Posted on 08/15/2013 12:48:39 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
I don’t find buying food there is such a bargain anymore. Even summertime fruits and veggies are higher priced overall compared to years gone by. People are just buying less it seems and Wally World is not excluded anymore.
It is easy, good products at good price.
The Free Republic myth is that walmart = china. That is ignorance and class fear speaking
Walmart is the best business in the country an much of the world.
I agree. I ask myself if it is worth a $2 dollar savings to go to Walmart and the answer is most often no.
We switched to Walgreens for prescriptions because it is a nightmare to get one at Walmart.
I lived in Seattle before I moved to rural central KY in 2011. In seattle, pretty much every non-food item we purchased was purchased from Craigslist, garage sales or estate sales.
Then we moved to a definitely lower income part of the country. We noticed an odd thing, and another guy that moved here from an afluent metropolitan area actually mentioned the same thing:
People are almost giving stuff away in the city area because used is, well, used. A $25 item with minor wear can sometimes be had for a buck or two. But in more “poor” areas, EVERYBODY sees this as a main source of non-food merchandise. It means two things:
1. Because the area is lower income, there isn’t much useful stuff at the sales. People are not quick to dump stuff just because it has lost its luster to them.
2. Because they are less likely to part with it, they are less likely to put a “I’d rather sell it cheap than take it to the dump” attitude.
3. As I mentioned above, everybody is on to trying to get deals at these sales, making it a seller’s market.
The result? They are pretty much a waste of time for us. Not only is the quality usually poor, but the prices are so high that often you can get the stuff new at a lower price. And forget about getting cool stuff like vinyl LP’s at a bargain or mid-century hi-fi equipment for cheap. It rarely exists and when it does you would think the guy hid his gold coin stash in it.
But if you live in a city, the best way to go galt with your spending is through estate sales, followed by Craigslist and, finally, goodwill or garage sales.
I’ve only been to WalMart 4 or 5 times in my life because it’s a 20-minute drive and I can get pretty good prices with a 30-second drive to my local store. However, I never found WalMart particularly “annoying.”
Now I am in central KY and, unless you want to drive for an hour, Wal-Mart is where you shop. It is very clean, very friendly, and it is a meeting place for all classes. We meet someone we know every time we go. Their meat section is awesome. We still hit the Costco in Louisville every month, but the Wal-Mart’s are here are great.
The trick is to avoid the place the first five or so days of the month. Let the riff-raff spend their welfare money and show up after that. And there are a LOT of them here in central KY.
People have given up looking for ammo there.
I think it is a disaster only because it is proof that our economy is in the dumps. If, as we are constantly being told, the economy is getting better then their earnings would have been up.
I have been house hunting for my son lately and the prices are comparable to when I was house hunting for him in 1996 and I swear every 4th house is for sale.
I refuse to put more effort into spending my money than it took to make it, and I’ve got a pretty koosh job. Also probably doesn’t help I grew up poor and dirty over packed stores were the order of the day. I do my bigbox shopping at Target, not much more expensive, much much more pleasant.
Oh man, you just brought back some good memories.
My mom was an administrator at a place that hired adults with disabilities to do all manor of jobs that required all kinds of tools. The place would contract out their labor force so they would constantly need tools to fit the jobs they took. So the Snap-On man would stop once a week.
My grandpa was a tool and die maker and volunteered at the place as a foreman and he and mom would get really good deals on Snap-On tools because the place bought so much from the Snap-On salesman.
I got loads of good tools dirt cheap and got to hang with grandpa as we perused the Snap-On guy's wares. The Snap-On guy really liked grandpa because they both knew their tools well and both had worked in the tool and die trade.
I really miss that. It was the highlight of my week back then!
I don’t really care about the China thing, because I know that stuff is everywhere. I just don’t like being there, too hard to navigate, too loud, too long in the checkout.
Their profit margin is razor thin; their business model hinges upon blowing huge amounts of merchandize through the stores, so a tiny decline has a big effect.
The Free Republic myth is that walmart = china.
Remember that decline is same store year over year, NOT whole institution. The way they keep spawning stores it could just be a matter of self poaching. Or again, it could be more people are making more money and deciding they don’t like WalMart.
A .3 % decline does reflect any retail price increases over the year....so in reality....it’s more like 2 or 3 % decline...******
That’s the thing. These are numbers that aren’t adjusted for inflation. The truth is, the economy isn’t growing and is in reality contracting. That’s the reason there are 7 million fewer full time jobs now than in ‘07 and personal incomes are collapsing.
The consumer is 70% of the economy so things aren’t going to get much better for WalMart or anyone else soon. Well, that’s assuming you’re not a TBTF bank that has access to the $85 bill/month in free base.
How annoying it is depends upon the customers, and that depends upon the particular location. The experience at some stores is like a flea market in Guatemala, while at others it is like shopping at a nice clean supermarket. A big one.
But they’re always expanding, so same store sales dropping could easily be self poaching. Then of course there’s been tales of them having supply chain problem, a drop in sales could very well be the result of not having the items to sell. Trying to declare the whole economy toast because WalMart got a bit of gas is a stretch.
Prior ot being really old and diabetic, two of my favorites were Sam’s Choice Chocolate, from Belgium and tinned butter cookies from Denmark.
Walmart purchasers buy stuff consumers want from many nations.
The stock market is predicated on earnings *growth*. Basically it wants things to grow to the sky like Jack and his beanstalk. Sooner or later growth levels off or stops and the stock market throws a hissy fit.
“...after being so brutally vilified ...”
I guess that shows just how much us regular folks DON’T listen to the aforementioned excretia.
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