I know I am going to get burned on this one.

2 horses, you are right, I saw a 400 pounder the other day! On one of those electric carts. Wal-Mart and Golden Corral, those places really bring them out. That is one big reason why I want to homestead, there is no way you could ever get to 400 lbs if you do chores everyday!

gee for someone who avoids it like the plague and only goes when needed, you sure seem to know exactly which people are there daily

and, not everyone who shops at wally world is as well too do as you are... =GASP= Some people have to pinch pennies so hard that they bleed!

and Good forbid a fat person and or DISABLED for all you know, be riding around YOUR Holiness's Isles in their electric scooters... WHY THEY SURE HAVE SOME NERVE HUH?

EVER LIVE IN A WHEEL CHAIR? Most I've met, lived with, or worked with, weren't exactly upbeat and perky AND living in a wheelchair doesn't exactly promote a trim n fit lifestyle sometimes, the Disabled can only bathe when a nurse or family member is present.. ask me how I know.

hey, next time, instead of talking bad about them behind their backs, how about walking up to them and telling them what you think? that you think they are fAT, LAZY, SMELL, RUDE, AND ARE DIRTY

The reason that Wal-Mart has low prices is 1) they buy in massive quantities that the local stores cannot possibly do, 2) in order to do this they have a massive warehouse and shipping structure (based on petroleum) and 3) because they do this, they can do anything to the supliers they want.

Because Wal-Mart dominates retail, they can dictate to suppliers a) what their prices are b) exactly how their products are packaged c) what they will and will not sell d) who they will and will not sell to.

In other words, they can force a supplier to charge Wal-Mart a lower price than everyone else or force a supplier to not sell to other retail outlets. They can eliminate products which are not convenient for them to sell and may pose inconvenient competition elsewhere.

I read an article very recently about how Wal-Mart now controls the computer game industry. They can tell developers which games they will or will nor market and the timetables for their releases. They also, apparently, will tell developers to remove certain features or make other changes to games as they see fit.

Yes, you have the freedom to shop where you will, but someone else does not have the right (in this country at least) to use strong-arm tactics to eliminate your choices. Unfortunately, in this country, the justice system moves very slowly in that regard. When you buy, consider all components of the cost, not just the price. If you buy just based on price alone, you will soon find that the price is being dictated to you. Once Wal-Mart controls the supply of a certain item, why do you think they would keep the price low? They undersell competition to hurt them, control the supply-line, then dictate the price thereafter. It is a common tactic which has been employed for as long as people have sold or traded goods.

This is the exact reason many people speak out about Microsoft. Microsoft uses its position in the marketplace to make sure they have the best product, not because their product is particularly good, but because anyone who can compete is eliminated brutally. As a buyer, you are putting yourself in a cage by playing along.

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The Constitution is more than paper— Ron Paul 2008

I do use Walmart for some things, and the one I shop has had a stable work force since it opened. Maybe that helps it provide a more consistent level of service. The tire/battery/oil change area has gone down hill somewhat, so I've started moving that business elsewhere.

On Wal-Mart and Employee Benefits
Statement by Congressman George Miller

Congressman Miller's website where statement was taken

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, this morning the New York Times reported an absolutely shocking story. The Times published an internal memo from Wal-Mart written earlier this year. The contents of that memo are stunning.

The memo, penned by Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, is concerned with employee benefits, namely how to cut the cost of benefits while improving Wal-Mart's public relations. In other words, the memo laid out a scheme whereby Wal-Mart will make life worse for working people, while appearing to do good. It focused on cosmetic improvements to Wal-Mart's image and real damage to Wal-Mart's employees.

First of all, the memo admits that Wal-Mart's critics are onto something.

The memo states that Wal-Mart's health care plan, for example, is expensive for low-income families, and Wal-Mart has a significant percentage of associates and their children on public assistance. The memo states that 46 percent of children of Wal-Mart employees are either on Medicaid or uninsured. It reveals that in 2004, 38 percent of Wal-Mart's employees enrolled in the company health plan spent more than 16 percent of the average Wal-Mart income on health care.

Next, the memo goes on to complain that too many workers are sticking around too long, driving up labor costs. The thanks that these loyal employees get from Wal-Mart is a plan by Wal-Mart to get rid of them. According to the memo, Wal-Mart is seeking to cut its labor costs by switching to more part-time employees who will not have meaningful access to the company health care plan. So while Wal-Mart announces to the public that they are going to offer the best health care plan they can for their employees, they are secretly redesigning their work force so those who work for them will not be able to take advantage of the health care plan that they have announced.

The memo also suggests that Wal-Mart can cut its labor costs by keeping less healthy employees out of the workforce. It even suggests that they should include physical lifting requirements in the cashier job, just so that the company can use that requirement as an excuse not to hire unhealthy people. The memo says that the top Wal-Mart officials received the recommendation enthusiastically. And, guess what? We are starting to see those changes take place.

Earlier this week Wal-Mart announced a new health care plan for employees, including a high-deductible plan with health savings accounts. What does the memo say about this? It recommends plans with high deductibles and health savings accounts in order to attract low utilizers, that is a euphemism for healthier people, and discourage employment of high utilizers, the euphemism for sick people.

The question is often asked, is Wal-Mart bad for America? The company's own executive vice president has answered that question. The memo speaks for itself.

Madam Speaker, what Wal-Mart is saying here is that the benefit that they have announced to their employees as being new and expansive it turns out is no benefit at all. You must work 1 year before you qualify, and yet Wal-Mart plans to get rid of those people who have worked that length of time. Wal-Mart plans to hire more part-time people so they will not qualify for the health care plan. Should they hire somebody that qualifies for it, they want to be able to discriminate in their hiring against somebody who may have a health care problem, and, therefore, they do not want to hire them, so they will make up a test that that person has to go through, go around collecting shopping carts or lifting things so that they can root those people out of the selection process for whom they would hire. So Wal-Mart then says that this is the discriminatory policy that they want to follow.

What this shows is that Wal-Mart in the last couple of days has announced a new energy policy; they announced a new health care policy; they said they support an increase in the minimum wage, that it would help their businesses; and people started to say, what is this? Is this an extreme makeover for Wal-Mart? Have they come to their senses whereby they recognize their obligations to their employees, their obligations to the Earth's environment, their obligations on energy policy? Has Wal-Mart finally become responsible?

No, this is not an extreme makeover. This is a cosmetic nip and tuck. This is a cosmetic redo of a policy that is no policy at all, because, apparently, Wal-Mart has already designed, as this memo points out, the means by which they will not have to invoke the benefits of the health policy for their employees.

This is damning evidence, but what it means, if we thought that this was going to be maybe a new Wal-Mart, a Wal-Mart that would be welcome to communities rather than fought by communities, what this means is, in fact, that that is not the case at all. Wal-Mart is going to continue their policy of everyday low wages, of everyday no health care, of everyday ruination of the environment, of everyday mistreatment of their workers. That is the Wal-Mart policy. That is the Wal-Mart policy that caused them to violate labor laws over and over again, to discriminate against their employees over and over again, to abuse the women employees over and over again. That is the record of Wal-Mart.

This was a false sunrise. This was a false sense that somehow Wal-Mart had started to accept its responsibility towards its employees. In fact, once again, it is going to abuse its employees. Sadly so, that is the case.

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"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." (Anais Nin)

We buy most of our groceries at wally. I can get good products a fair prices. I won't buy the junk there but the stores let us save money. We go to the other stores for mostly specials. I get a royal smokeing when I try to shop locally on almost everything. I will pay alittle more for shopping local but come on I don't like poor service and higher prices from locals.

I don't think you understand how labor is supplied in China. It is supplied free of charge by political prisoners. That means Christians, those who want a fair gov't and just about anyone else the Chinese gov't doesn't like. It has reached the point that China has too keep it's political prisons full to supply the free labor to meet the demand for cheap goods here. Walmart is a driving force behind that need. Check out the following article and do a search on Chinese Laogai.

Importation of Forced Labor Products from China
Despite a decade of evidence about the Chinese Laogai and the products made for export within its walls, and two bilateral agreements on prison labor products, the American consumer today cannot be assured that products made by Chinese prisoners are not finding their way onto U.S. shelves. The following report provides an analysis of the record of Chinese non-compliance with bilateral agreements prohibiting the exportation of Chinese forced labor-made products into the United States, as well as the U.S. government’s persistence in holding onto these bilateral agreements despite their noted failure. The material in this report comes from past Congressional testimony, as well from answers provided to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the U.S. State Department.
United States Policy on Chinese Forced Labor Products

On June 16, 1990 members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing that for the first time exposed the truth about China’s prison system, the vast network of forced labor camps known as the Laogai. Former political prisoner Harry Wu testified with other witnesses on various aspects of the Laogai such as inhumane treatment, political imprisonment, and forced labor. For the first time, U.S. governmental officials heard about the role of the Laogai in the Chinese economy as goods produced through forced labor are exported to foreign countries, including the United States. The following year, there were more hearings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, further bringing to light the many problems that persisted regarding the importation of Chinese forced labor products into U.S. markets.[1]
Continued here: http://www.laogai.org/reports/ignoring.html

Are they so strapped they can't afford soap? I am well aware that WM is the mecca of the poor due to it's rock-bottom pricing, but that still doesn't mean they can't wear clean clothes or have clean bodies. Or manners! A lack of cash gives you the right to be be that way?

Actually, one of my very best friends is older and has knee problems, so when she shops there, she does use the scooter. Except that she is nice, polite, and makes an effort not run into people or block aisles when she does. That's all I ask - a little consideration when shopping, instead of acting like it's my fault you have to use the scooter, and ramming me with it!

And those people were not included in my little discourse. I'm talking about the obviously mobile who could at least make it into a shower once in a while...

I have - especially when they are in my face with it. Otherwise, I just choose not to shop with them.

Pam <---------- makes no apologies

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My Dad always told me, "Honey, you can do anything you put your mind to." He was right.

For me it is a matter of ethics and integrity. To support this company in any way, whatsoever, even in a way that I would profit from is totally against my moral fiber. I will gladly pay more - even twice as much for something rather than shop there. To accept money from them in the form of stock dividends is no different than supporting the mafia and benefitting from it by receiving "payola" or bribes.

Maybe money is more important to some people, but it isn't to me. I have to face myself in the mirror every morning.

donsgal

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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

Two points I offer for your reading enjoyment:

1. Wal-Mart never put any local store out of business. WM may have offered a better price and a fresh new place to shop. The customers of the local business each made a personal decision to move their business to the new WM and away from the local store. For that reason, I contend that the customers of the local community put the older local store out of business, not WM. WM just gave them a better alternative.

2. Think twice about WM stock as a good investment. I've owned their stock for 20+ years and it has done as poorly in the last 5 as I have ever seen it in terms of appreciation. And in terms of dividend, it pays a whopping 1.4% of share price. Much better investments are out there.

Robert <--- worked in WM corp office for 15+ years and still follows them closely.

OK

Wal-Mart sucks from a community, and gives little in return.

Wal-Mart makes local businesses cut their prices so low, they can't make enough profit keep the lights on.

They are greedy! when they start out with a small building to get into a community, they soon after want more additions or a bigger building. Like were I live. We have them an inch, now they want a mile.

The cheap prices make all of us spend more in the long run, making debt and finance harder. Example: Wal-Mart product(Poor Quality) for $5, local business product (Good Quality) $10. You have to buy the product 2,3 or 4 times to get the same amount of usage. The total in the end; Walmart $10 to $20 vs. local product $10, not counting inconveince, time and travel expenses.

What the major problem is most people like stuff. With a little money you can get more stuff from them. It doesn't mean more really, just seems like it.

I've been on both sides of WM, as a customer and as a supplier. After both experiences, I refuse to shop there.

As a customer, as just one example, I have been overcharged when getting new tires put on my vehicle...hidden charges they don't tell you about, their customer service is non-existent and the only thing they have going for them are the low prices....paying for a pound of meat where a large % of it is water is not my idea of a "lower price". It's a rip-off and they are preying on uneducated consumers. My Bible says to have compassion on the poor, not rip 'em off even more.

As a supplier, the charge backs we received for the most unbelievable things....one in particular - WM was constantly deducting their purchase price for an item if someone opened a bag of product in their store! We sold them bird feed...if a kid poked a hole in the bag, we got charged for it. Most businesses include these incidentals as the "cost of doing business" - not WM. While one could say to improve the packaging, there was nothing wrong with the packaging and to improve it would have cost thousands of dollars to reprint all those bags and replace them with something heavy duty. WM didn't want to pay a higher price for a product in a higher quality bag, but they wanted it included in the initial price when they agreed to stock the products.

They make it so difficult to get into their stores and then nickel and dime companies to death. Companies tend to pay the price - literally - so they can have name recognition and build their brand name.

It seems with WM, everyone loses except WM.

My 2 cents.

Are those crickets I hear?

I would love to see some evidence of this - I hear it a lot and am likely not in Wal Mart often enough to state from experience - but it certainly doesn't seem to be the case.

Bwahahaha - that sounds suspiciously like many ambulance services I've heard of. Don't kid yourselves - WalMart on a bad day is better than some of the privatized 'helping' institutions. And to be honest, it seems a lot easier to swallow it from Wal Mart...

I've been against walmart in the past and have been for them in the past. Right now I am for them. My wife just got hired on with them and she will be making as much per hour as her last job plus she gets a 10 percent discount on whatever she purchases. Guns, ammo, and fishing equipment are coming my way!

But to be serious with it, I'm for companies such as Walmart and Lowe's. At one time the closest town to me had about 3 or 4 different hardware stores. One of these stores (the newest one) ended up buying out all the other hardware stores. Once this hardware company became the only hardware store they immediately jumped the prices up on everything. A lot of there stuff was so rediculously high that it was much cheaper to make a hours drive futher to lowes and buy your stuff. Especially if you wanted to buy in bulk quantities of something. We are now getting a Lowes in our little town and the only hardware store is gonna feel the chrunch they gave all the other hardware stores. All our little town needs now is a Aldi's and a Sam's club and I may never have to drive 60 miles away again to shop.

I needed a new Carpet shampooer~! OK I went to Several Stores including Walmart AND Sam's Club. And guess what I found?? At our Local Home improvement center Menard's.... Menard's was 10 BUCKS Cheaper on the SAME Model then Either of the Other Stores Including Sam's Club, Walmart, Shopko, Target~!! Menard's which is like the Home Depot store. was Cheaper~!! SO that is where I bought a NEW Bissell Carpet Shampooer.. The Pro Heat one~!!! SO Walmart and Sam's Club IS NOT ALWAYS the places to go for a Deal~!!!!!!!!!! These were Identical machines I was looking at NO Difference at all Same Model Number also.......

What do You guys think of that???? 10 bucks saving is 10 bucks saved~!

It was my own experience in PA..
Wal*Mart opened up a supercenter..prices for brand name dog food were $12/50 pound bag..for an entire 2 years UNTIL the biggest local grocery store folded..
then all of a sudden, Wal* Mart began selling the same dog food, same brand, same weight at $22/bag.

Same with coffee, same with light bulbs..trash bags..
I didn't go there, but my husband did..every month. The price of meat soared so high and the quality went downhill along with the price increase that he finally agreed not to shop there anymore.

The higher prices for the same brands weren't reflected in other grocery stores 20 miles away.

I would buy the eggs that tasted the best. If given the choice I would buy $4.00 a dozen eggs that are yummy versus $1.00 an eggs that taste like Playdoh®. I always support the local farmer whenever I can. Besides *everything* is better fresh - which it ISN'T AT WALMART.

donsgal

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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)