Weak economy may be Wal-Mart’s strong suit

[RamboLiberal]

There was a time when Betsy Baker would have been embarrassed to be seen shopping at Wal-Mart.

But that was a few years ago, before the price of gold shot up and the economy slowed, all but ruining her family jewelry business. And it was before her monthly house payments skyrocketed to $3,800 a month from $1,800, and she found herself trying to get rid of a house that is worth substantially less than she paid for it. It was before her family conceded that they could not escape their economic woes without filing for bankruptcy.

“We just got walloped, and you know, it’s — you get past the point of embarrassment, you get past the point of shame, and you go into, like, survival mode,” Baker said. “You have to pay for the necessities: It’s cars, it’s lights, it’s water, it’s groceries for your family. It’s gas.”

It’s also a switch to shopping at Wal-Mart. These days, Baker, who lives in Bradenton, Fla., goes to Wal-Mart at least once a week to stock up on snacks, frozen pizzas and other household staples. Whereas before she would have been embarrassed to give a gift with a Wal-Mart tag on it, now she regularly buys things for her new granddaughter there. Her teenage daughter, who until recently was appalled at the idea of shopping at Wal-Mart, now brags to her friends about scoring a pair of shorts there for just $7.

“I think Wal-Mart has changed, and truly I have changed, too,” said Baker, 47.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25417408/

[wuushew]

1. That girl will be very disappointed with her purchase

All clothing sold at Walmart is absolute shit. I hope she is happy when it starts to self-destruct after the first wash.

[notadmblnd]

2. They closed down the Wal Mart in Pontiac Mi

Moved it out to Rochester Hills where the more affluent live.

[Deja Q]

9. How very community-friendly just like how their big posters aren't.

[Tikki]

3. She could probably get ...

a better constructed pair of shorts for less at the local Goodwill store..

And if she is so into dealing with the changes in her life...now would be the
time to change her family's eating habits from frozen pizza and snacks
to the more healthy items sold at the local Farmers' Market.

The family might have an extensive network of known customers and suppliers
from their years in the jewelry business...get a life-style co-op
going....share, recycle, repurpose...grow your own.


Wal*Mart is...junk in, junk out.


Tikki

[Cassandra]

10. I agree with you about the frozen pizzas...

my first thought was, since when is frozen pizza a staple when things are tight.
However, as a jewelery designer myself, I can tell you that while her customers are local, her suppliers are all very far away. If she sells cheaper goods, they are from China or India. If she sells better goods, then NY or NJ. Designers are all over the country; as long as their business model allows them to be far from the manufacturing centers.
BTW, the jewelry business has been sucky for a while now.

[uppityperson]

15. When they are $3.00 each. Minimal nutrition and taste like cardboard, but

you can feed the whole family dinner for $3. Thinking they'll be cutting back on store snacks also pretty soon.

[onehandle]

4. I'd rather go naked than shop at Wal-Mart.

Apologies to the loons at Peta. Of which I used to be one.

[earthside]

5. Not for Long

Wal-Mart is going to get hit hard at some point.

Wal-Mart is totally dependent upon their massive distribution system, their famous "warehouse on wheels". Diesel at $5.00-plus is going to start to take a serious bite ... those prices cannot stay low because of trucking costs.

There is also the increasing costs of maintaining electricity and natural gas for lighting, cooling and heating all of Wal-Mart's huge, huge stores.

Finally, the cost of fuel to import all those products from China is going to increase prices on all those cheap products.

Wal-Mart's demise will be another hidden blessing of peak oil.

[Ikonoklast]

12. Wal-Mart's economies of scale dwarf their competitors

Their competition has the exact same logistical problems and expenses as Wal-Mart, and competitors costs for retailing, warehousing and distribution should rise as well.

Target, K-Mart, Dollar General, doesn't matter. Wal-Mart can beat their costs to distribute products easily, and because of volume discounts dictated by Wal-Mart, their wholesale costs are lower.

The competition uses Wal-Mart's logistics and distribution system as the model to imitate.

They must be doing something right.

[Dukkha]

6. Wal Mart is the cause, not the solution

The Waltons are predators on the impoverished. They create the illusion of savings at the cost of their workers salaries which has a ripple effect on the community. I'll gladly pay a little more and maintain my dignity, have quality merchandise that lasts, produce not from questionable sources, and give support to the community as a whole.

[Cassandra]

11. They also act as a colonial power...

in small communities, paying little while sucking most of the profit back to Bentonville and the Walton family. What people spend at Wal-Mart does not circulate as far within the community as spending in a small, locally owned store would.

[aspergris]

7. now THAT is the definition of elitist

"embarassed to be seen shopping at walmart"

my grandfather did very well for himself, partially because he was thrifty and I learned some good lessons for him.

Somebody who is "embarassed" to be seen at Walmart (or a thrift store, or Kmart or whatever) smacks of hubris.

The point is that even if you make 6 or seven figures, being "embarassed" for shopping for value is lame.

[Cassandra]

13. It is not embarrassing to be shopping for value...

but shopping at a place that has done so much to impoverish small town America does bother some people. In the case of the original story, however, consider that the local jeweler in a small town (unless they are selling cheap crap) is usually a pillar of the community, civic-minded, giving to charity, with a well kept store. It may be bad for business for a jeweler's neighbors to see her hard up when she might have been profligate in better days.

[aspergris]

14. but the point

wasn't that they were embarassed due to walmart's policies. it was the (lack of cachet) seen for shopping there.

Also, the fact that their mortgage went from 1800 to 3k shows they were arrogant enough to get some ridiculous ARM type monstrosity instead of going WITHIN their means and getting a nice safe fixed interest loan

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. Well, that's the point, isn't it? WalMart does NOT offer value.

All it offers is 'cheapness' - which applies to quality as well as price.

WalMart is, for me, shopping of last resort - that is, when I have spent days or weeks looking for something and it just is not available elsewhere. I don't think I've been in WalMart a half-dozen times in the last 10 years.

I shop thrift stores and yard sales and locally owned businesses and I am embarassed that I have have given WalMart as much business as I have because it undercuts those local businesses as a part of its business plan.

[aspergris]

18. again

that's not the point

in the OP, it was the embarassment of shopping at walmart (the cheap store) NOT the political aspects of walmart that were the reasons for the embarassment

and I disagree about "all it offers is cheapness". There is plenty of value. I mostly shop Costco but I shop Walmart as well.

Plenty of value.

[Warpy]

8. People in my neighborhood are deserting Wally's

in favor of the Dollar Store. It's a pattern I first started to notice last Xmas shopping season when the Wally's lot was not packed but the Dollar Store lot was.

I've also noticed that the thrift shops I used to depend on are packed with customers when I drop off donations. It was a leisurely shopping experience when I had to rely on them for "new" clothes.

When Ms. Middle Class Walled Suburb loses her embarrassment over going to Wally's, you know the working class is buying used and the poor are doing without.

[Canuckistanian]

16. Walmart thrives in depressed areas - it's part of their strategy

Ever wonder why they don't have any stores in cities?

No, they go after SMALL towns that have been hit by the great industrial exodus.

I've seen it in my area. I live close to two towns, similar in size.

One of the towns has a Hershey's plant that's closing down, taking a lot of smaller businesses with it. And they lost a lot of railway work and a major psychiatric facility.

The town closest to me is more affluent, with lots of retirees with money to spend.

Guess which one recently got a Walmart? That's right, the one with all the layoffs.

[Javaman]

19. picking it apart...

Reading through this article I'm struck by several things...

1.And it was before her monthly house payments skyrocketed to $3,800 a month from $1,800, and she found herself trying to get rid of a house that is worth substantially less than she paid for it.
-so she has to shop at chinamart because she was a moron.

2. goes to Wal-Mart at least once a week to stock up on snacks, frozen pizzas and other household staples.
-I don't know, but the last time I checked snacks and frozen pizzas weren't household staples.

3. now brags to her friends about scoring a pair of shorts there for just $7.
-sounds like a bit of pro chinamart propaganda.

4. “I think Wal-Mart has changed, and truly I have changed, too,”
-trust me, they haven't. In fact they have gotten worse.

5. ‘Dollar for dollar, it’s just cheaper’
- no they aren't. They are still r*ping the manufacturers and distributors.

6.“I said, ‘I will protest with my pocketbook,’ but I did not,”
-it seems as always, American's principles are easily sold.

7. Instead, Parker found out that she was expecting a third child,
-yes, they have been dropping out of the sky's these days. good lord, in bad financial times, one would think that one would find the change for birth control of some sort. (this falls into my category of, "people are stupid and will continue to be stupid until beaten to within an inch of their lives)

8.“At times like this you’ve got to take care of yourself.”
-that's right, forget about banding together with your neighbors and helping each other out, like most of the world did prior to our egocentric crack addicts addiction to oil. Or as I like to say, "screw you, I got my life boat, you'll just have to swim".

9.Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has “absolutely” benefited from the fact that more Americans need to pinch pennies. But she thinks the company’s efforts to make shopping there more appealing — including extensively remodeling stores, working to improve customer service and revamping the product mix — also have helped keep them coming back.
-aka we are still making bucket loads of money off your poor backs, so we will continue to polish the t*rd and you will continue to eat it up!

10.The company also has undertaken a major effort to improve its reputation, countering attacks over its wages and benefits and working to make its business more environmentally sustainable.
-yet no where in the entire article does it state HOW they are changing things or improving the lives of their slaves.

11. Teresa Behal shops at Wal-Mart to save money, but that doesn’t mean the 49-year-old Durant, Iowa, resident likes it.
-yet, because chinamart has positioned themselves to be the only game in many a town (after destroying what was probably once a thriving small downtown), high gas prices have forced people to shop there.

12. but then again...With such a large store, she said it can seem like a workout to get from the shampoo aisle to the milk case.
-America's new diet plan, cheap sh*t spread miles apart.

13. Behal often is disappointed in the quality of the produce, and she says it can take too long to check out. She also sometimes thinks she’s not getting as good of a bargain as one might expect.
-shut up cattle! you're mooing is annoying! now put your head down and love it! All bow down to chinamart.

14.“It’s not a fun experience,” said another shopper, Amy Knight, 42.
-correct me if I'm wrong but what part about going to chinamart was supposed to be fun?

15.“People would say, ‘You shop at Wal-Mart? Why?’” she recalls.
Now, Proctor wonders why she ever wasted money shopping elsewhere. The 60-year-old Gulfport, Fla., resident estimates that she saves $15 every week by shopping at Wal-Mart —money she badly needs in these hard economic times.

-more propaganda.



16.Still, there are some people who say that they will never shop at Wal-Mart, no matter how bad the economy gets. Jill Lane, 45, has long felt that Wal-Mart hurts local businesses, but she really lost faith in the company after reading reports that Wal-Mart sued a disabled former employee to recoup its own medical costs.



and



17.Over the years, Leatherberry also has become disillusioned by the quality of certain Wal-Mart purchases.

- of course the negative stuff comes at the end of the article where most American's short attention span ended after the first two paragraphs.