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Say NO NO NO to Wal-Mart!!!
On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 10:54:02 -0500, (RJ) wrote:
Doug Kanter wrote:
My point was that WalMart
grew as big as it is because it satisfied shoppers. When a better or
more interesting concept comes along, it will grow at the expense of
WalMart.
That's what's so odd: There IS no concept at Wal Mart. :-) If you believe
there is, can you describe or name it?
A store with most of the mundane things you need day to day to run your
household. One stop to buy a wide variety of things. Open late, as
much as 24/7. How is that not a concept?
Yes! I shop Walmart mostly after midnight. It is the only place open when
I am able to shop during the busy season which has nearly all the things
I need, at prices much lower than other 24 hour stores.
Last time I was there, I bought groceries, some work shirts, and a stand
fan for my welding shop. The latter (same Chinese made fan) was $199 in
the MSC catalog, $99 in the Harbor Freight sale catalog, and $69 off the
shelf at the local Walmart. I can't ignore that sort of price difference, or
the immediacy and convenience of getting it when I need it.
Walmart doesn't sell everything I need, and it doesn't always have the
best price, but it has many of the things I need, the prices are always
reasonable (sometimes exceptional, see fan), and it is *open* when I
have time to shop. The latter is one of the most important factors to me.
I stopped shopping at the downtown stores about 25 years ago. They
were never open when it was convenient for me to shop, parking was
always a hassle, and their prices were always high. Mail order, and
Walmart, have been the solution to all of those issues.
As far as what Walmart pays its employees, Walmart isn't holding a
gun to their heads and forcing them to work at Walmart. Last I looked,
this is still a free country. If people don't think Walmart pays them a
fair wage, they don't have to work there. We're always begging for
farm labor, and there's a chronic shortage of construction laborers.
It isn't light work in a clean air conditioned box store, but no one is
guaranteed a high paying job as a box store clerk.
Gary
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