I Hate Wal-Mart
Yeah, I shop at Wal-Mart. It’s almost embarrassing to admit. We all know the social implications of Wal-Mart stores like low-paying jobs with little or no benefits or running competitors out of business with underhanded tactics, but my reasons for hating them go far beyond those.
I’m now irked immediately upon entering the store, as the new carts are so obnoxiously big that we’ve began referring to them as “boats”. I’m sure that WM did extensive testing and figured out that bigger carts mean bigger receipts, as the optical illusion of an “emptier” basket surely results in many people trying to fill it. Since the aisles haven’t increased in size and the store becomes more crowded daily, I won’t be surprised to hear of small children getting mowed down by these monstrosities.
My biggest gripe (and the one that probably affects the most people) is the prices. Wal-Mart claims to have the best prices on everything, and I’m sure they do on most, but we’ve found that we can get much better values by shopping at our local grocery store, Save-A-Lot. It’s really quite amazing to see how much more we can come home with for the same amount of money. Perhaps we aren’t falling prey to WM’s conniving product placement.
There are many things that we still go to WM for, like laundry detergent and toothpaste. I freaked out on one recent trip, when I noticed that the pricing on detergents appeared to have jumped $2 across the board! This price increase seems to have affected everything, as the package of hamburger meat that I normally get also jumped over a dollar.
Anytime I go to WM with a specific purchase in mind, it is almost always out of stock. Example – I usually buy my cat food at a pet superstore that’s about 25 miles from my home. It’s usually not a problem since we drive to that city once a week, but I’ve been looking at WM’s selection of pet foods and noticed a bag of Iam’s Digestive Care that is from the same company and around the same price as what I’ve been feeding them. We talked it over and decided that it would probably be just as good and we would have an option closer to home that would be available 24 hours a day. You guessed it… when I went back to get it a few days later, it wasn’t in stock. The kitten food that I needed was also out of stock.
Then we’ve got the checkout lanes. Out of the scores of registers lining the front of the building, only three or four are usually open. I’ve seen lines snaking 50 feet from the cashier, but the CSM refuses to open another lane. This problem really becomes exacerbated on holidays.
I used to love Wal-Mart before it became a superstore. Now it’s nothing more than a vacuum of greed that we all get sucked into because we’re too lazy to look for an alternative. I have to wonder who’s more to blame – us for being indolent or them for exploiting it.
I go to Save-A-Lot or Aldi’s most of the time too for my groceries. There is a big difference in price. But, around here, for the other non-grocery items you pretty much have to go to Wal-Mart.
I understand they have to increase prices due to the increase cost of transporting it to the store, but some of the increses are ridiculous. Be thankful you don’t buy diapers. A few months ago at Sam’s they went up $10/box. Coincidentally (yeah right!), they started stocking their “generic” members mark brand diapers at the same time as the increase, so we switched brands and it still costs us the same. Don’t get me started on detergent, or other cleaning supplies! Since I sometimes do laundry for 6 people I buy it at Sam’s, but my mom is allergic to the lowest price stuff, and she can’t be around my kids if their clothes are washed in it, so I have to buy the same brand as her, which is also the highest priced. I get most of my cleaning supplies at the dollar stores.
WM’s price match system is a JOKE. Every time I try to take advantage of that I am shot down for some reason or another.
Well, well, well, Brian, you better be careful. The W-M Corporation have been known to shut down sites that reflect badly on the W-Mart’s good name. LOL Not joking.
I worked for W-m for 9 yrs. (ok, 8yrs, 11 months and 2 weeks, and maybe a couple of days give or take ;)
It is ridiculous what all we have to endure at our W-m, but it is because they are the only major retail business in this town. If we had a Target or some other major retail business to give them some competition then we would have lower prices. W-Mart comps shop with stores within a certain distance and as you know ours has lots of distance between it and any serious competition.
I love Big Lots but because it is close-out deals, you never know what they will have.
That being said, I am so glad you like our store. We are increasing our sales and finding it harder to estimate projected sales and therefore labor. One item that has been moving alot more is our can goods. A W-M employee shopping in our store told me why. W-m brand is .88, while most of ours is .39 to .49. That is a big difference.
Granted we don’t carry name brands that most customers have been brainwashed to notice such as Green Giant, Dole, and Bush, but we do have the basics. I like my name brands too. There are just some items that can’t compare to others, but…
I find myself being a smarter shopper.
However, I will tell you that we do get comments from our customers too about increases in our prices. Our Company sends us memo’s explaining the reasoning so we can let our customers know.
It is all about Supply and Demand. Anyone who has taken an Economic’s class can tell you, that the more the demand, the higher the prices to increase productivity. Any shortages of product (because of demand or nature) causes a even higher increase. Then people began to slack off buying the product. Because of this the product begins having a backstock(large inventory) and then we see the price begin to lower.
There are also several other little factors but…
So, it is never going to end. We can only do as you are doing. Find an alterative that is acceptable to what your household needs…or do without.
W-M spends several hundred thousand dollars on researching about what makes the customer spend more money and especially about impulse buying. Impulse buying is were any store can make a nice profit from just a few items. Do you know that even most $1 items have a 40% or higher profit margin? The retail business isn’t just about putting items on a shelf. There are different techiques to draw a customers attention and W-M is on top because they do invest in these techiques and teach their employees these things.
That helps explain the bigger buggies, more room to add all the things you don’t really need. LOL
I have to say also that although I hope to never again work at a W-M that they did teach me some important retail techiques that I still use today at my store. However, I believe “they” have no doubt been around for centuries.
Stilldreaming,
What an informative post! Thanks for giving a little background into the retail machine.
Good post Brian. I hate them too. I call it “The Evil Empire.” I think that we’ve been brainwashed by the “always the lowest prices” thing. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not, but it never has been “always.” I’d rather spend a little more and go somewhere where the lighting’s better, the isles wider, and I don’t feel quite so manipulated.
I like the new look for your site!