Who here doesnt like Wal-Mart? Options

[dstrbcelica]

i don't like wal-mart. i work for a competitor though. although, i was at wal-mart last night to buy some car air freshners.

-dstrb

[Coomer]

Right on, is bondo resin epoxy? The stuff I got off the net is twice that price so it would be cool to get it local for half the price! Thanks man!

Tim
[right][snapback]234850[/snapback][/right]

Nah, it's regular polyester resin, not epoxy resin.

umm....the walmarts around here are only open 8-11. what are u talking about 3 in the morning?? u mean to say ur guy's walmarts are 24/7 or somethin'? 
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The one here is open 24/7. It's nice.

[Kwanza26]

I didn't read anything you folks are arguing about... but I don't like WalMart because of the negative impact they have on our economy...

[vangSTa_celica]

Not an overall big fan, but good on a college student budget.

[saleeka]

for me I try to avoid shopping at wal-mart if I can, because like what has already been said, when they move into small communities they devistate the economy... Wal-Mart opens up in town, pop. 5,000. Undercuts competition so eveybody shops there, in turn driving the smaller competitors out of business. Their old employees now are foreced to find new jobs, most likely at wal-mart, making 6 dollars an hour... now lots of the people in the economy have no $ to spend, and the cycle continues...

[Jaws4God]

Kmart rules!

[BlackCelicaGT94]

Wal-Mart Daily News

A daily guide to what's happening in your Wal-Mart

September 6, 2005



Katrina Relief Report
EDITOR'S NOTE: We will continue to send you updates on Wal-Mart’s Katrina Relief Efforts over the next few days. We'd like to include stories about any members of the Wal-Mart family who have helped their fellow associates deal with hardships inflicted by the storm. As you learn of them, please send these stories to us at public.relations@wal-mart.com.

As of this morning, 17 stores are still closed (10 Supercenters, 4 SAM'S CLUBS, 3 Wal-Mart Stores). We have 7 facilities that are operating on generator power. This is a tremendous improvement from the 126 facilities that were closed at the peak last week when Hurricane Katrina struck.


A total of 89 facilities have reported damage. Nine have major damage, 41 have moderate damage and 39 have minor damage or loss of merchandise loss.


Currently, Wal-Mart is allowing 13 of its available properties to be used for the relief efforts in several capacities -- staging areas, shelters, food bank, police command centers, etc.


Currently, we have two temporary pharmacies in operation. The portable pharmacy in downtown Waveland, Miss., has filled over 1,000 prescriptions in the last two days.


We have 6 portable ISD satellite systems in operation to allow our registers and other systems to work.


Company-wide relief efforts

Information on Katrina’s impact on Wal-Mart and the company’s aid to storm victims is available for associates, customers, journalists and the general public on www.walmartfacts.com.


The company has made contact with more than 65% of its 34,000 associates affected by the storm, including some who have been found in the various evacuee shelters. Wal-Mart is committed to provide work for displaced associates who want to work in open stores.


A total of 6,156 associates have received more than $1.5 million, including initial cash assistance paid out from the company's Associate Disaster Relief Fund through the Wal-Mart Foundation. These associates, who represent 65 different Wal-Marts, SAM'S CLUBS or distribution centers, have come into 750 facilities in 30 states to receive assistance.


To date, 960 displaced associates had found work in their new locations at Wal-Mart and SAM’S CLUB facilities.


The Associate Disaster Hotline has so far taken 12,244 calls (Wednesday 1,128, Thursday 2,312, Friday 2,614, Saturday 2,267, Sunday 1,891, Monday 2,075).


The Online Emergency Contact Registry, which Wal-Mart has set up to give customers and associates access to e-mail facilities at in-store kiosks and on the Web, has had more than 959,675 visits. More than 9,618 associates and customers have posted messages.




In the News

Former Presidents Bush And Clinton Hold A News Conference Regarding Disaster Relief For Hurricane Katrina Victims - Bush: "We're announcing today a fund that will take this outpouring of generosity on to the next level. Recovery is going to take years. We need to help these Gulf Coast communities and, of course, the great city of New Orleans, help them get back on their feet, and we need to help their citizens get their lives back. And standing behind us today -- or with us today is a group of CEOs who came here to help pledge their support. All of them are being -- they're national in scope, all of them being incredibly generous. But I don't think anyone would mind if I singled out the chairman and CEO of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, who is right here. He told us that they gave the Bush-Clinton fund a total of $23 million ... $15 million from the company and then $8 million more from the Walton family, the marvelous philanthropists that they are."

Clinton: "I, too, want to thank Lee Scott and Wal-Mart. And I want to mention something that they are doing because this, I hope, will give some guidance to our members of Congress -- Hillary and Senator Obama and our House members who are here -- go back to work and wonder what they should do. They still have over 20 stores that are closed and so when the employees of those stores are relocated to other communities, even in other states, they're given a job at the nearest Wal-Mart store, wherever they go, wherever they locate anywhere in America." Transcript of news conference (used with permission)

<<Bush And Clinton.doc>>

Wal-Mart , Waltons pledge millions - Wal-Mart and the Walton Family Foundation have pledged many more millions to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The company has pledged $15 million in an "outright cash commitment that we made to the relief effort headed by former President Bush and former President Clinton," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Andrea Rader said Monday. Separately, the Walton Family Foundation is providing $8 million to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. The Walton Family Foundation has already donated an additional $7 million to organizations such as The Salvation Army, America’s Second Harvest and Foundation for the Mid-South. In addition, an online message board is helping associates locate and communicate with their friends and family members. As of Monday, the message board received more than 8,100 posts (4,800 by associates) and more than 800,000 hits, according to Walmartfacts.com. Benton County Daily Record (AR) (used with permission)


<<Wal-Mart Waltons pledge.doc>>

Creating a Shelter in 2 days - If you go out the door marked "Tire, Lube & Express Entrance" and make a left, you'll find the men's and women's showers. Walk up front to the former pharmacy, past dozens and dozens of floor spaces marked for beds, and you'll be where you can get personal hygiene items. It's all a sign that McKinney is prepared. When the city's fire chief, Mark Wallace, heard at 10:45 p.m. Thursday that his community could be receiving hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, McKinney officials, businesses and volunteers swung into action. Attention turned to the former Wal-Mart on U.S. Highway 380 – slated for demolition in three weeks – as a shelter site for about 250 evacuees. "This is the epitome of the private sector coming together to support the efforts of the city," Marshal Nickles said Monday afternoon amid volunteers and evacuees. "We put out a call for electricians, and soon we had guys walking up with tool belts." Kim Lake, a co-manager at McKinney's new Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened July 20, said the community came together without federal or state help. The Dallas Morning News (used with permission)

<<creating_shelter.doc>>



Wal-Mart at Forefront of Hurricane Relief - At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, as New Orleans filled with water, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. called an emergency meeting of his top lieutenants and warned them he did not want a "measured response" to the hurricane. "I want us to respond in a way appropriate to our size and the impact we can have," he said, according to an executive who attended the meeting. At the time, Wal-Mart had pledged $2 million to the relief efforts. "Should it be $10 million?" Scott asked. Over the next few days, Wal-Mart's response to Katrina -- an unrivaled $20 million in cash donations, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers -- has turned the chain into an unexpected lifeline for much of the Southeast and earned it near-universal praise at a time when the company is struggling to burnish its image. While state and federal officials have come under harsh criticism for their handling of the storm's aftermath, Wal-Mart is being held up as a model for logistical efficiency and nimble disaster planning, which have allowed it to quickly deliver staples such as water, fuel and toilet paper to thousands of evacuees. "Wal-Mart has raised the ante for every company in the country," said Adam Hanft, chief executive of Hanft Unlimited Inc., a New York branding and marketing firm. "This is going to change the face of corporate giving." The Washington Post (used with permission)

<<Wal-Mart at forefront.doc>>

Wal-Mart efforts to go chic buck tradition - Wal-Mart became the biggest company in the world by stacking merchandise high and selling it cheaply. But now the firm wants to gain a reputation for being classy as well as affordable. Wal-Mart CEO Scott said in June that Wal-Mart will have to only tweak its business model to capture more high-income shoppers. Scott said Wal-Mart must simply reposition more expensive products like high-definition televisions and women’s apparel. "I don’t see why you’d want to limit yourself," he said. "I think we can be relevant to all people." Advertisements taken out in national magazines show the effort Wal-Mart is making — and the challenges it faces. The Bentonville retailer bought ads for the first time in trendy Vogue magazine, spending an estimated $800,000 for spots in the September issue. Wal-Mart has committed to buy another 48 pages in Vogue next year. Arkansas Democrat Gazette (used with permission)

<<chic.doc>>

Union split takes pressure off Wal-Mart - A year ago, labor leaders were relishing the prospect of a major bid to organize their toughest adversary, Wal-Mart. But a major rift in the AFL-CIO that produced two warring camps in late July has almost certainly derailed that mission and threatened other important labor initiatives. For the past 50 years, since the AFL-CIO was formed in 1955, the percentage of the work force represented by unions has steadily declined from more than 35 percent to 12.5 percent last year, including only 7.9 percent of the private-sector work force. ''We have seen that the unions are very fragmented now,'' said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher. ''We just don't feel like (labor's threatened campaign)... is anything we need to be concerned about.'' AFL-CIO officials say the planned multimillion-dollar Wal-Mart campaign is almost certain to be scuttled because the major beneficiary would be one of the defecting unions, the UFCW. The Washington Post (used with permission)

[95CelicaST]

[rant]
I do not like Walmart.


Their clothing is crap. My girlfriend's sister buys all the stuff for her daughter there, and it falls apart in the wash. but I guess thats what you get when you outsource to India to save a few bucks

Walmart is a Union Buster store. They move into towns and communities, drop their prices as compared to the other local stores, and when they drive the competition out of business they jack the price up. They put the local "mom and pop" stores out of business so they can have ALL the business. Their employees can't join the union, because that would mean they have to be paid more, which Walmart doesnt like.

Walmart has LOCKED illegal immagrints inside their stores at night so that they can clean it up.

One woman that worked at Walmart was getting married, and Walmart wouldn't give her the day off. so she quit. She invited all her friends that also worked there... also the days were not given to them. So the woman had her wedding INSIDE Walmart. She was arrested.

Walmart, while good on the pocketbook of Americans who wish to save a little, is bringing down all the other store chains. They treat their employees like crap, they dont pay well, they have horrible hours, and they sell crappy merchandise.

Everything I have just said I know is true because it all happened right here in Washington.. think of what else has happened in all the other states. My dad lost his job because of Walmart taking over and outsourcing his job to Mexico. I do not like Walmart and I will never shop there.

[/rant]

[ILuvMyCelica95]

that is far too much to read

[BlackCelicaGT94]

wal-mart gives me a job like ive said! and there are pros and cons to them but i think what they are doing for the hurricane survivors is GREAT

[Benevolence]

I work at costco ( a unionized one) and get a union paper every month and every month they are always bashing walmart, its fun to read. Shop at costco they start their employees off at $10 an hour and lots of room for promotion and you're getting good deals too. Only time I go to walmart is when I need like a 5 dollar stopwatch or some ant traps (just some random stuff I bought there last)

[saleeka]

i will agree that what they are doing for hurricane victims is great, but overall the damage they have done over time by destroying many a small communities (sp) economy far outweighs the 20 odd million they are donating... also, if they DIDDEN'T donate to these people, in the long run I think they would feel a much stronger negative effect since i'd say a large amount of people in these regions either depend, or work for a wal-mart thanks to that small town economy chain these stores perpetuate...

This post has been edited by saleeka: Sep 7, 2005 - 12:34 AM

[jgreening]

i will agree that what they are doing for hurricane victims is great,  but overall the damage they have done over time by destroying many a small communities (sp) economy far outweighs the 20 odd million they are donating... also, if they DIDDEN'T donate to these people, in the long run I think they would feel a much stronger negative effect since i'd say a large amount of people in these regions either depend, or work for a wal-mart thanks to that small town economy chain these stores perpetuate...
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I disagree with this. In fact, I think it is liberal propoganda that should not be repeated. I do not condone predatory conduct but that is illegal and there are remedies for it. Most of the time, Wal-mart simply competes and wins fair and square. People complain about Wal-Mart beating the competition in the market place and say that is unfair. However, do not forget about the money Wal-Mart saves the people of the community thereby INCREASING their standard of living and prosperity of the community. This fact cannot be over-emphasized. Its just like the folks that complained when the Japanese started selling cars in the U.S. If it weren't for the japanese, the U.S. car manufacturers would have kept on making the crap from the mid-eighties. Like it or not, competition forced the others to improve quality and be cost competitive as well. Also, the pay and benefits that Wal-Mart gives to people without a college education is much better in most cases than the competition.

[BlackCelicaGT94]

ha i hope u guys dont think i directly work for them in the store or something

[BlackSTX]

for me I try to avoid shopping at wal-mart if I can, because like what has already been said, when they move into small communities they devistate the economy... Wal-Mart opens up in town, pop. 5,000. Undercuts competition so eveybody shops there, in turn driving the smaller competitors out of business. Their old employees now are foreced to find new jobs, most likely at wal-mart, making 6 dollars an hour... now lots of the people in the economy have no $ to spend, and the cycle continues...
[right][snapback]235201[/snapback][/right]

If you people think Wal-Mart is bad, then you don't understand economics at all. The most competitive companies survive. If you don't like their products or how much they pay, then quit shopping or working there. It's your choice. Wal-Mart was good for my small town because the local businesses didn't have any competition and were charging too much. It hasn't put a lot of companies out of business either. It has however made things more competitive and employeed more people. The town I live in now has a mall, a Meijers, a K-Mart, Best-Buy, Circuit City, Dicks Sporting Goods, Krogers, and a Wal-Mart all within less than a mile, and they have no problem sharing their business.

[blu94gt]

I have mixed feelings about Wal-Mart. Yeah, they do have amazingly low competitive prices that drive lots of other businesses out of business, but look at it this way: I'm a college student. When I go grocery shopping, I can go to Dillons and spend about $60 a month on the groceries I use (with the Plus-card benefits). When I go to Wal-Mart, I can buy the exact same products and spend closer to $40. Plus Wal-Mart is open 24/7 and has everything else I need to buy. Granted I don't buy clothes or anything like that there, but they are helpful here in a college town.

Do you guys know why Wal-Mart can have such low prices? They sell such a large percentage of product compared to other companies that they can then go to the company and say that unless the company sells them the wholesale product for such and such low price, they won't sell it in their stores. The companies go along with it because their sales will significantly decrease if they don't have their products in Wal-Mart.

Oh and BTW, what section is the fiberglassing stuff in, I'm going to go after class and get some lol

[saleeka]

Well, I would like to think I have a decent understanding on economics, but I will say it seems that people think that price and cost are the same thing all too often... Yes, wal-mart is cheaper than competition, and in a sense of selling for less, they do come out on top. Like Jgreening said, they can help improve some people's quality of life because they can obtain more thanks to wal-marts low price. Wal-Mart is accredited to actually helping keep inflation down in this country because of their obsession with having the lowest price. My problem with this store is how they cause long term effects that are unseen to so many people. Wal Mart is the largest comapny in the world- therefore, they can buy in bulk in amounts other competeitors could only dream of, and reducing cost to the consumer. the problem with this lies in that non-corporate competition cannot compete in smaller communities. They cannot provide a competitive price, and therefore, dissapear. You can easily say that "well, they cost more so they lost", but wal mart is so powerful, its almost like dealing with a conglomerate- there just isnt a way to compete with them on any reasonable scale

Do you guys know why Wal-Mart can have such low prices?  They sell such a large percentage of product compared to other companies that they can then go to the company and say that unless the company sells them the wholesale product for such and such low price, they won't sell it in their stores.  The companies go along with it because their sales will significantly decrease if they don't have their products in Wal-Mart.[right][snapback]331690[/snapback][/right]

This is another point I dislike about wal-mart. Because they constantly demand that low price, many of the companies that they do business with cannot produce their product a a cost effective level here in the US, so they outsource jobs. Its a vicious cylce for the companies in that their profit margins also spread thinner when they cater to wal-mart- even though sales are strong, and the cost to produce is less since it's outsourced, the profit is very very slim per unit because of that low low price. Company grows larger in terms of sales, production, but profits dont match at the same rate.

With the huge obsession with that cheap price, comes concequences. Wal-Mart is probably one of the biggest contributors to a "globalized economy" I can think of, simply because of the power it has in its marketplace. That alone has strong rammifications to us here in the US and the economy...

[BlackSTX]

With the huge obsession with that cheap price, comes concequences. Wal-Mart is probably one of the biggest contributors to a "globalized economy" I can think of, simply because of the power it has in its marketplace. That alone has strong rammifications to us here in the US and the economy...
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Wrong. Wal-Mart is a contributor to a globalized economy, but so are good old american companies like GM, Ford, GE, and IBM, as well as companies like Toyota and Nissan, and thousands of others. If you don't understand economics, especially globalization, you should read "The Choice." It's only like 100 pages. It tells why globalization is good and how protectionism is bad. Outsourcing jobs enables Americans to attain better jobs than they would have had. For example, instead of working in a factory, I went to college and am now an accountant. Getting a college degree wouldn't be so important if we all had nice, secure, high paying jobs that required no skills.

[Yota]

The problem with Wal-Mart is that it doesn't keep as much money in the community. It drains the community's economy because their pay doesn't reciprocate the amounts of dollars spent there. Wal-Mart doesn't make money hand over fist like some may think. Their net profit margin is only 3.6% (which means for every dollar spent, Wal-Mart keeps .036 cents).

The benefits of Wal-Mart is that they give their shoppers excellent prices for quality goods. Meaning you can shop there and walk out with a ton of stuff without paying a buttload of money.

Wal-Mart does drive out smaller businesses. Since Wal-Mart was brought into my area, 3 grocery stores have been put out of business. The biggest one, Eagles which had roughly 8 stores throughout my area, is now out of business.

My opinion of liking or disliking Wal-Mart has to do with how you look at them. As a shopper, its great. But as a small business owner (which I am not one) must hate them with a passion. Their profits aren't enough to remain open. And Wal-Mart is capable of lowering their prices (even if it means a net loss on a certain product) just to drive out their competition. As long as a shopper is in the store, they're hooked because rarely can someone just walk in with one item on their list to buy. They will walk out with something else as well that they may need. That's Wal-Marts objective for business: Have EVERYTHING you could ever need in a store for sale at low costs. They're tough to compete against.

[darksecret]

If you people think Wal-Mart is bad, then you don't understand economics at all.  The most competitive companies survive.  If you don't like their products or how much they pay, then quit shopping or working there.  It's your choice.  Wal-Mart was good for my small town because the local businesses didn't have any competition and were charging too much.  It hasn't put a lot of companies out of business either.  It has however made things more competitive and employeed more people.  The town I live in now has a mall, a Meijers, a K-Mart, Best-Buy, Circuit City, Dicks Sporting Goods, Krogers, and a Wal-Mart all within less than a mile, and they have no problem sharing their business.
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Competition is great but the thing is that when I priced my HP 1410 printers at $84.99 Wal-Mart was able to turn around and sell them a week later at $74.99 that's my wholesale cost, they were at $114.99 (I still beat them on PC's and video cards but it's only a matter of time). It's very hard to compete with a company where the manager of the facility has full ability to undercut you with a one day approval from the home office, they'll take a few thousand dollar cut and now my retail side is all but gone. When the supercenter first opened the Winn-Dixe grocery store a block away closed in threes months and quite a number of stores have closed because of it, small business is dying quick and it's thanks mostly to Wal-Mart in my area. Yes my store is still around but it's service work that is keeping it alive. CNN or MSNBC did a big special on Wal-Mart and proved they did us sweat shops for almost their entire textiles line (excluding certain cloths, as for our Wal-Mart they do school emblems but send them to a large printing company to make them).

Ironic how Wal-Mart drives out small business yet the Sam's Club "motto" is we are in business for small business, I call BS on that I never shop at Sam's and my girlfriend works there, she's paid as a cashier but works in the bakery, deli, and stock crew where the average pay is $11 an hour (she makes $8.75 there and $10 at Wendy's), GO WAL-MART!

This post has been edited by darksecret: Sep 7, 2005 - 4:34 PM