posted
I hate 'em both. But for target, it's just a general throw away culture hatred, and for Wal-Mart it's a Evil, as in fru-its of the devil, hatred.
There was a historic site in the valley, but because it had never been registered with the state or anything, Wal-mart bulldozed the area, setting up a "heritage park" in the middle of their parking lot. What really made me mad is that they got some kind of bond to do it (low interest) because of the heritage park.
Target only offended me by only have sexy style maternity clothes when I went there to shop once. it's, like, "hello, I'm already knocked up, why do I want to dress like a bimbo?"
But since I never shop anywhere anymore, I guess it doesn't matter. If I did have any money, I would probably go back to getting stuff from Land's End. I guess I do buy a lot of stuff a Shopko.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I didn't buy any condoms Jon. I was just being tongue-in-cheek, but of course you knew that right?
<derails thread> On a serious note, where does the LDS Church stand on contraceptives? I'm just curious.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
To all the whining "save the small businesses!" and "they treat employees like numbers!" hippies...
You're all just wasting breath, and big busisses will survive as most logical stuff does, I really don't need to rub it in.
But I will.
Wal-Mart exists and grows because it sells in bulk, and at more reasonable prices than smaller competition.
I've never come across this "lowered quality" that everyone speaks of, and I buy a good majority of my stuff there. I've never seen the long lines, either...but if they're long, go at a less busy time. They're open 24 hours a day. I can buy a shirt there for $4 that lasts as long as the $15 equivalent at Target or that little hole-in-the-wall place down the street that everyone shops at because it's the hip thing to do. If you feel the need for genuine, hand-crafted furniture instead of the ample stuff they sell at Wal-Mart for under $100, get a freaking book and learn to make it yourself. If you want to spend $30 on a toaster that'll last you five years, I'm sure you'll always find a place that sells them. Me? I'll go to Wal-Mart and pay $6 for one that lasts three.
This is by far the most pretentious, snobbish, full of posturing crap thread that I've seen here for a long time. And that's saying a lot, as we're a pretty pretentious, snobbish, posturing crowd.
This is not to say that I wouldn't advocate, as I've said before, placing chemicals which caused impotence in the air circulation ducts so as to prevent their most staunch customers from reproducing. I'd just wear a gas mask to do my shopping.
As for Target...I have nothing against it. It just seems like a park that's always empty. Gives me the creeps walking around by myself in a quiet store. At least at Wal-Mart, the people-watching is entertaining.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Frisco, what about the fact that Wal-mart admits that their full-time, senior employees do not make enough money to live on? Or that they're driving manufacturing overseas? To me, that's what makes them evil -- I have no problem buying cheap stuff. I do it all the time.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Hmmm...my roommate threw freight for them, and started at $9.50/hr. How is that not livable?
Maybe the cashiers make less, but what do you expect? It's a job that requires little education and fewer skills than it takes to run the fryers at McDonald's (not trying to disrespect either). I'm sorry that some people have to support families on salaries meant for high school kids, but I don't blame Wal-Mart for that. In the end, nobody has to work there.
And as for buying from overseas...well, again, it's not their fault that other countries are leagues more efficient at manufacturing. China and Taiwan have long been making the stuff we sell. I don't like that American maufacturers lay the responsibility of their success on consumers. If you can't make a product for cheaper than Asia+their shipping costs, then get into a different business.
So they're not a charity organization. Fine with me. Doesn't make them evil.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
The fact remains, when a Wal-mart moves into an area: average salary for THE SAME JOBS goes down, companies that have been hiring American workers and making a profit for decades now have to choose one or the other, and many businesses are driven out.
I don't expect them to be a charity organization. Neither will I support what I consider to be immoral business practices.
If that makes me a pretentious snob, I'll wear the label with pride. And I won't be buying it at Wal-mart.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:If you can't make a product for cheaper than Asia+their shipping costs, then get into a different business.
I agree with everything you said except this.
You can't compete with a country that doesn't have minimum wage.
My family has a business, and there is a very precise window of job size that is worth. Lots too small, and it isn't worth the set-up cost and paperwork (and headache). Too big, and it's cheaper to send it to China and send it back.
*sigh* Never mind, I guess I do agree with this. While the business hums along nicely, then next generation doesn't want it. That job-size window is narrowing rapidly.
posted
Why does everyone have to include some type of disclaimer or display some sort of emotional pain when they agree with me?!
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Perhaps it's the way you put things, Frisco. It's much easier to agree with the statement "I like WalMart because things are cheaper there" than it is to agree with the statement "You're all posturing, high-faluting snobs who should be making your own furniture!"
Me, I shop at WalMart occasionally for commodities, things I don't particularly care about. The older I get, the more quality matters to me, and the less WalMart becomes a destination; the same applies to 24/7 hours, as I find that I desperately need to buy Ramen noodles at three in the morning much less often than I did in college.
If I shop at a WalMart OR a Target today, it's generally for things like batteries, storage containers, or DVDs, CDs, or board games that are being dumped below normal retail to drive sales.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Oh, I really don't mind, Tom (hence the smilie). Hell, even I feel dirty agreeing with me. Especially when the Mormon girls start treating me like a piece of meat.
Just because you're generally non-controversial doesn't mean I'm working towards the same image. *grin*
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Someone asked way back there where the LDS church stands on contraceptives. The official teaching is that the timing and number of children a couple has is a private matter that the church has no say about. However, they do encourage people to have as many children as they can be good parents for. We love children, I guess. I think it's so cool in sacrament meeting to see all the kids there. It makes me happy. But there's absolutely nothing at all like the Pope's encyclical on birth control in the LDS church.
Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote: Someone asked way back there where the LDS church stands on contraceptives. The official teaching is that the timing and number of children a couple has is a private matter that the church has no say about. However, they do encourage people to have as many children as they can be good parents for. We love children, I guess. I think it's so cool in sacrament meeting to see all the kids there. It makes me happy. But there's absolutely nothing at all like the Pope's encyclical on birth control in the LDS church.
Thank you Anne Kate. That helps a lot. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
In my experience, Wal-Mart is scary. Every time I walk in the store, I am shamed by the way Americans waste their natural resources. How much cheap plastic crap can people consume? Is there really that much demand for it? And the prices are so cheap - don't fix things, don't reuse them, just THROW THEM AWAY! Wal-Mart sells things cheap!
Also, at least in my town, Wal-Mart is the store preferred by overweight families who yell at their children. It really disturbs me. There is an aura of insecurity and oppression at the store that bothers me every time I go there. Which I don't, if I can help it.
Also, Wal-Mart gives me grief if I ask them to use my canvas shopping bags instead of their plastic ones. Meijer, a similar store across the street, actually gives me 5 cents on the bag when I try to reduce waste.
So, Wally World does NOT get my business.
Target is okay, but it doesn't have groceries. Prices are higher but the quality is good.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
I am just afraid of the Wal-Mart zombies. I mean, all their employees have this prostitute-crack-whore look, like they've just gotten through with the Bataan death march and are just waiting to make a dash for freedom with what little energy they have left.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I think someone mentioned a while back that they can't ever find anyone to help them at Walmart. My experience has always been the opposite. I don't have any problems finding an employee at Walmart, but I've had to go back to the front of the store numerous times at Target if I needed help.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Well, since two of my nephews work at Wal-Mart, and I'm trying to get my 16-year-old son hired on there, I guess I can't slam them too bad.
Frisco is right in many ways -- this is simply supply & demand in society, and as long as people keep jamming their bodies into Wal-Mart, they are going to keep building more and bigger Wal-Marts everywhere. Obviously there isn't a great deal of the population concerned with some of the points brought up here, or else the corporation wouldn't be successful.
Jenny - my only answer to that is that I tell my sacker at Wal-mart to use as FEW sacks as possible, please. (some of them seem to want to put one item in each sack!) And also they offer a "sack recycling" bin where you can bring your old plastic sacks back in to go to the recycler (now, whether they actually DO send them to recycling or not, I have not been able to prove).
posted
Has anyone noticed the stereotypical view that many people on this thread have espoused about the typical Wal-Mart patron and employee?
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
I like Walmart ok. And my brother is an assistant manager of a Walmart. People actually have made condescending remarks to me about his job when they find out what he does for a living. I don't understand that at all. He works hard and arranging all that stuff in one store must be very complicated.
I suppose we grew up in a town where, if you needed something, it was at walmart. There were no other places to go. I admit I get annoyed when I go to Walmart at midnight and the place is full of parents with small children who ought to be in bed asleep.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Wal-Mart is the best argument in existence against capitalism in general.
Not only do they drive out small business, but they encourage homogenized society, bully their suppliers, and at this point probably have more power over many organizations than the government does.
Target is a similar beast, but it's a hell of a lot nicer looking one! :-) In Tyler, the Target and Wal-Mart are directly across the street from each other, so it's easy to do a side by side comparison. Wal-Mart trips take tons of time and generally yield fairly frustrating experiences. The blue vests are frightfully sparse, so time is usually spent traipsing back and forth through the aisles until my feet are bloody, ragged, floppy stumps and my mind has transformed to a lukewarm glob of congealed tapioca. Furthermore, there is no cieling, but rather a visible gridwork above the shopping area with enormous lights like the ones to be found in a gymnasium. The effect is remarkably similar to shopping in an airplane hangar. Also, the clothes that can be found at Wal-Mart are perfectly suited only for the stereotypical Wal-Mart shopper in their base of operations, backwoods Arkansas.
In the meantime, Target has a cozy atmosphere with an actual cieling. Their marketing plans usually incorporate warm, friendly colors and their clothing, while still cheapo department store fare, is wearable. In short, I have to shop at Target, and I have concluded that...
Wal-Mart is the devil.
How incredibly fitting that Mc'Donalds' have attached themselves to many Wal-Marts.
Posts: 894 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Sorry, my smiley didn't work. Didn't these used to automatically turn yellow and purty? Haven't been here in a while. Anyway, that was supposed to be:
But it's a hell of a lot nicer looking one. Posts: 894 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
And by the way, I unashamedly shop at Wal-Mart. I'm wearing a shirt from Wal-Mart, and our three-foot-tall Christmas tree came from Wal-Mart. Evil or not, it's still a good store for cheap stuff.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Well, you can't blame me for trying. I suppose you have a point. I didn't write that post very well.
I guess my main reason for feeling comfortable shopping at Target as opposed to Wal-Mart is that the latter has more power, which allows them to perpetuate the sort of social atrocities catalogued previously in this thread. Then again, I'm sure that if Target were in the same economic position, they would do the same sorts of things (or maybe I'm just a cynical bastard.) The fact is, they aren't, so they haven't. That's why I shop there.
The fact that Target actually cares how their stores look is an added bonus.
1. Don't want to encourage that monolith, and 2. Prettier store.
Very nice. And there's no need to run down anyone!
-----
This thread has made me a little uncomfortable. It's like what David Bowles used to describe about the social heirarchy in his Texas border town.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote: And by the way, I unashamedly shop at Wal-Mart. I'm wearing a shirt from Wal-Mart, and our three-foot-tall Christmas tree came from Wal-Mart. Evil or not, it's still a good store for cheap stuff.
That is true Jon Boy. I'm not being snotty, I just refuse to shop there because they are destroying the grocery business as we know it. I work in the grocery business (however low my position is ). My dad did work in the grocery business, but because Wal-Mart has been destroying grocery stores like Safeway, Albertsons, Raley's, and ACME, sales and marketing companies have had to lay off people (like my dad) and possibly myself. The only reason I'm not gone is because my position(merchandiser aka shelf rearranger guy ) is still in very much demand. Anyway, It's not like the experience of shopping at their store that discourages me, it's their business policies. That is why I hate Wal-Mart. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
It doesn't seem to be destroying grocery stores in Utah Valley. That's probably because it's way out by the freeway, and grocery stores are a lot closer. Macey's is so packed that they could probably open up a store on every other block. Of course, Utah Valley is a very special place . . .
posted
The farther you get from Bentonville, the worse the Walmart will be.
The first time I walked into a walmart here in CA I was disgusted. Items thrown on the shelves, none of them were marked and the employees didn't give a rats buttocks if you shopped there or not.
I thought to myself "Sam would be rolling over in his grave. This looks like a K-Mart."
On the other hand, Target here is nice. But I agree, less selection.
Tom, your elitist, anti-middle America comments show what kind of person you are.
quote:The only thing scarier than a crack-whore is a prostitute-crack-whore.
I don't know, Jon Boy; even scarier than that, to me, are the legions of prostitute-crack-whores who were forced to take part in the Bataan Death March.
You know, I can't quite put my finger on why, but I have this general impression that Tom may not be The Pixiest's favorite person ever. Probably just my imagination though.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
My friend from Louisiana LOVES Walmart's clothing. Apparently her location has nice stuff. It's like I said before about different store managers effect the quality of the store and emphasis on certain products. My Arkansas Walmarts' clothing had the ugliest colors and prints you have ever seen, broken up slightly by 4x tweety tshirts. I get all my jeans and some other pants at walmart, though, because you just can't mess up jeans.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
My grandpa works as a greeter at Wal-Mart. Not that he needs the money or anything. He just does it to get out of the house. I haven't talked to him in depth about it, but he really enjoys it.
I don't shop much at all, so I don't have any strong opinion either way.
Posts: 3056 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
"Tom, your elitist, anti-middle America comments show what kind of person you are."
I'm actually baffled by this, since I'm one of the people on this thread who has NOT heavily criticized either Target or WalMart. Perhaps Pix is talking about some other hypothetical thread somewhere in which I made some other kind of comment about the Middle America in which I happen to be living. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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