Why I'll Never Shop at Walmart.com Again

The thing is that you'd have to have a wholesale boycott of a Walmart, a Target, a Zellers, etc. in order to have any effect ... and by that time, the little mom and pop store is gone anyway.

And quite frankly, this nostalgia for mom & pop stores is a little nauseating. Where I grew up, canned goods were often years out of date. I don't even want to think about the boxed stuff.

It's the way it is. If you want to boycott something because of their business practices, do it, regardless of the savings you might get on 3 or 4 pairs of pants. If you don't think it matters, shop there and either be proud of it or keep mum.

I shop at Walmart if and when I feel like it and I'm not ashamed of it; at other times, I frequent the neighbourhood stores and I'm not necessarily proud of it. But I can tell you that when I'm making a dish for 50 people, I'm not buying my meat the the neighbourhood butcher or grocer, unless they're competitive.

Too bad, so sad... that's life in the fast lane.

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I live in a small city (pop. 21,000) a few hours out from Chicago. As recently as the late nineties we had a pretty healthy local economy. We had a variety of local businesses, and enough people who could afford them. I'm not sure when the Walmart came in, I'm too young to remember, but I know we still had quite a few local businesses down town. It wasn't until a few years ago things started going downhill. My grasp of economics is pretty rudimentary, but I believe it started a few years ago when manufacturing plants started closing down and moving. More lucrative opportunities elsewhere. The local economy hit a crunch. Stores started going of business left and right. At present, the mall has been reduced to a KMart and a bookstore (not a Barnes and Noble, mind you).

There have been some new businesses coming in as of late, though they're not much of an alternative to the big box stores (an art gallery, a few restaurants, ect). Right now, the community is polarized over letting an Intermodal in. People are afraid of the noise and pollution, but the potential boost in the local economy is tempting.

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Mame wrote:

The thing is that you'd have to have a wholesale boycott of a Walmart, a Target, a Zellers, etc. in order to have any effect ... and by that time, the little mom and pop store is gone anyway.

And quite frankly, this nostalgia for mom & pop stores is a little nauseating. Where I grew up, canned goods were often years out of date. I don't even want to think about the boxed stuff.

It's the way it is. If you want to boycott something because of their business practices, do it, regardless of the savings you might get on 3 or 4 pairs of pants. If you don't think it matters, shop there and either be proud of it or keep mum.

I shop at Walmart if and when I feel like it and I'm not ashamed of it; at other times, I frequent the neighbourhood stores and I'm not necessarily proud of it. But I can tell you that when I'm making a dish for 50 people, I'm not buying my meat the the neighbourhood butcher or grocer, unless they're competitive.

Too bad, so sad... that's life in the fast lane.

I grew up in a little town that had one store, a grocery. The funny thing is, nobody bought anything other than pop and ice cream because just about everything else was expired. In fact, nothing had changed when I moved a few months ago.

The fact is, Walmart isn't exactly a purveyor of quality. It's where you go to save money. Most of the local businesses where I live now are quality. That's how they survive.

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Mame wrote:

The thing is that you'd have to have a wholesale boycott of a Walmart, a Target, a Zellers, etc. in order to have any effect ... and by that time, the little mom and pop store is gone anyway.

Yeah, I know, I'm just bitching.

Something to do...

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Some places, maybe. But if you're looking for pet food, different story. Or baby clothes. Or sheets. Whole different story. Why would I pay $150+ at a local store for sheets I can get at Walmart for $60? No, I wouldn't. So I'm a cretin.

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You're absolutely right (well, except for the bit about being a cretin).

Walmart is still evil, though. It's big business. If you don't hate big business you're a capitalist.

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I admit I'm a capitalist, but I didn't know it was a dirty word Smile

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Here in Austin , the mom and pop shops are no where near as bad as you describe Mame.. thank goodness.

This city is diverse enough to where you can either go to the local grower for your veggies, or the small store chain that sells for the grower, a state wide grocery store, or a country wide store.
We have all steps .

And it is nice. And since this city is so big , it can sustain all of them.

I guess you could call it a luxury here.. to be able to shop only at smaller localy owned stores instead of larger chains.

The problem is that we are watching the Walmarts and Targets put these people out of business.
The days of choice seem to be numbered by all these larger chains and it really sucks.

I guess, when you see only the after ( no more smaller stores, just walmart target etc ) then the before ( small local stores) dont really make sense, or may not seem appealing.

I never thought anything of small local stores before until I lived here. Now, I do what I can to spread my money around. I like the competition, the diversity, and the luxury of being able to pick exactly what I want and from who.

f** whole foods. Cool

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Mame wrote:

Some places, maybe. But if you're looking for pet food, different story. Or baby clothes. Or sheets. Whole different story. Why would I pay $150+ at a local store for sheets I can get at Walmart for $60? No, I wouldn't. So I'm a cretin.

No. You are just smart.
I dont see the point of over spending on an item either.

but, as I said in my previous post.. here.. I think we are just very lucky to be able to find smaller shops for everything, AND have it be cheaper.

But, on the same hand... if it were only Walmart, Target and the like that were available to shop here.. well..

I would be Walmart'in my ass right on in that store. Sadly..
And that is because I refuse to pay too much for basic things. No need.
I would much rather spend my money DOING things I enjoy, then buying expencive foods, or 'toys'. I bust my ass for my money and TOmmy Hillflucker aint gettin it.. ya know?

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Mame wrote:

I admit I'm a capitalist, but I didn't know it was a dirty word

It is on A2K. The company you keep...

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whether it's a dirty word or not really depends on how it's used.

the idea of saving money is pretty reasonable by itself. the idea that monopolies are okay because there are times that you're saved money isn't quite as reasonable.

if slavery saved money, it wouldn't be okay.

what happens at walmart, i don't know what the best word is. slavery is probably too harsh. exploitation (of the customer, and the worker) isn't.

"capitalism" can be a good word. to me it ideally means: spending your money on businesses that are good in more than one way... not just selling off several important advantages in the name of a buck.

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shewolfnm wrote:

Here in Austin , the mom and pop shops are no where near as bad as you describe Mame.. thank goodness.

This city is diverse enough to where you can either go to the local grower for your veggies, or the small store chain that sells for the grower, a state wide grocery store, or a country wide store.
We have all steps .

And it is nice. And since this city is so big , it can sustain all of them.

I guess you could call it a luxury here.. to be able to shop only at smaller localy owned stores instead of larger chains.

The problem is that we are watching the Walmarts and Targets put these people out of business.
The days of choice seem to be numbered by all these larger chains and it really sucks.

I guess, when you see only the after ( no more smaller stores, just walmart target etc ) then the before ( small local stores) dont really make sense, or may not seem appealing.

I never thought anything of small local stores before until I lived here. Now, I do what I can to spread my money around. I like the competition, the diversity, and the luxury of being able to pick exactly what I want and from who.

f** whole foods.

You know, local produce is way more expensive than imported stuff - I would rather buy BC produce than Californian or Mexican, and I do because there are just two of us and we can afford it, but if I were feeding a family, I might not be able to.

I remember way back when the first strip mall was built in my then town - everybody was freaking that all the little stores would go out of business. They didn't, but they probably didn't do as well as before. And I suspect some of them shopped at Home Depot, too.

People forever talk about Walmart's buiness practices (with employees being exploited) but they never mention the smaller stores' practices, some of which may be questionable as well.

Other businesses can be just as guilty of "slave" labour or mistreating its employees, but you never hear about that. I've worked in many offices where a prehistoric mindset was prevalent.

You just have to deal with it or move on.

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A very loud, unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into Wal-Mart with
her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.

The Wal-Mart Greeter said pleasantly
"Good morning, and welcome to Wal-Mart. Nice children you have there. Are they twins?"

The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say,
"Hell no they ain't." "The oldest one's 9 and the other one's 7.
Why the hell would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?"

" I'm neither blind nor stupid, Ma'am," replied the greeter.

"I just couldn't believe you got laid twice."
"Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart."

Laughing

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That was good H2O_MAN Laughing

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Why I'll Never Shop at Walmart.com Again

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