Comments on: Top Five Companies We’d Be Better Off Without, #4: Wal-Mart

By: Audemars Piguet

Audemars Piguet — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:06:36 +0000

Many things are cheaper at my (Norman, Oklahoma) wal-mart than the cheapo food store .

By: Audemars Piguet

Audemars Piguet — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:05:29 +0000

Ed did you know that one reason why employees don’t go out and find other jobs is that it’s hard finding jobs and most of the employees have children and can’t afford the time to look for the job!

By: gm

gm — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:37:17 +0000

By: ~CF

~CF — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:08:01 +0000

For grocceries, ALDI is the best value in America. It’s far cheaper than WAL-MART. If more WALMART customers were aware of this, WALMART’s groccery business would suffer, badly.

By: Poorer Than You » Yes, I Hate You, Wal-Mart

Poorer Than You » Yes, I Hate You, Wal-Mart — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:18:50 +0000

[...] On Punny’s list of the “Top Five Companies We’d Be Better Off Without,” Wal-Mart came in #4. And I happen to agree with the rest of the list on most counts, even though my mobile phone is [...]

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:37:57 +0000

I love walmart. I make $120K a year and shop there all the time. I can buy a cart full of groceries for about 20% less than what would cost me at my local Von’s or Albertsons’ Same products, why pay an extra 20%? Despite what liberals think, not everyone shopping there is in poverty. Next time you’re at a Walmart take a look at the cars in the parking lot and you’ll see a lot of $50K cars parked there. High income people like saving money too.

As for their employee “practices”, give me a break. Of the 1.2 million WM employees, not one of them is forced to work there against their will. You don’t like the conditions or pay at Walmart, go work at Target or Von’s or Sears or wherever. But please shut the f**k up that WM is unfair to you. I used to work for a crapy company too. I went 18 months without a raise and my boss was an a**hole. You know what I did? I quit and went somewhere else where I got more money and worked with better people. What I didn’t do is sit around and bitch or start websites where I invited other to bitch about my employer.

Liberals hate WM because it is a US success story. It is capitalism at its finest and they can’t stand it. They can’t stand the thought of a company being successfull and without government help. Liberals are also hypocritical. They claim they want to help the poor yet want to destroy WM which has done more to help the poor through low prices than any liberal government program ever has.

Imagine if all of a sudden that grocery bill shot up 20%. For me it would be almost insignificant. For someone making $18K a year it would be devastating. Think about that next time you’re sitting around Starbucks drinking your $5 latte and coming up with new strategies to hurt this company.

By: ray chestnut

ray chestnut — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:41:53 +0000

Sprint sells a package at one price and charges you another price. The price change is in their favor. Their area of coverage is not that great also.

By: lynn

lynn — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:11:44 +0000

I hate ‘bix-bix’ stores…They are full of way too much stuff we don’t need…Won’t shop at Wal-Mart unless it’s the last and only store left to shop at…I try to support all the local businesses as much as possible…Why? Because in the long run, it’s a better way to live…I haven’t had an income for quite awhile now…and I still don’t ‘need’ to shop at Wal-Mart. There are too many stores around here as it is…
Buying cheap stuff, is not ‘cheaper’ in the cost to the natural environmnent or for the health of future generations in the long run…No-one seems to care about what our insane over-consummption and our insane economic system is doing…
…”What you are seeing in America is two different watersheds. And what you see in the poor sections of American cities is what I call unhealthy economic watersheds. A healthy watershed—what does it do? It absorbs water quickly and releases it slowly into the environment. The retention of moisture, streams, and lakes in an environment maintains and creates the conditions for life. And what is a sick watershed? It’s a clear cut. It absorbs water very slowly, and it runs off very rapidly. You see exactly the same economic phenomenon in cities. Cities have become unhealthy economic watersheds. The money comes in, it’s gone. If you go shop at a big box retailer, 95percent of the money is in London the same night. The rest of it goes to staff and employees. And it is not just Wal-Mart. It is every big box retailer, every small national retailer too. In/out. Bye. See you later.”…
http://urbanhabitat.org/node/511

By: Liberalone

Liberalone — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:31:16 +0000

I for one am strongly anti-Walmart. I find the argument that it’s capitalism at it’s best and all of us “kook” liberals should just shut up and stop being such “PC” babies condescending and ignorant.
Ben Stein’s assumption that a foreigner is better working in a sweatshop than living as a farmer shows just how conceited and arrogant the pro-Walmart, pro-business, “Capitalism Rules” stance really is.
Walmart does not drive up wages nor raise tax revenues in the communities were it is based. Studies have shown that Walmart does not come to town unless it gets tax breaks and concessions. It does drive other tax-paying stores out of business and does not replace the lost revenue.
Walmart pays the lowest wages possible and encourages its employees to join state-funded, taxpayer supported Medicaid programs since Walmart tries to limit employee participaticn in its own healthcare programs. This is Walmart’s way of bringing low prices to everyone.
We may not pay for it at the cash register but we are paying for it, somehow, someway, the bill for $19 DVD players and $.50 socks is getting paid, by each and every individual paying taxes in America today.

By: getreal

getreal — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 03:35:33 +0000

Have any of you noticed that where there is a Wal-Mart there are several other stores. Many of these stores sell mechandise that competes with Wal-Marts merchandise. When I have gone to those other stores in the ‘Wal-Mart’ malls they seem to be doing pretty good business. Before the Wal-Mart come by to anchor the mall it was frequently just an empty field of weeds. Have any of your compared the tax reveues generated by Wal-Mart and its companion stores in the mall to the combined tax revenues of the ‘mom and pops’ that were ‘put out of busness’? This would seem to be an improvement for the whole community as the cities and towns would have better revenue streams to maintain infrastructure.

Quit trying so dam hard to be politically correct. Get real, count your blessings, and just enjoy life to the best of your abilities.

By: Lou the Libertarian

Lou the Libertarian — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 03:04:57 +0000

Oh Nooes!! Big Business!! Come on, WalMart employs tons of people, and if they screw their employees over, tough. If they force small businesses out, tough. They provide discounted items to people who probably couldnt afford to pay more. Not everyone is so fortunate or well off financially to be “better off without walmart”. Sounds a little elitist to me; but whatever. Its capitalism at its best and thats the way it should be. Since when do we punish people for having a successful business plan?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 03:04:33 +0000

I for one like Wal-Mart. It’s only kook liberals that hate it.

It’s a great institution for poor people. The low prices and many jobs help them. If you can’t understand that, I don’t feel like explaining it to you.

By: Bob Uhl

Bob Uhl — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:59:45 +0000

You right there mentioned why it doesn’t deserve to be on a list of evil companies: because people can’t afford to shop anywhere else. In other words, Wal-Mart enables poor folks to feed and clothe themselves.

I don’t really care about the mom-and-pop stores put out of business: they were inefficient and didn’t provide the market what it wanted (people apparently prefer prices over service, which is their right). As for their employees, apparently they find it worthwhile to work there (if they didn’t, they’d leave). ISTR that the presence of a Wal-Mart actually raises wages in the area, as other employers are forced to pay more or face seeing their employees go over to the retailer. And regarding their suppliers–they know whom they’re dealing with. Take a firm line (as Snapper did) or get sued to being walked all over.

My sole concern about Wal-Mart is that America really doesn’t need any more superstores at this point in time. We need more walkable cities, not more stores one needs a car to use. Energy independence isn’t helped by Wal-Mart–but it’s hardly the only or the worst here.

By: Jenn @ FrugalUpstate

Jenn @ FrugalUpstate — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:55:19 +0000

Convenience is the big selling point for Walmart-for our church Angel tree this year they specifically asked for Wal Mart Gift Certificates, so the families can purchase clothes, toys or food with them. At the one Walmart they could even fill the car up with gas using the same gift cert.

Of course, they could just go out and buy beer and cigarettes with it, but that is the chance you take donating to these things. . .

By: LivingOK

LivingOK — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:39:27 +0000

Many things are cheaper at my (Norman, Oklahoma) wal-mart than the cheapo food store (Value Foods).

Some food items: Raw Almonds. Yogurt. Rasins. Bananas.

Other items like car oil or paper products are cheaper.

Maybe Aldi (in a nearby town of Moore) would be cheaper on food but the drive would eat up the savings.

All in all I am very pleased that Wal-mark exists. It is like getting a raise & being a frugal person, I actually put the modest cash from the food savings into stock via DRIP.

I still go to the other stores (well two other ones) for loss leaders and to keep up my price book. Sometimes wal-mart’s food prices are higher on some items but not for very long.

The wal-mart fresh meat department sucks as far as I am concerned though so I buy it elsewhere. Some of those prices are not so good or even higher (e.g., chicken).