What is it about Wal-mart that people hate?

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

Here are two excellent documentaries that I’ve seen that explore the real in’s and out’s of Wal-Mart and answers many questions about what they are really about and how they came to be.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Is Wal-Mart Good For America?

1. Everyone with a baby stroller goes there and the aisles are too small and the baby stroller people just block entire aisles, thinking they own the place and YOU should go to another aisle to get around them.
2. Not enough lines open.
3. Did I mention people with strollers?
4. Rude people clogging up aisles and refusing to move out of the way while holding long conversations.
5. People seem to go there and let their kids run wild, those that arent in baby strollers.

They ususally come into small towns, build a big ugly box in a field of asphalt, force the closing of downtown local businesses who can’t compete. Then, they consolidated the big stores from nearby communities into a big super Walmart, and abandon the big box retail in the field of asphalt to build a bigger store in a bigger field of asphalt.

Their economic impact on the communities where they go isn’t great for anyone except Walmart.

@Alfreda, that is true, but you can get everything there for lower prices than you could at the smaller businesses.

@chyna: are you just talking about it being bad because of the customers, or the actual employee service, because the employees there are very friendly usually, and you shouldn’t hate a store because of its customers’ values and behavior.

Alreda is correct from what I’ve heard. You’ll hear things like how they devestate all of the local, small mom-n-pop stores where ever a Walmart goes.

My question is though, why did this not happen to K-Mart? They have basically the same business model from what I can tell. I haven’t heard about K-Mart having these issues.

And recently, Wal-mart has become the source of many problems, just because people don’t like the customers, or how wide the aisles are.

Thank you mangeons. I deserved that.

It always smells like greasy vomit-filled diapers.

They stack pallets in the middle of the aisle.

Their stores are filled with cheap Chinese-made crap.

The store is a magnet for white-trash derelicts.

They force Mom & Pops out of business.

They’re union-hostile.

@dave: At the Wal-marts that I have experienced, their stores are well organized, neat, and sanitary. They have just about the same products as other retailers such as Target or Best Buy, but for lower prices, not just ‘cheap chinese-made crap’

You could often get at 45.00 video game there for just 20.00, but does that mean the quality is less?

No one has mentioned wages yet so I will: they don’t pay a living wage. That is the wage at which the employees can live off of their pay. They also don’t give employees enough hours to get benefits. They keep them just below.

@Empress: You make a good point. But I’m not talking about just working there, I’m talking about why people give Wal-mart hell about their service and just shopping there.

If Fluther Jelly Shirts were on sale tonight only at Walmart, would you go get one? I would.

Before I answer, are you like one of the Wal-Mart billionaires who just want to raise more awareness of the already parasitic Wal-Mart, but in a misleading way by first asking for opinions just so you can go up against them by trying to make it sound like a godsend?

Anyways, I agree with Dave’s last 4 statements, but I will put in that the reason they charge less is because they don’t pay their employees as much, which is a terrible thing to go by. As for shopping there, where I live there are no Wal-Marts and if I want to go to one then I’d have to go to a poorer neighborhood where the bad crowd hangs out. Also it’s like one of those places where the lower class goes to buy things and some people like in the middle class or higher wouldn’t like to touch them with a 42 and a half foot pole. So in conclusion, a lot of people just make up excuses about Wal-Wart and that’s why they don’t want to go, but for most of us we just hate them because of their ethics and beliefs in the work place. (Plus most of their stuff that isn’t sold under a brand name of another company is a piece of worthless crap that’ll break within a month.)

I’ve had absolutely terrible experiences at the Wal-Mart near me. However I went to a Wal-Mart back home with my dad expecting the same thing, and it was quite the opposite.

Mine is in a ghetto neighborhood with the worst customer service, no one can ever find anything for you. They only carry XXL sizes in Men ( not a medium in site ).

They carry mostly cheap product, though they do carry good stuff as well, but usually anything they have electronic wise I have beat where I work www.microcenter.com

I only go there to buy cat food, bathing products, sometimes groceries, and DVDs….though they never want to match the price on their own damn website…so sometimes I’ll go to Circuit City or Best Buy and have them price match Walmart’s site for them.

Often times when I am buying a DVD in the electronics department at a walmart, I will find people buying items like food, or clothing in that department holding me back there longer, and if I go up to the front, they tell me they can’t unlock my DVD and I have to go back to the electronics department….very frustrating sometimes.

I’d say 9/10 employees that work at the walmart near me are very incompetent.

Wal-Mart is a giant, greedy corporation and it represents everything wrong with America. As everyone else already said, they’re anti-union, pay their employees less than they should, don’t give them benefits (and employees can’t afford to pay for their own because of the low wages), they put all local businesses out of business – which isn’t just mean, it’s extremely bad for the local economy because corporations do not put money into whatever community one of their stores are in…

The list goes on and on and on. Cheap prices don’t mean anything when you consider all of the other disgusting things they do. If they killed puppies but still had extremely low prices, would shopping there be worth it?

Well in that case, Wal-Mart is the cheapest place around and I’d love to shop there except that I have standards. And my standards include paying the people who do work a proper amount. It’s why I spend more than I should on groceries to get them at the Farmer’s Market (okay, there are other reasons too like food quality, but that is one of them) and it is why I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. The ethical reasons ARE the reason lots of people don’t shop there.

I think lower price is not everything. It’s more important to preserve community. I would much rather buy less stuff, pay a little more and support the people I live among, than pay less and buy stuff of inferior quality. As more and more people are losing jobs, part of the economic solution is that people become self-employed. This means opening coffee shops, small stores, repair shops. In order for this to work, people need to shop their own community, even if it means paying more. The money recirculates in your community.

Shop locally, bank locally.

@Alfreda I try to do that as much as possible.
If I need carpet, I buy from the local guy, not the store that is a conglomerate. I get local tree services, local fruit stands etc.

I’m mourning the loss of my favorite regional department store this year. It’s completely messed up my Christmas shopping routine. I had a charge card there since 1980—my first after I graduated from college. The store had been in business since 1907, with locations all over the state. It stayed in the family, but there was a lot of bad business decisions and in-fighting among the family members. They used to have really great quality clothing and great sales. Every year I would buy my husband a suit for Christmas from them, clothing for my nephew, for my daughters’ boyfriends, sweaters and jewelry for my sister. I would swoop in, and in 2 hours, do most of my shopping. The quality began to slide about three years ago, and it got harder and harder to find things there that I would want to buy. There’s no replacement for the store; I will have to rethink how I shop, and I’m not looking forward to that.

On a basic level – the stores. Dirty – I swear, the grocery section really looks dirty and makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever! (still on grocery) They are always low on stock and the bare shelves are annoying. Then, when you ask about something -oh, they just haven’t restocked. AAAAHHHH!! Why bother? Also, the grocery prices, especially the meats are a little high! I can go to my favorite grocery store, get better meat for a lower price.

The aisles. Gross. Cluttered, pallets everywhere. They build these HUGE stores and still pack it with too much junk!

The clothes. I’m not a huge fan of their clothes, at all. Poor quality – lower doesn’t always equal better, at Wal-Mart.

Customer Service, what a joke! Don’t expect someone to actually help you – but for the meager pay they receive, you almost can’t blame them!

How they treat their employees is criminal. They KNOW they are paying people too low, when they show them how to file for government assistance. Their health benefits are a joke and extremely expensive. PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES AND HELP THEM SUCCEED!

The website others have listed, (see the first response) was very eye opening.

I have to be completely out of a necessity and it better be after ALL other stores are closed before we get something from Wal-Mart!

I’d say Wal-Mart is on the receiving end of so much criticism because they are such a large company. It is not just Wal-Mart, if I’m correct, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club are owned by the same group and the two together have created such a conglomerate that is taking away business from smaller stores that people have begun to hate the chain.

@mangeons – you seem to ask this question and then not accept anyone’s answers. Your experience may have been different because each store is different. You are shooting down everyone’s ideas as though they are not as valid as yours.

There are a lot of reasons to be hostile to Wal*Mart, many of which have been mentioned by the people up there. However, I’ll outline a couple of the individual examples that irk me the most:

They crush their suppliers by squeezing them for every last cent, and then spit them out. For a supplier, to make a deal with WalMart is to make a deal with the devil. That is one reason their stuff is so cheap.

Walmart pays very little to their employees – certainly not a living wage. In fact, they encourage their workers to sign up for public assistance, so you and I as taxpayers are subsidizing WalMart’s payroll. That is another reason their stuff is so cheap.

There’s actually a whole host of reasons why WalMart is so bad that I won’t shop there. They use people, companies, and anything they get their hands on as if they were tubes of toothpaste, to wring dry and throw away. It’s disgusting.

I don’t like my local Wal-Mart because:

It smells like unwashed bodies and french fries.

Homeless folks sit in the in-store McDonald’s all day long, muttering to themselves and occasionally standing up and shouting.

The aisles are extremely narrow and shelves are stocked haphazardly so you can’t find what you need.

There are American flags everywhere with lots of patriotic slogans, but everything is made somewhere besides the USA.

The baby clothes cost the same at Target, Beall’s and Mervyns but the Wal-Mart clothes fall apart before they are outgrown.

Many of the customers seem to be oblivious of manners, other customers, or cleaning up after themselves.

While some store personnel are helpful, others are totally clueless.

I don’t like Wal-Mart in general because:

The company puts American flags and patriotic slogans everywhere but almost everything they sell is made somewhere else (Sam Walton must be rolling over in his grave).

Wal-Mart decided our town needed 1 Wal-Mart every 2 miles and so swooped in to try to put a 24-hour SuperWalmart at the entrance to our neighborhood, on land previously zoned for single-family housing. They played very dirty pool and attempted to blackmail the town by saying they would only build a much-needed Wal-Mart if they were allowed to build the unnecessary Wal-Mart. Eventually the company was defeated when the landowner decided not to sell the land to them after all (he lives in town and probably wouldn’t have been able to face his neighbors).

Several friends worked for Wal-Mart, and worked very hard on all sorts of screwy shifts but they a) never got benefits, b) never got a decent wage even as “supervisors”, and c) were treated very badly by management. All quit and got better jobs elsewhere.

Plus, there is the whole ride roughshod over mom-and-pop stores and downtown areas, forcing the first to close their doors and the second to frantically try to figure out how to keep from having a ghost town surrounding city hall and the courthouse.

1. They destroy local businesses.
2. They completely exploit their employees.
3. They sell crap.

I live in a suburb and there are two Wal-Mart Supercenters within five miles (in different directions) of my house. I feed a family of five three meals a day seven days a week by shopping at Wal-Mart and paying cheaper prices there than I would shopping at those “locally owned businesses” that have never been located in my area. Until I find a traditional grocery with comperable prices, I will shop at Wal-Mart.

As far as a living wage and being union hostile, Target really doesn’t differ all that much from Wal-Mart. There are people, however, who will always shop Target and not Wal-Mart. I have firsthand knowledge that when going through Target employment orientation, they warn against the evils of joining a union, and their starting wage in my area is $7.75 an hour, certainly not a living wage.

I am not a Wal-Mart millionaire, far from it. I am, though, a Wal-Mart shopper (and I’m not white trash, nor do I smell if diapers or French fries) and will continue to be one until a grocer in my area opens and offers the variety of goods at a price that matches my budget.

I have to agree with gimme about Target. It is also pretty damn evil.

I’m an exchange student from Norway, currently living in Alabama. Been here for three months now and have come to the understanding that Europe is better than America when it comes to absolutely anything except low prices on merchandise.

*of

the rude employees that work there

I do not agree with their pay/benefits stances, but that’s only because I know about it. What other business has had their practices poked, prodded and publicized as much? I wonder how the employees at the local movie theater are treated…or how about local restaurant workers? I don’t know, so I don’t think about it at all. I doubt many of us do, and if we did…would we stop going to the movies? In my community, Wal-Mart was a well planned addition to the area. Not a single business closed down because Wal-Mart came to town. Sometimes, it seems like we punish them just because they are too successful.

All that aside, some Wal-Marts are horrible places that I wouldn’t go to unless I absolutely had to. The two I occassionally shop at are nicely laid out – with plenty of room in the aisles, attractively displayed merchandise, and are neat and clean. I still don’t love shopping there, mainly because I find it over-whelming…too many people, too much noise, and too much stuff.

I can afford not to have that on my soul, so I shop elsewhere.

As I’ve gone through this thread again, a question pops into my head. Do the people who cringe at the thought of shopping at Wal-Mart also hate the idea of buying a foreign automobile? Have they stopped banking or conducting other business with companies with call centers outside of the US? I appreciate the idea of helping small, locally owned businesses. I also appreciate that Wal-Mart attracts a sometimes less than savory group of consumers. But with a damaged economy, shouldn’t Wal-Mart be commended as a retail center that is still accessible to struggling families?

I see your points as well. I guess it really depends on which Wal-mart we are talking about, as far as service and sanitation. Most people who choose to work at Wal-mart work there because they couldn’t find another job, they don’t expect to make a living wage there. It is the same with McDonalds, do you think the workers THERE get paid living wage, or get benifits? But people still eat there because their products are decent, and they have affordable prices. And as far as the local business, we get our christmas trees at a local stand every year, and buy fruit and vegetables from a local stand, and those have been around for years even with Wal-marts, so the general point is that they don’t always put them out of business, it depends on the area. I’m not trying to put anyone’s opinion down as inferior, but merely stating my own in regards. And no, I’m not a Wal-mart billionaire, I occasionally shop there, and it’s not even a favorite store, but I’ve noticed all of the negative publicity about it.

@gimme: You have a great point, and I totally agree with that. Should we ignore large-based retailers and not shop there JUST to keep businesses with one location there? They porbably make just as much there as they would working at Wal-mart.

About WalMart being within reach for struggling families: I can see this point a little bit, but the methods they use to make the things be so cheap are just horrible. It’s like using slave labor to make cheap goods or something – yes, they’re cheap, but is it right? Some of the employees can’t even afford to shop at their own stores. Basically, as Barbara Ehrenreich says in that book about the working poor, these employees are sacrificing their hopes for the future and their dignity and going without medical care so you can get cheap plastic crap a little cheaper. We could at least thank them.

I know that all employees everywhere are occasionally treated poorly, and that lower status ones (retail workers, waitstaff, movie theatre folks, etc.) are especially stepped on. However, Wal*Mart has made it into a science. Jobs suck because, well, you have to do them and no one is paying you to be happy or lazy, but other jobs seldom do it as methodically and systematically as WalMart.

@gimme: But again, Wal-Mart is affordable to struggling families because, in part, of how they treat their employees. Namely, they create these people who are “employed” but still have to file for public assistance because they aren’t paid enough and if I recall correctly create a Pullman town-esque atmosphere with regards to the health insurance and other “benefits”.

While there are other places with just as great prices (Goodwill, Salvation Army, local thrift shops) that are cheap, sometimes are the cover for a great cause (there is a thrift store in VA that funds the local GLBT awareness stuff and support groups) and frankly have higher quality stuff that’s been gently used. Sure, you can’t go in and say “I need exactly this and this” and have it for sure, but at most of them you can find something that will do.

Saving at Wal-Mart = a deal with the devil.

No minimum wage earner is going to be able to support a family. WalMart’s practices might be considered to exploit their employees by some. To the people who have such a difficult time shopping there and are so vocal about it, I would hope they mentor, volunteer, work towards social justice for the impoverished in their community as a way to encourage education and self sufficiency. What better way to combat the evil that is WalMart?

@gimme: I drive a Chevy (an American-made truck). I no longer do business with Dell (call center in India now instead of Texas) or Overstock.com (call center probably in India – I couldn’t understand the accent at all). I check the labels to see where things come from so that I can buy American-made when possible. I try to go to local business when possible, and I shop a lot at Goodwill.

I also donate a lot of things to the local women’s shelter and the Ronald McDonald House, and for Christmas gifts I tend to “give” things through Living Water International (creating wells where people don’t have clean water) or Heifer International (gives farm animals to impoverished folk with the stipulation that they pass on some of the offspring to others) or Toys for Tots, Angel Tree and other similar charities.

gimmedat:It’s a well documented Walmart tactic to open multiple stores in fairly close proximity, then after wiping out local businesses, they close most of their stores. I hope they don’t close the one you like.

It’s not just about the minimum wage, they only give many of their employees less than 28 hrs/wk (Walmart’s definition of full time), the better to avoid overtime. Walmart has the greatest employee turnover rate of retail chains in the United States-that alone tells what miserable employers they are.

Whenever possible they contract labor. Remember a few years ago when many Walmarts in the Midwest had their cleaning done by providers who used undocumented aliens, paying less than legal wages and no taxes and locked the cleaning crews inside the stores? Walmart’s response was they weren’t responsible because they weren’t Walmart employees.

I hope nobody is buying anything that can be ingested, inhaled or injected from Walmart because they are still buying products with components manufactured in China. Chinese manufacturers are STILL using melamine in food and medicine (Time, Dec 15, 2008) and nobody is checking on what they are using in producing toys. Walmart claims it is up to either the Chinese or American govts to inspect products, they have no responsibility. And while labels may tell where products are manufactured, they don’t tell where ingredients or components come from.

And let’s not go into suburban blight of the giant cubes surrounded by acres of parking lots, increased crime, loss of community individuality and character, the increased cost of local infrastructure while the profits and most of the sales taxes are sucked out of town.

At the very core of the “Walmart is cheaper” argument is that you get what you pay for and Walmart goods are just crap and contribute to a disposable economy. Don’t be fooled by the idea that their products may be name brand. Walmart has such great buying power they can demand that lower specs can be used in order to bring down the price of their big ticket items, you are not getting the same item as you get in other stores. Also there was a time when you could buy clothing that didn’t shrink, fade or fall apart in 6 months-something you can’t do with Walmart goods.

Once I was on vacation in the Northern Neck of Virginia and had left my swimsuit at home. The only place to buy one was 20 miles away from Warsaw’s boarded up downtown at a Walmart. There were basically only 2 kinds of material in their bathing suitss 1. a nylon that was as thick as tissue, no lining and displayed every mole and scar when wet 2. an unknown fiber that had the consistency of industrial strength sandpaper.

BTW I have never bought a foreign car and every American car I have ever purchased has been among the lowest priced and ran for more than 15 years. All of my electronics and appliances have been American made as long as they have made those items in America. I always shop in local business because it is worth an extra few $$ for the customer service and quality.

“A Walmart Story” is on MSNBC this evening.

@John Probably about that guy that got killed on black friday. Which was NOT Wal-mart’s fault, they freakin’ broke down the damn doors!

Well, it was and it was not Wal-Mart’s fault. It was not in that no one stopped to help, they broke down the door, and they were in a frenzy.

It is in that Wal-Mart carefully cultivated the atmosphere to create the frenzy. And they had to have done so knowing full well what can happen when mob mentality takes over (which in a way is their ideal BF situation because then people buy indiscriminately).

No one person is at fault in that situation, but they all, customers and store, worked together to create it.

@Empress yeah, I guess you’re right… but how were they supposed to stop it?

There are many ways to control a rowdy crowd: handing out numbers (no number, no “doorbuster” item), paying guards to handle the crowd on big days like that, calling the police when the crowd started getting rowdy. There are numerous forms of crowd control. And very, very honestly? Training employees that if the crowd looks dangerous, get out of the way—don’t try to push on the doors to keep them shut.

I work at Pier 1 Imports and 95% of our products are imported from around the world…hence the name Pier 1 Imports. Should people not buy from Pier 1 because our products aren’t made in America? I know its a different situation but are there any flutherites who boycott Pier 1 because we sell nothing American made?

My last car was a Chrystler and it was a piece of crap. I bought a Honda and I am loving every second with it. I will never buy anything made by Chrystler again, nor will I ever buy any made by FixOrRepairDaily, or General Motors. There’s a reason why people don’t like American cars…and its because foreign cars are better.

People should not shop at Pier 1 if they if they are rotten employers or they sell tainted and dangerous products or if part of their business plan is destroying all competition. As far as I know Pier 1 is none of those things.

@nay I LOVE pier 1 imports! It’s one of my FAVORITE stores!

It was not the news story about what happened on Black Friday. It was an in-depth look at the company and had interviews with the CEO and people at the distribution centers and such. Also talked about people who are suing to keep wmart out of their town.

@nay, we’re not saying we should boycott imported goods, we’re saying we should boycott imported crap.

@ xxporkxsodaxx – Actually, we should boycott imported crap that pretends to be good stuff and that is wrapped in red, white and blue as if made in the USA but which is not at all accountable to American legal standards (melamine, anyone?).

Stuff that is imported but makes no pretense of being “American” is fine, especially some of the stuff produced by artisans in Third World countries thanks to help from the Peace Corps and other NPO’s.