Wally World Woes
 

I was reading this NYT article that kept making me chuckle so here it is.



Link

I have yet to visit one of these stores and I guess that has been a good move on my part. :p


Carl

I avoid them as much as I can.

Whenever I go to the one near my house I feel like I'm in a third world country.

It's a pig sty.

The floors are always dirty, the parking lot is full of trash, and the shopping carts are rusty and the wheels on them are all worn out so that they roll like a car with four flat tires.

Good man Carl. I wouldn't spend my last dollar in one of those stores, even if they were selling filet mignon for fifty cents a pound.

I avoid going into one of their stores, nor do I see a pressing need.

I think most intelligent people with a decent income would avoid going to Wall Mart, considering the damage it's done to the US retail landscape, increased taxes and reduced wages across the country.

But I also understand why they have such a large base. It takes a middle class income to shop Kroger et al, and half the country ain't got that luxury. (and even Kroger meat ain't that good. I use a local butcher and fish shop, prices are about the same but the quality is 100% better)

I cannot speak to Wally's food prices, but my daughter claims they are low at Wally's and that is the only way she can put food on the table. My son works there in the pharmacy. He says it's an OK place to work but they have way more tasks than employees so it's a stress.

And the Waltons, don't they collectively clear more than 7 billion dollars a year?

Meanwhile, here in Kansas traditional retail is slowly closing shop and they just opened a 4th Wall Mart in my town. That my town only has 120,000 residents is very telling.

I don't even know where their stores are and I really do not want to know.

Here, Target is right across the street. The store is (relatively) clean and well organized. The prices are higher, but I don't care......because the Walton Family slums parking lot has become a hangout for gangbangers. We've had all sorts of lovely things take place there; car theft, rape........

Which strikes me as odd, because the friggin' place has more surveillance equipment than the NSA. The roof looks inhabited by a flock of one-eyed electronic vultures. They're probably too cheap to hire anyone to actually use the stuff.

Dave

I used to do about 1/2 my grocery shopping there, and the other half at Publix which is a really great grocery store. Then, being a number cruncher at heart I started to compare prices with the idea in mind that if the savings on an item at Wally World was less than 10% cheaper than Publix I would buy it at Publix.

What I found was that the actual price differentials were almost always far less than 10%, and sometimes Publix even beat Wally World. Right now the only item that I can save 10% on is Duncan Doughnuts French Vanilla Coffee.

It's $13.48 for the big bag at Wally's and $15.99 at Publix. That's 15%.

But other items are much closer in price., Take butter. Today Publix had Lake O Lakes Butter on sale at 2 for $7.00. Land O Lakes, that's the good stuff! At Wally World their nasty Great Value is 2 for $6.94.

So I can go to a nice clean store with plenty of friendly helpful employees and no fucking "self service" checkout lanes (God I HATE those!) and get Land O Lakes butter for $3.50 a pound.

Or I can go to that crowded nasty Walmart and get their nasty Great Value Butter for 3 cents less a pound. No contest.

Sam Walton is rolling in his grave.

I hate Walmart. I only go there to mount and balance my tires. That's all labor so we keep it more or less, and they install the tires, actually check the lug nut torque, drive it in a figure 8 and the manager has to re-check the torque.

Pete