What I did Saturday & why I don't shop Wal-Mart!

[mixfinder]

Where's the Cachet

I have been in Walmart a couple times. I don't get it. Nothing is obviously cheaper, the store is usually dirty, you have to park miles out and the line at check out is always long. To save 2 cents on a bottle of Suave shampoo isn't worth it. Locally, I wonder where the people are when they aren't at Walmart. They seem to be the same ones who ride Greyhound, use laundramats and shop at Wal-mart. Not very nice, not very smart, not very patient, notvery well dressed and frankly Too Much in all the wrong ways.
Kelly

 

[tolivac]

I hate Wall-Mart--Wall Mart is BAD for me!!I do only go there maybe twice a year-and thats to get the Carnation Malt mix for my Vita-Mix,and Blendtec drinks.Thats it.Now if some other store sold the Malt powder-I wouldn't even go to Wally-World" at all.And with Cybrvanr's experience with the battery-I will not go there for any car parts.some folks call them "Getto-Mart" that name fits!!If only they would clean up their stores and get better USA made products-there would be hope for them.Too bad Target doesn't have a food section and carry the Carnation Malt mix.Kroger used to have it.Winn Dixie used to have it-but they closed down the beautiful store they used to have here.

 

[nurdlinger]

Sometimes WalMart is the only place

WalMart sells a private-labeled blood glucose test device for under $10. The test strips (where the money is, like razor blades) cost half of what other brands' strips cost. The meter performance is good as it is some real brand underneath. Buying strips is the single sole reason I ever go to WalMart. You can pay for the things at the pharmacy register and not have to wait in the long checkout lines.

 

[oxydolfan1]

I think the price differential here in the New York metropolitan area might be a little more pronounced.

I can't honestly say I buy a lot of health and beauty-aids type items, but I do buy their diet soda! The Sam's choice brand is 58 cents a bottle, unlimited, tastes good, and I do stock up....supermarket brands aren't nearly as good, and Pepsi runs 79 cents-$1.19 on sale, maximum four bottles, regular price $1.49....so it adds up. I'll buy "George" slacks, sweatshirts, socks, and the like....the stuff isn't bad compared to everything else out there, and the cost savings are substantial. For plain-vanilla type music and supplies for my light sculptures, I wouldn't buy anywhere else. Their small electronics are horrendous, but I'm told the new ILO LCD television sets represent very good value, and I'd buy one if I needed another set. Probably the biggest savings I realize is gardening tools and flowering perennials, bushes, etc. The nurseries in northern New Jersey are very expensive, and believe it or not, the Walmart stuff never dies on me!

The sales associates in Secaucus range from surprisingly helpful to just okay, but better than in other Walmarts, and I get around the customers jabbering by wearing my Walkman earphones and listening to music while shopping.

Not nuts over their laundry products selection...I'd rather hit Costco for that.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but, to a certain extent, WalMart works for me.

 

[chachp]

I won't shop any WalMart unless I am under court order..

...and I live in Arkansas! I'll take Target any day.

I hate WalMart!! As has been stated here enough times, the Customer Service does not exist. I don't get the greeter at all! What's the point when the rest of the service is so bad?

We used to have self checkout and the newer WalMart closest to my house and that helped but they took them out. I asked one of the clerks why they took it out and she said it was because they had too many complaints. Don't know what that meant. I haven't shopped there since.

I find better prices at Kroger for most of my groceries. I used to buy my produce at Sam's and really liked it but we now live about 30 miles from the closest Sam's so I shop at the Kroger 2 blocks from our house.

 

[jamiel]

Tolivac: (I think) you've got a wonderful supermarket in Greenville--Harris Teeter--why don't you ask them to get you in some of the malt powder and not bother with WM?

 

[peterh770]

There are soooooo many other stores in the ATL area that one can successfully avoid just about all big box stores. Walmarts are always cramped to me, Targets are too spread out, and KMarts you are never quite sure what you are going to find there.

 

[whirlcool]

I have two Wal Marts within 5 miles of my home, one east and one west. The one to the east was nice when we moved here in 2001, now it is trashed out, dirty and nasty. You can find tons of fast food wrappers, car seat boxes and even television boxes strewn all over the parking lot. The aisles inside the store have merchandise laying all over the place. This one seems to be the favourite for all of our local minorities and red necks. As Jason has said this one has 30 check out lanes, but never more that 6 or 8 are manned at any given time. And if you go in there after 8pm there may only be 2 or three checkout lanes open. The thing this place has is that it is directly between the airport and my home so it is very convenient to pick up something on the way home. One funny thing though is that if I am just coming in from a trip and I am still wearing my uniform little kids in there will follow me around staring. And some times a checkout clerk will even ask me if I am really a pilot!
So I take off the Wings and epulets before I go in there now.
Now the Wal-Mart to the west is another story. It has been open about three years. It only has two manned checkouts and a ton of self checkout machines. The store is clean as well as the parking lot. But you also dont see many minorities in this store anyway. I guess they prefer to be waited on then using the self checkout machine.
What we have found is that Wal-Mart does have lower prices on some items, but my wife said that you really have to know your prices as some things are higher than your normal food stores like Krogers. I guess they have to make their money somewhere.
Last time I was in the one to the east I looked at some of the cutomers. Jeesh, lots of grossly overweight mamas in there. And if you look, the entire family if fat. Papa, Mama, and all the kids are very overweight. And if you look in their shopping carts you will see tons of junk foods and TV dinners and very few vegtables and fruits. I even saw one woman who was at least a 300 pounder wearing white Spandex pants with those little shoes that dont have any backs on them and a powder puff on the front. You usually see ladies of the evening wearing them.
Also you see tons of fat people using the battery powered carts in the store. I am not so sure all of them need these. I think some of ther people using them may just be too lazy to walk.

 

[hoover1060]

OMG!!! what a story!!

I have a Walmart 5 minutes from my house, and another across the parking lot from work. Both very convienent, but I seldom shop either one. I also pass by a Target going to/from work so I stop there, ONLY if I have to...
About the only things I buy in those stores would be deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, and dog food.
Jack eats regular Purina Beneful, Wal Mart is the cheapest for a 20 pound bag.

Cyber I give you credit for your patience, I would have gone stark raving, screaming nuts on those people!!

 

[neptunebob]

We're getting two Wal Marts in our area and so far it's been quite a story.

I live east of Pittsburgh and soon, ground will be broken for a Wal Mart three miles from me, on what used to be a mini golf course and a farm. Some businesses are trying to fight it but looks to be a done deal. All of the roads leading to the area, which are now two lane country roads, will have to be expanded and now there will be a chaos bin of traffic.

The other Wal Mart site, west of the city, may have made the national news. This area, which used to be the site of a state mental hospital that was closed for 20 years, has been the site of a major landslide that closed off a major highway and national railroad lines. When this happened, trains were backed all the way to Harrisburg and Columbus, both 200 miles away. It took three weeks to clean up the slide and open part of the road and railroad. Turns out that this land is still unstable and probably not a good place for any development. Probably the best thing for Wal Mart to do would be to donate the land for use as a natural park area and find another location for Wal Mart, but no, they want that location. All of this for just another place to spend money.

I have to admit though, we do shop Sam's Club and I have gone to Wal Mart for things that can't be wrong like motor oil, light bulbs, tennis balls, but would never buy clothes there. And yes, people are fat and as I will explain, Wal Mart can be unsafe!

I do clerical work for a hospital and type emergency room reports and have found that several people have been shoved, tripped, and pushed aside and ended up in the emergency room becuase another customer just had to get a bargain at Wal Mart. Several of these people have been the employees, who have customers pull them and shove them away to get a bargain. Yes, saving money can be tough!

 

[DADoES]

Wal-Mart has been here for more than 20 years. The original store closed and a 24-hr Super Center opened two years ago. It's stocked fairly well, clean, doesn't seem cramped, and is VERY convenient for me to drop in @ 2 AM. I've rarely had any customer service issues. Occasionally I have to wait a few mins for the cashier to come up from doing whatever other chores she has to do in the wee-morn hrs. The security alarm caught me several times on DVDs that didn't have the strip deactivated correctly, and once was on a package of razor blades. I've stopped trying to use the self-checkout lanes as something usually goes wrong, but that's no big deal.

There's no Target or K-Mart here. A Walgreens opened earlier this year. I've been in the store once, bought a bottle of no-flush niacin tablets that was double the price @ WM (WM was out at the time), and a couple cans of almonds on sale. Other than "convenience" stores, there's only one other grocery. It's a new store, but seems more cramped and crowded than WM and often rearranges the shelves making finding things an adventure and an irritation. And it closes @ 11 PM. I do shop there regularly, mostly for my grandmother, but the majority of my personal buys are at WM. The grocery does have better produce than WM and a larger variety of package sizes for meats.

 

[volvoguy87]

I value my time and sanity, so I avoid Wal-Mart

I restore antique electric fans in my spare time and at one point I needed to buy some grease for a 1925 GE. I got in my car and headed out to Home Depot (close enough to Wal-Mart for the purposes of thi story). Before I got to the Home Depot, I thought: What the heck am I doing? If I go to Home Depot, I will have to battle heavy traffic across town, park in their huge parking lot, walk across the HUGE parking lot to the HUGE store, treck across the store until I find the proper section, then hope to find an employee. Hopefully that employee will be able to find another employee who knows something which will help me determine the correct grease I need to buy. Once I have my, hopefully correct, grease, I will have to treck back across the store to the checkout lanes, wait in line, treck across the parking lot to my car, and fight the traffic home across town again. Rather than accept this inconvenience, I went to the little mom & pop hardware store (J.E. Rice Hardware in Manassas, VA). From the time I parked my car to the time I drove off was under 5 minutes, I got the right grease whith great customer service. It cost a few cents more than Home Depot, but the service, speed, and accuracy was worth it.

Good customer service can never be over-appreciated,
Dave

 

[jasonl]

Looks like everyone except Glenn hates Ghetto-Mart. At least their gas is cheap.

 

[DADoES]

For some oddball reason, I don't buy gas for the car @ WM, but I typically do for the lawn mower. Well, maybe it's 'cause I typically fill the car at 2 AM or thereabouts and WM shuts off their canopy lights earlier. Buc-ee's next door doesn't.

Last time I got lawn-mower gas @ WM I filled the 5-gal tank, loaded it back in the car and went to pay cash at the attendant. Moseying on up to the window, I reach around back for my wallet, and it wasn't there. No cash, no credit card. Eeeeeeek. I told my sob-story to the attendant, and she trusted me to go home and get the cash (which is just a mile or so up the road from the store). She was laughing when I got back. I could have left the 5-gal can there for "collateral" but I don't imagine she knew I had filled that and not the car.

 

[jasonl]

The WM gas stations (Murphy Oil by the way, the same company that flooded our houses with oil during Katrina) have stickers on their pumps "No Prepayment required, we trust you". Huh???? Then right close to it is a sign "You are being recorded by a video surveillance system". Must be some kind of setup.