POLL: The evil that is WalMart.

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Same happens here, and is in all kind of busines, like Zara, Burberry, etc.; I work in a Burberry's brand and I see everyday how it works, we have 6 stores in 200 mts (one for boys, one for girls, one for woman, and so on) and there are also another stores around but you can see always 10 customers at Burberrys and sometimes 1 or 2 on the others.
Same is happening with El Corte Ingles, a mega store which started selling clothes as competition with Zara and Burberry and now is a mega store that sells from fruits to trips to the Caribean. Now opened another hiper-mega-store, adding stuff like the one Ikea sells. So, you think Ikea is going down? I think no, because almost every people bought something on Ikea and seems that they like so they will keep buying there.

 

I also forgot to mention this...

Here in UT, USA, Wal-Mart is synonymous with 'white-trash'. Why? Just enter one and you'll see them. There’s the fat dude wearing overalls without a shirt, or the skinny lady not wearing a bra, but wearing ripped, thrift store clothes. The list goes on and on, but those are two examples.

Also, almost all Wal-Marts here have a McDonalds inside them...which makes 2 evil companies under the same roof.

 

I have a Sam's Club card, and will shop there from time to time.

I mostly use them for processing my digital pictures.

 

They have a friggin' monopoly on the 'stuff-for-cheap', and it is greedy companies like this that ruin small buisnesses. It should be split up to prevent them from having a monopoly, but should not be abolished, because that would put tons of people (it employs the most (or second most) employees in the world) out of work, but it should be restricted.

 

They are powerful because of their business model. They have huge stores, thus spreading fixed costs out over more products. They don't have comissioned staff, so wages are kept down. The stores are laid out efficiently so you can find what you are looking for. Mind you they don't have every movie so people will still go to places like Cinema 1, or ever videogame, so EB stays in business. They don't have much of a selection of books, so book stores are safe. They cater to the mainstream, so if you want something off the beaten path, then you still need to look elsewhere. But if it's mainstream stuff you want, they're probably cheapest...

 

Wal-Mart made its money by giving the masses what they want. They are not some evil corporation ruthlessly forcing the "helpless small businesses" into bankruptcy. In fact, the employees at Wal-Mart generally earn more money than they did at the small stores and prices are lower.

With that said, like pretty much everyone else here, I won't shop at Wal-Mart. The products that they sell are almost always the lowest quality things available. Even in the cases of name-brands, it is generally the lowest quality of each brand. When it comes to things such as electronics, auto supplies, and so on, Wal-Mart will not carry the best brands but will instead carry the low performance, low priced brands.

The food products in their superstores are substandard. Put anything that you buy there into your refrigerator for more than a day or two and it will be ruined.

Heh. That one is true and pretty much stopped me from going anywhere near one of their stores.

 

Jim Cramer equates Wal-Mart to the old Soviet stores.

 

Jim Cramer probably never saw any of the old Soviet stores .

Walmart is quite useful for a certain segment of the population. That is, those who make average wage, or less (the average wage is about $24,000, in US, I think). It's all well and good to say shop at speciality store and pay higher price when you have spare income, but otherwise...

Also, it is convenient to get most of stuff you need in the same place, and moreover, in places I've been, most of these stores are accesible by public transportation. Which does not matter if you have a car, but, contrary to public opinion, not everybody in US has one (at all times, anyhow).

If I had a choice, I would not buy food from there, though