Americans & Wal-Mart

Salisbury Daily Times ^ | Monday, March 3, 2003 | Jim Hopkins -- USA Today

[jaysgal]

Wow ! I went from a MI Rally organizer to a commie lover in record time! I really don't see how buying diapers and groceries at WalMart makes me responsible for the abortions in China. I've got four kids, am a stay-at-home mom and have to watch my pennies so I can continue to stay with them. I choose to shop at WalMart because they support people in my community. My shopping habits are not going to change human rights violations around the world.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Walton is turning in his grave. His motto was buy America It now should be renamed The great wall-mart of china

That's what I thought. In the beginning everything or most of their products were suppose to be American made. Talk about changing direction.

[Protagoras]

The mom and pop stores are really charming until you want a selection of good products at fair prices.

[xsrdx]

I see the American public shopping at WalMart as revealing themselves to be cheap children of unwed parents.

Wal Mart is the Devil.

Of course, when it comes to staples and 95% of everything else Americans buy, they have the largest selection at the lowest cost. You can rant about "chinese" product and "low wages" ALL DAY, but Tide is Tide, Valvoline is Valvoline, and a Remington Shotgun is a Remington Shotgun - regardless of WHERE you buy it.

Local businesses can survive Wal Mart, but they have to offer stuff Wal Mart does not - pretty much anything that doesn't sell in enormous volumes nationwide.

Wal Mart is one stop shopping, they are RELENTLESSY profit driven, and that scares a lot of so called "capitalists".

I don't like shopping at Wal Mart much, but until somebody comes along with MORE STUFF at COMPETITIVE prices, I will continue to be a customer, even as I buy my clothing, jewelry, electronics and other "luxe" consumer goods elsewhere.

[freddy]

The ONLY returns that get put back on the shelf are returns to the Mom and Pop stores...

Walmart and all the biggies, sell the returns to a clearing house that
sells them to swap meet/flea market dealers by the pallet full/truck load...

Walmart and the big stores can not take the time to re-tag, check for operation,
re-price, etc.. of the massive amount of returns they have...

[TomB]

What items in the store, that aren't available at other stores (like brand name electronics), are made in China? "Almost everything" isn't an answer.

And what store do you suggest we shop at?

[discostu]

All the anti-vacinationists gone into hybernation? Stuck slumming in the "evil Wal-Mart" threads?

[Xenalyte]

I will admit that this was in the late '80s, so policy may have changed. (Lord, I hope so.)

[The Iguana]

I like to think of it as China-Mart.

[HighRoadToChina]

So you would be a product made in Nazi Germany, made by Jews! Good for you. </sarcasm>

[Wolfie]

Your last post made no sense. Try breaking the pills in half.

[HighRoadToChina]

"since its not illegal to import Chinese made goods, its a moot point."

It's illegal to import slave labor goods--something the US Customs isn't doing, because they don't come with a label that says, "Made by Chinese Slave Labor".

[Wolfie]

Gosh, have you notified the Bush administration? I'm sure he'll get right on, after the election, of course.

[HighRoadToChina]

Would you buy diapers made by Jews in Nazi Concentration camps?

[Johnny Gage]

If you don't want to shop there, don't.

I agree with this.
Around here, the Wal-Mart closest to us is open 24 hrs.
That comes in REALLY handy at 2am and you need OTC meds for a sick child or something like that.

[Protagoras]

Trade Union member?

[HighRoadToChina]

Freedom fighter!

[Blue Collar Christian]

You vote with your dollar. I respect that.

When you buy your Remington shotgun at WalMart, and your shotshells at WalMart, don't cry when your WalMart becomes like the one in Panorama City here in the SanFernandoValley that does not sell guns or ammo at all. You then try to go down to your local gunshop to buy the products they carry just to see that a new grocery store occupies the building.

Support WalMart, and it will always be there. Of course, it will still be there if you don't support it either, because other shortsighted consumers will keep supporting WalMart. When all you need are massively consumed items that WalMart has chosen to market, and you don't want or need specialty items that the shops now out of business carried in addition to the products you bought at WalMart that allowed them to stay in business, that is fine.

If I buy my Valvoline oil and Fram filter at WalMart, should I expect the local parts store that needed that volume to make payroll to be just thrilled to stay open and sell me a waterpump?

Nobody holds a gun to consumers' heads to make them buy what and where they prefer. The source and quality of a product are determined by the consumer. That is the only control.

By the looks of things to me, WalMart will be the proverbial company store in 20 years.

[HighRoadToChina]

Go take a hike. Go and coddle with the dictators of Beijing and go shopping at Walmart.

[Protagoras]

Shop in WalMart, help a Nazi/Commie/terrorist.