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About Me
- Larky Park
- Colorful, textural clothing & accessories made from vintage, salvaged and modern materials. Wholesale Retail Online Ordering
20 comments:
mmmm....peeps...
I have a love/hate relationship with walmart. I love low prices but i actaully have to go there to RECIEVE the the low prices. that i hate.
:)
l.
I love Wally World. I got used to it being the only place up north where I could shop after 6pm in the winter...I know they steal business from the small guy...which i hate...and I hate the ickyness of certain Wmarts, but overall...I love the convenience and for the most part low prices...I go there at least once a week...sometimes more!
As I read the paper on a regular basis, I cannot help but notice that WM has tried, and failed, to place megastores about 5-6 times in the Portland metropolitan area. Neighborhoods just say no.
The other articles that I read about them usually focus on their labor practices, which are invariably harsh when it comes to compensation and general treatment of their employees. As a pretty much lifelong hourly employee, this gets under my skin and I've worked both sides of the management line.
There are other establishments that offer low prices. Not AS low? Then by how much? If the place is closer, it costs less to go there.
I'm done.
Um . . . I love capitalism, free-market economies and money, so WM is a good mentor. I even like the smell of paper money.
I have always loved Wal Mart, I think I was raised there. But as to their low prices...I enjoy the one-stop shopping...all in one book of fun. One more thing....my mother-in-law works on the west side..(name is rita, go say Hi!) and she just got this HUGE bonus. So I think that you get what you pay for.
Devil.
I have to say I land mostly on the hate side, but I still have to shop there for lack of other options. Unfortunatly I believe a very large % of their stuff is made overseas, and those low low prices are usually due to low low wages. Also, almost everything you buy there is CRAP!!! Even though you buy it for a dollar, don't get attached because you are going to have to buy it again next week.
PLUS!!! THough they may do great national donations, they don't give on a local level. Like to our Rodeo Bible Camp. I appreciate the 20$ and the 'good luck', but come on.
Well anyways. I do like their chicken fingers.
I have struggled with the Walmart thing for a while. But, even though I know it's not the best option I HAVE to shop there. WIth a family, I need all of the help getting what we need at the cheapest price possible, and there is no where to shop in my town except there, unless I want to pay ridiculous amounts of money for stuff-especially food. I like the one-stop shopping, I try to leave the kids at home, cause when I take them with with me...the whole experience is stressful and then I leave cussing and swearing to NEVER go back there again...until next week! LOL! (Remember our flat tire, Afton puking, Walmart trip?) From the devil for sure.
Just a few short years back, my globe trotting family was going to Nepal, Columbia, Scotland, Brazil, France and where was Mummer's destination? Yep, you got it ---Wal-Mart. I figure I really owe WM bigtime for absorbing all my self-pity, distracting me with great deals on makeup (these were your pre MK days, Bethie dear)and providing me with the only exercise I received during this season... I would like to say that since I've been giving my passport a workout that I never set foot in the door of WM but, alas, that is not the case ... My name is Cindy Balon and I am a Walaholic.
I have heard alot about WM and their "treatment" of their employees, however my husband worked for them for about a year at a distribution center and was treated very well, with special dinners, bonuses if his shift completed so much work ect., he also was given a 10% discount when he shopped at walmart which seemed pretty fair to me. I have not checked into the overseas production, nor what the labor conditions are, so this maybe a very uninformed thought but if walmart didn't exist what about all of the people in other countries it employs what would they do, because it does provide many jobs? Just a thought and maybe an uniformed one too... I personally don't really have any convictions about it one way or the other but I do hate crowds so I try to avoid it often if I can. Beth I miss you and was wondering if spring had come to Green Bay yet, it has sauntered into Buffalo and then left again, but I hear it will be back soon...ahhhh I do miss CA weather sometimes....
I love to root for the little guy, which is definitely not WM (point against)
But I also hate being trendy, and it sure is trendy to hate on WM (point for)
I like low prices (point for)
But I hate dealing with cheap crap (point against)
I like convenience (point for)
But hate dealing with crowds (point against)
WM is a toss up...
...we don't live all that near one any more (they tend to stay in the 'burbs) so it's less of a real issue anyways...
I worked at Walmart as a cashier, so I can vouch for the treatment of the workers.
My managers were very good at giving me time off when I needed it... but the wages were low and though insurance was available, you had to pay for it yourself. And it was so expensive it wouldn't have even been worth the huge cut it would take out of your check.
I also noticed that there was a lot of sexism that went on among management. Even though a majority of my coworkers were women, they were not promoted... the men were.
It's also interesting to not that in a store of 460+ employees, there were four or five black employees and fifteen Mexican employees. And NONE of them worked the front of the store... the minority employees were all stockers, janitors... back room folk.
*interesting to note
a few dollars saved is not reason to give up humanity. i agree with the "devil" comment. but, then again, i'm a northern and wal-mart is associated with flag flying, gun toting, extreme ring-winger big boys from the south.
i never shop there and had never actually been inside one until i graduated from college and my job demanded that i purchase from there.
Oh funny- popping in here from Lori's blog- we decided after many reasons to stop shopping at Walmart and haven't shopped there once this year. I don't see us shopping there again... I like what Steve. S. said up there, too.
Steph
I little hello there to tam and S!!! Yes it is finally over 15 degrees!! We are in heaven!
OK - Walmart seems to be like every other big business. It is rare to find a capitalistic giant who has been able to keep (if they had in the first place) Kashi values. How I wish we were able to have several small mom and pop's that were convenient and close to each other and inexpensive and child-friendly. Oh yes, the abandoned "downtowns". Or the current "malls". They fit in some senses, but until there is a better solution or Americans decide to choose to consume less - I can't see Wal-mart folding for lack of revenue. Frankly I love Target for their cuteness stamp, but who's to say they don't have similar yuck?
Okay, I'm late to the party, but I am what a marketer calls LOHAS. Some guy on Wikipedia made up a subsegment of it called LOVOS. This is definitely me. I am anti-consumerist to the core. Walmart getting into organic foods is a symbol of everything I think is wrong about the way we do things in America. If you've ever traveled abroad and tasted the fruits and veggies that CAN be had, you realize the terrible paucity we suffer in this country. Food should be grown locally, picked ripe and consumed locally using sustainable agricultural practices. Turns out to be best for the planet and best for us. It brings us into relationship with one another again (horrors, not that!). The same goes for clothes and products. The human being has been completely sidelined from work. Artisans are hard to find and can rarely sustain themselves. Our cheap and abundant lifestyle is not workable over the long term. We use way too much of the earth's resources and energy, for such a small percentage of the world's population. And let's face it, most of us don't need even a third of what we actually have. Walmart allows us to have even more that we don't need. But are we happier, more fulfilled, more humane? Are we closer to the Kingdom? Are we caring for the fatherless? Keep your Walmart, I'll keep buying shares in the Keune's farm out in Seymour, and eating their fabulous organic produce for six months a year.
Alright, I'll stop ranting now. This is Susan, but Blogger has messed up my account with their Google merger thing and I apparently don't exist anymore.
I want to hear more about the organic food in Seymour. I also think pink tomatoes parading themselves as hot red beasts should be banned. So freaking sick. No wonder I hated tomatoes for so long...
You will not believe it. Today I was dragging my children into the Whalee-mart when low and behold - there in the handicapped spot was a ginormous beater with the following bumper sticker: "Walmart (encircled and crossed out) - ban it and support local businesses".
Honestly.
Beth,
Maybe that was their form of silent protest and they were hiding out behind the store eating organic carrot sticks and chuckling at their ingenuity.
;)
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