so dad and i are checkinng out........

[BrewMaster]

$20 is $20. i'll take it. congratualtions on the lucky sale.

[Speedfreak]

Wow.. there was actually a "violent" game to be found at Walmart?

[Kevster]

That's almost as good as Merlin's $300 Sony 5-CD Player that rang up as $30 at Circuit City (happened in 1992, but it's still a good story)...

As BrewMaster said, $20 is $20 - congrats :thumb:

[leemaj]

walmart sets itself up in some rural communities, and shuts down the entire downtown because of their cheaper pices, then walmart decides that the store is underperforming and the profits arent high enough, so it closes it down, and the people have to drive out to the next walmsrt 20 miles away to get stuff. before walmart they just walked down the street to downtown, but walmart screwed everyone over.

[NuTs62]

hey, at least you have a Walmart near by. The closest one I know about is around 40 miles away.

[Nija]

i don't have a walmart nearby, i think the closest one is down in orange county, about 45 minutes away... so walmart can kiss my anal tulips

[Nija]

ewww going somewhere to shop.. invovles interacting with people... something that is not exactly my specialty....

[oblongmelon]

Originally posted by cpugeek04
well, its not really close, like 30 miles

were you at the VESTAL walmart? because I was there too picking up a new NIC. wow-you must have been that geeky kid I saw there! ;)

[whitak24]

Originally posted by leemaj
walmart sets itself up in some rural communities, and shuts down the entire downtown because of their cheaper pices, then walmart decides that the store is underperforming and the profits arent high enough, so it closes it down, and the people have to drive out to the next walmsrt 20 miles away to get stuff. before walmart they just walked down the street to downtown, but walmart screwed everyone over.
you have some valid points, leemaj.

however, i don't think i've ever seen a closed walmart store in my life. i'm sure there are some here and there, but basically walmart does EXTREMELY good market research and when they put in a store, it's probably there to stay.

do they drive small businesses into the ground? definitely. is this bad? well, it's bad for the people who owned the businesses. but it's good for all the consumers who no longer have to pay high prices and receive the poor service typical of small stores in hicktowns (and believe me, i grew up in a redneck town where walmart dropped in 10 years ago, so i know of what i speak).

some would argue that walmart is furthering the corporatization and homogenization of american culture as it wipes out unique, local businesses. they also claim that it is destroying the close-knit sense of community that people feel from shopping in an "old-fashioned" downtown area. but believe me, where i grew up, walmart became community central. you cannot go to the freaking walmart without running into people you know -- friends or extended family working there, high school classmates, parents of your old friends.....it basically serves to remind you what a small town you're in, where no one has anything better to do than go to walmart.

so before you bash walmart, think about the opportunities that they are bringing and not just the overpriced stores that they are putting out of business

[Napoleon54]

Originally posted by whitak24

do they drive small businesses into the ground? definitely. is this bad? well, it's bad for the people who owned the businesses. but it's good for all the consumers who no longer have to pay high prices and receive the poor service typical of small stores in hicktowns (and believe me, i grew up in a redneck town where walmart dropped in 10 years ago, so i know of what i speak).


It's been my experience that the service at Walmart sucks donkey nuts. All of their employees are minimum wage with no specific knowledge about a damn thing. I challenge you: go to the electronics section and ask an employee how to operate one of the cameras, DVD players, or anything else on display. I guarantee they won't know dick. Much Walmart's merchandise is substandard as well. Walmart has one goal: to offer the lowest price. They strive towards that goal at the expense of everything else, especially quality. Walmart buys their merchanise in very large quantities and piles it in a warehouse until it is needed. That toaster oven or cordless drill on display has probably been sitting around for several years. On multiple occasions I've seen discontinued items being sold at Walmart. The surge in Walmart's popularity in recent years is a blatant indicator that we as consumers are willing to sacrifice quality and service in order to save a measily dollar or two. Are we whores to a cheaper price? Are we really that shallow and manipulatable? Apparently so.

F*** Walmart.

[mojo]

i went to walmart the other day. my initial impression from another time i went was that i didn't like it. that's when they had just opened a couple years back. when i went again last week, i thought they had poor selection and pretty high prices (i was looking for a shredder) compared to target.

[mcs328]

I like WM...but I prefer Target. A few years ago I heard that Walmart can offer cheap stuff b/c none of their employees and managers are full time, they are hourly and no benefits (401k, medical & dental insurance, etc). Basically very low overhead.

[johnnymk]

We have every conceivable department store that you can imagine around here. Walmart is the last place I would go, even though it is constantly mobbed(with Rednecks). I hate waiting in line, therefore I avoid it like the plague.
They do have good deals on car batteries and Spam, though.

[whitak24]

Originally posted by Napoleon54


It's been my experience that the service at Walmart sucks donkey nuts. All of their employees are minimum wage with no specific knowledge about a damn thing. I challenge you: go to the electronics section and ask an employee how to operate one of the cameras, DVD players, or anything else on display. I guarantee they won't know dick. Much Walmart's merchandise is substandard as well. Walmart has one goal: to offer the lowest price. They strive towards that goal at the expense of everything else, especially quality. Walmart buys their merchanise in very large quantities and piles it in a warehouse until it is needed. That toaster oven or cordless drill on display has probably been sitting around for several years. On multiple occasions I've seen discontinued items being sold at Walmart. The surge in Walmart's popularity in recent years is a blatant indicator that we as consumers are willing to sacrifice quality and service in order to save a measily dollar or two. Are we whores to a cheaper price? Are we really that shallow and manipulatable? Apparently so.

F*** Walmart.
i agree with most of your points. of course there employees are idiots. like Fury pointed out, i don't go shopping for hangers hoping to find an employee who can describe for me the advantages of plastic vs. wire. i go shopping for the lowest price.
am i going to buy clothes there? no. am i going to buy electronics there? not usually (although i got a good deal on a TV there). but for household items, etc, walmart is 10-20% cheaper than any other store around me. and for that, i'm willing to put up with stupid employees.

besides, i've never had any problem with taking anything back at walmart. once, i bought trash bags that were smaller than i wanted. i had already opened them and used a couple. but walmart still took it back. that's what i consider good customer service, not the ability of some employee to explain computers to me (i know of few stores where there are employees who could actually tell me something meaningful in that department).

the simple facts: on most occasions walmart will sell the identical item for less than what kmart, meijer, or target will sell it for. this isn't people giving up "quality and service in order to save a measily dollar or two". the quality is the same (identical items) and the service is equally bad at all stores like that. the only difference is the price, and quite frankly, i'd rather pay less.