What do you think of Walmart?

bigmck · 25 Jan 2011

smarteyeball said:

I'd prefer the more personal service of smaller shops with the low prices of a mega monster.

But you can't have it both ways.

When I go into Walmart or Home Depot it is always hard to find help. That would not be the case with a Mom & Pop. You just have to remember that you are getting a much better price and the convenience of everything at one place. == I recently had to buy ten washers (the round things with holes in the middle). Instead of driving a bit further to Home Depot, I stopped at a near hardware store (Mom & Pop). Ten washers cost me $3.29. I could have gotten them for half of that at Home Depot.

Fantail · 25 Jan 2011

Meanwhile in America, Walmart has fired my son in law because of an issue completely outside the scope of the workplace. But they don't want to tarnish their image.

pparks1 · 25 Jan 2011

bigmck said:

I find this thread about the "Mom & Pop stores" rather interesting. I am curious to know, if there was a "Mom & Pop" and Walmart with equal products but Walmart had a better price, would you really pay more just because you want the "Mom & Pops" to exist.I doubt if there are many that would. Not me, I value the dollar too much.

This is somewhat hard to answer. For example, I'm really into Radio Control cars. The hobby grade versions, not the toy versions. So, stores like Walmart don't sell the type of vehicles that I use. However, online retailers like Tower Hobby sell the same thing that my local hobby shop has. Now, typically I find that a new car kit might be $299 at Tower Hobby and $329 at the local hobby shop. My preference is to pay the extra $29 to the local hobby shop as they are where I go to get parts instantly when I break something and I don't have it available. If I were to exclusively buy all my stuff at Tower, the local shop would go out of business and then I wouldn't have the ability to get stuff instantly when I need it.

I'm also into biking. I'd rather stop in my local bike shop and support the people who are true biking fanatics and always work hard to provide great service than to buy all of my bike parts from a mega retailer like Walmart who turns over staff on a very regular basis.

Sure, at the end of the day...I pay a bit more...but I have local stores that I trust.

Years ago, we used to have lots of Mom&Pop computer stores and I could get nearly everything locally. However, with the proliferation of NewEgg and Tiger and everything else online, nearly every single local Mom&Pop computer shop is now gone. With the exception of Best Buy, Office Max and Office Depot...I have to more or less buy all of my computer parts (cases, motherboards, RAM, video cards, etc) from online retailers because there are no other alternatives in my area any longer. So, I have to wait 2-3 days for shipping and returns take 5-10 days versus just walking into the store and walking right back out with part in hand.

Dzomlija · 25 Jan 2011

Fantail said:

Meanwhile in America, Walmart has fired my son in law because of an issue completely outside the scope of the workplace. But they don't want to tarnish their image.

Sort of like I got fired from Dynax for upholding company policy of "always putting the customer first".

He purchased memory from me, and several WEEKS later he had a problem. So I exchange it for him. And the boss fired me because I exchanged the item beyond the normal 7 days after date of sale.

So what am I supposed to have done? Have a customer that spends close to R25000 a month sit without a computer for nearly 5 weeks while we determine whether or not the memory was faulty before we make an exchange?

The little guys always gets the raw end of the deal, and the bosses get more money.

And never mind the fact that at it's most basic level, money is absolutely pointless. But that's a subject for another day...

smarteyeball · 25 Jan 2011

bigmck said:

When I go into Walmart or Home Depot it is always hard to find help. That would not be the case with a Mom & Pop. You just have to remember that you are getting a much better price and the convenience of everything at one place.

Our version of Home Depot is Bunnings, with stores so large you need a GPS just to navigate the aisles. Finding help is also very problematic there too.

The irony is that about the only thing you can't obtain at these places is help. Knowledgeable help is even rarer.

== I recently had to buy ten washers (the round things with holes in the middle). Instead of driving a bit further to Home Depot, I stopped at a near hardware store (Mom & Pop). Ten washers cost me $3.29. I could have gotten them for half of that at Home Depot.

Knowing that you can obtain the same item for less can be irritating - but sometimes the trade off is worth it.

The new trend here are 'Home Maker Centres' - a massive area of land that usually has one dominate store ie Bunnings, and the rest are all the other 'speciality' stores designed to facilitate consumer needs like Electrical/White Goods, Furniture, Automotive, Groceries etc.

Personally I can't stand these places and will avoid them as much as possible.

The same goes for the adopted idea of 'mega malls'. On one hand it is convenient to have a 'one stop shop'. On the other - it's incredibly inconvenient. (Fighting for parking, fighting through hordes of people, suffering exhaustion simply traversing from one end of a complex to the other

)

For 'cheaper' items I sometimes don't really mind paying a little extra to go somewhere smaller, local and more easily accessible.

But for 'expensive items' ie TV's, furniture etc I personally can't justify the extra cost to shop at local independent places that more often than not have older stock at much higher prices than the 'speciality stores' that have the latest at much lower prices.

Price and 'convenience' really is a dual edged sword.

mickey megabyte · 25 Jan 2011

DeVandal said:

Wal-Mart wields sufficient purchase and pricing power to crush competitors. Competition creates differences in service and product quality.

There is a funny website re: people seen at Wal-Mart.

thehappyman · 25 Jan 2011

whs said:

bigmck said:

I find this thread about the "Mom & Pop stores" rather interesting. I am curious to know, if there was a "Mom & Pop" and Walmart with equal products but Walmart had a better price, would you really pay more just because you want the "Mom & Pops" to exist. I doubt if there are many that would. Not me, I value the dollar too much.

Good point. It is not the big stores that kill the little stores - it is us consumers.

No, it the Government ruining the economy

pacinitaly · 26 Jan 2011

the worst company in theworld.