The guns need to stay.

That’s the great thing about Walmart. Where else can you pick up condoms, liquor and guns, all on the same trip (although you have to wait in some states for the gun approval process to work).

GO WALMART!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:37:19 +0000

I still say when you’re talking about savings that drastic, you’re comparing Walmart’s generic to a name brand. $3-4 less for Benadryl? You’re definitely not comparing name brand to name brand. I may not have been in a Walmart recently, but there’s just no possible they can be that much cheaper. From my experience, everything that’s, say, $3.99 at Target is $3.88 at Walmart. That’s all they do. Knock things down a few cents so you think you’re saving a ton. I can promise you, also, that the majority of people who shop at Walmart b/c it’s such a “bargain” are spending more money on average because they’re buying a shit ton more than is necessary because “it’s SO cheap!”. Trust me, I used to do so, and knew others who would as well.
As far as your receipt comparison, that’s exactly why I suggested that very thing. Take a list of 10-20 items, exact items, brand name, and write down the (non-sale) prices you find in both stores. You’re going to be really surprised at just how close the totals match up.
And Target generics really do tend to be of higher quality, whether you’re talking clothing, bandaids, or notebook paper.
Sorry, but no one’s going to convince me that Walmart is worth the downfall of commerce.
(PS - Target has plenty of stuff that’s priced $1-2, so you could just as easily buy 50-100 items for $100. And it’ll all be garbage, just like at Walmart).