I'm going shopping at Walmart.
Oh get up off the floor and sit back down in your chair. I know I've been on a personal crusade against Walmart (previously known here as "Mallwart") and I really haven't changed my position too terribly much on the subject, but c'mon, we gotta be real here. It's just a store, right? Okay, sure, most all of their stuff is manufactured in Chinese sweat shops and "shadow factories," and if it wasn't for Walmart the Chinese economy would probably collapse (just made that one up). But the prices at Walmart are cheaper than anywhere else. Aren't they?
Okay, so Walmart stores are huge. I mean huge. The Walmart store I'm going to be going to for the first time in my life is located in West Eugene and is about 4 blocks long. The parking lot could be favorably compared to a major airport's. It's definitely not a place to drop in after work and get a loaf a bread and a gallon of milk. It's a place to go and buy a month's worth of food. I hope it's not all Chinese food.
I'll keep you posted.
2 comments:
I live in a town of 24,000 with three grocery stores. One is a "Walmart Supercenter" the other two are major grocery chains. If your experience is the same as mine, grocery items at Walmart will be 15-30% cheaper. What blows me away is that the other stores are usually pretty busy when I shop there. I know that there are quite a few folks who won't shop at Walmart for a variety of reasons (hiring practices, gender discrimination, poor employee wages). But I don't understand how families could consciously add 20% to their grocery bills each month when struggling to get by or living from paycheck to paycheck.
Books have been written on how Walmart has "perfected" the free market retail business model. I read an article a few years ago how Walmart has almost solely managed to keep product price levels down and is largely responsible for keeping inflation of grocery prices down at the national level. This has sometimes come at the expense of small, local businesses. Despite how it's happened, I'd have a tough time arguing that the average consumer, whose wages have stagnated or declined over the past decade, hasn't benefited from the low prices.
Steve
Thank you Cuz Steve, you make good sense here. I understand everything you say here, Walmart HAS kept prices down, and that's always a good thing. Being a 42 year union member however, has made me hate and fear Walmart's power. It's too big, too powerful, too anti-union for my sensibilities. How musch money do the Walton family need?
Post a Comment