Wal-Mart Haters

[DrFaroohk]

Why does everyone seem to hate wal-mart these days?

I recall some of the complaints i've heard over the years...one is that they don't pay their employees very well. As a loser who can't hold down a job for more than a few months, and thus have had a lot of jobs, I can definitely disprove that one. They paid me 8 an hour when I worked there, which is just about what EVERYONE was paying at the time.

Another is that they wipe out local businesses. ok, ever heard of being COMPETITIVE? Maybe if you didn't charge 19.99 for a 3 pack of bic pens, I might shop at your store instead of wal-mart. Fuck you.

Also, most of these wal-mart haters seem to have no problem shopping at a similar store like Target or K-Mart, which from what I can tell is the same exact store.

I personally love wal-mart. I have a 6 month old baby, and pretty much all of their baby products are half what they'd cost at a local grocery store. I can buy stuff in bulk and make less trips out, and it's just great. Wal-Mart rules!

[draggar]

I hate my local Walmarts. The stors are filthy, usually smelling like urine. The extrmely few people working there (if you can find them) are not helpful and are more interested in either talking on their cell phones or avioding customers.

The people who shop there are also extremely rude, impersonal, and would rather ram you with their shopping cart than say "excuse me".

The cashiers will wait and send a few text messages before even starting to ring up your orders.

This isn't just one Walmart, it's several in my area (Ft Lauderdale but also including West Palm Beach area).

My local Targets are not like this at all. They are clean, I can usually find someone to help me, and I'm not playing carriage dodge the entire time.

Yes, prices are cheap and that's what most people care about now but then they turn aount and complain about customer service - which I think is extremely hypocritical. I'd rather shop for a TV or a computer at a Ma&a store. Sure, I may pay more but I know I'll get good service.

[Dreamstalker]

All the Wal-Marts I've ever set foot in are consistently trashed and filthy. Yes, Target's prices are a bit higher, but the stores are cleaner and merchandise is typically better quality (also, if I need help I can always find it).

WM does screw suppliers/vendors, they do this because they know they can. There have been a couple books written exposing this.

My dad once worked for a company creating specialized retail software, which required specialized training and scanners to use properly. WM turned around and tried to take all the credit for this software, and said that his company couldn't come in to do the training ("we can do this ourselves"...no you can't). They didn't get the code.

[DrFaroohk]

Well most of that stuff can be said about any place....a lot of mom and pop businesses are the nastiest things I've ever seen. Especially small, privately owned C-Stores, my god when you go in and the cashier gives you this dirty look like "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BOTHERING ME!?!?!?!?!"

I've seen crappy wal-marts but I've seen really nice looking wal-marts too, fully stocked and staffed with friendly, helpful people etc....

[draggar]

Well most of that stuff can be said about any place....a lot of mom and pop businesses are the nastiest things I've ever seen. Especially small, privately owned C-Stores, my god when you go in and the cashier gives you this dirty look like "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BOTHERING ME!?!?!?!?!"

I've seen crappy wal-marts but I've seen really nice looking wal-marts too, fully stocked and staffed with friendly, helpful people etc....

I fully agree and I wouldn't shop there unless I had no other choice.

I look at mass-chain stores as a double-edged sword.

While they do provide convenience of being able to get several errands one in one place and generally cheaper (yes, I did choose that specific word) - the average employee there is sub-par and is generally paid far less than what someone would be at a Ma&Pa store.

You're sacrificing customer service for lower prices.

You're sacrificing stable jobs with convenience.

IMO this is also one of the causes of our current economic situation. We're spending more (by being capable of buying more at these locations) while far less money is going into the hands of the people who work for these companies (at the customer-facing level). The higher ups then pat themselves on the back for raising revenue, give themselves a big fat bonus while crushing the most important part of the American economy - small businesses.

[AdminAssistant]

I'm from Arkansas. I hate Wal-Mart. I hate their business practices. I hate their corporate greed. And I hate the fact that the few counties where their executives live are extremely affluent while the rest of the state is in extreme poverty. It pisses me off.

Yeah. F*ck Wal-Mart and F*ck the Walton family.

I shop at Target. There's a Super-Target here, and I've been getting most of my groceries there as well...a good many items are cheaper there than at Dillon's. The Wal-Mart here is gross, the cashiers are rude, etc. Target - clean, polite, friendly... Yup.

[Lil Bunny]

We use Wal-Mart but only the newer stores for general supplies. Even then I make sure Hubby is with me because I literally break into hives.

I'd much rather go to Bakers/Kroger or No Frills though. People just seem nicer and less growly. And the coupons/discounts are better 9 times out of 10. And um, not to make this controversial but they aren't exactly pro-union. Working for a union you can see my conundrum.

[calulu]

I refuse to shop at Wal Mart, they pay their staff crappy wages (yeah, 8 dollars an hour is slave wages..), treat them poorly, fire staff for ridiculous reasons and have been known to short people wages, refuse to pay overtime yet require it and sue their employees if they use the Wal mart medical insurance and get a big payout from someone's private insurance. Remember Wal Mart Sues Brain Damaged Woman? Many Wal Mart employees qualify for food stamps.

They advertise that they promote America and American jobs and most of their crap is made in Chinese sweat shops where the workers are paid pittances and put in dangerous working conditions.

They'd been fined by the Dept of Labor and the INS for hiring undocumented workers and LOCKING them into their stores at night to restock, resulting in deaths when one of those stores caught on fire.

They've been proven time and time again to come into a small community, kill off all the small stores and then raise their prices.

None of this takes into account the fact that the stores are usually filthy, the employees ill trained and uncaring and there are never enough damn registers open.

In our town Wal Mart has managed to squash the news that three rapes occurred in their parking lot last summer and a few weeks ago a gang related shooting sent six people to the hospital.

Wal Mart is the summation of all that is meretricious and awful about America!

[SG15Z]

Well I hate my local ones. I've been to one or two ok stores out of the like 30+ I've been to. They're usually filthy (especially the bathrooms) some look pretty run down. All the local ones have been at skeleton staff levels for years now. They're customer service is horrendous. And god forbid they have to call a manager! Seriously their managers take freaking FOREVER to respond to a call.

And everytime I go in after 9pm the lines a SUPER long, usually 5+ carts deep at all lanes. Then at around 10 you can't park anywhere because their are baskets EVERYWHERE!!! And no one is out their grabbing them. Seriously I rarely ever have a good experience at wal mart. In fact I can't remember the last time I went in to grab one item and it didn't me near 15 minutes just to check out (no really I timed it once).

And let's not forget that Wal Mart is like an SC magnet. I've seen more rude, snoby, and impatient customers then anywhereelse. So I like to avoid having to post in the sightings section.

So Target, HEB are my friends. Kroger too I guess.....sometimes. And of course mom&pop stores.

[Ringtail Z28]

My hatred for Wal-Mart comes from my experience from working there. I was frequently working twelve or more hours a day with no breaks and cheated out of overtime pay. And there was the usual being treated like garbage by management. I blame my lack of experience at the time for putting up with that shit.

[blas]

I don't have a problem with Wal-Mart's prices or their employees.....for the most part.

I just hate the general clinetel of most Wal-Marts. I used to call my biweekly venture to Wal-Mart "mullet hunt day"

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I avoid Wally World whenever I can. In my city there's just my store and Wally World and Kohls for shopping. If Target ever decides to build a store here (crosses fingers), Wally World will be completely dead to me and I will be gunning for a job at Target.

A lot of people go out of their way to avoid shopping at Wally World, including a lot of elderly people because the store is so big. That's good and bad for my store.

The fact that I have relatives and good former co-workers working there is the only thing keeping me from saying what I really think of that place. But here's what I will say: The clientele tend to be the absolute lowest common denominator, mullets, stained and ripped old t-shirts, BO and teeth missing. Many of the employees look like total freaks who'd never fit in at my store, and the parking lot is a pothole-filled expanse where El Caminos, ghetto cruisers and fume-belching diesel pickups battle to the death for supremacy, as if that's something to be proud of.

When the store was being remodeled into a supercenter, they told me it would be the biggest supercenter in the state when finished. I though of that as bragging that you have the world's biggest outbreak of crotch lice.

[McGoddess09]

We had one built about 10 min from my house.

This one is actually really nice. It's very clean,well stocked, and the employees are very friendly.

The one we used to go to in the town to the north,in WI, is the stereotypical dirty and unfriendly Walmart.

I always go to the newer one. I never really liked WM until this one.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I have one practically across the street but the few times I've been there I have not been particularly impressed. Many of the aisles were not well-stocked, and/or they were messy and disorganized. The layout is also kind of confusing. In my experience the Target is a much more pleasant place to shop and I usually don't have much problem finding what I need; to me it's worth the extra 10-15 minutes or so of driving. There is a newer WM in the town my parents live in, which was not much better the couple times I went there (and even when I lived with my parents I didn't get down that way too often, anyway). I don't have much of a political stance one way or the other; my parents have a Sam's membership and I do go with them to stock up on certain items (though living in an apartment, I don't have much space for storing extras of stuff so buying most things in bulk doesn't really work for me).

[XCashier]

The WMs in the Phoenix area were all pretty nasty; dirty, disorganized and less-than-safe. I remember some stories of people getting shot at the 19th Avenue WM.

The ones here in Eugene/Springfield are a lot cleaner and better organized, and both customers and employees seem a lot nicer. Whether that's a statement of the individual stores or the cities in which they're located, I can't say.

However, one thing that irks me is when they do their WalMart Cheer. You can see the "oh no, not again" in the employees' eyes. I cringe seeing the overenthusiastic managers leading them into yet another humiliating silly cheer in front of smirking customers.

As desperate as I am to find a job, I really don't think I would consider WM for that very reason. You want me to be loyal to the job? Treat me with respect and common courtesy, adult to adult. Don't condescend me by acting like a combination Kindergarten teacher / dog trainer and coerce me into playing silly parlor games in front of the customers!!!