I am, but not at Wal-Mart. Like Teddy Kennedy, I don’t go there. But unlike Teddy, I don’t have an opinion about it.
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It looked like a disaster for Downtown when Walmart moved in on its outskirts. I was part of the effort to block its incoming.
However, we had already fixed up the looks of the main street. Tourists going through LIKE Walmart because it lets them park their RVs in their parking lot, and it looks familiar to them. Therefore, we are seeing more tourists downtown, especially since we have a new trolley going along the waterfront, from Walmart to Downtown.
Walmart has not been good for various grocery stores, but none have gone bankrupt (Walmart moved in some 3 years ago.) The only really bad sign is one empty shop on mainstreet (emptied when Staples moved into town.)
Anyway, I bought almost all the kids’ toys at Walmart this year!
I have heard that the Big Box retailers are a major factor in the lack of inflation in the US…
on the other hand, I think much of the growth in over weight among north americans is because so many DRIVE to the mall and do their shopping without moving their bodies. I would bet that if you plotted the movement of WalMart, etc, into smaller towns through North America, the graph would lead the growth in over weight people. And I have noticed that “overweight” is what used to be confined to carnivals. Really.
If you were a retired, medically challenged Senior citizen trying to make it on an ever shrinking fixed income, you’d be thankful for Wal-Mart. We shop there at least three times a week, and would be hard pressed as to what we’d do without it. Of course we live in rural Georgia, so we could drive the 25 miles to K-Mart, but they don’t have the selection, price or nice friendly folks working there. We are celebrating the recent arrival of Lowes, even though it will probably have a negative influence on the local hardware store. Wal-Mart and Lowes are a Godsend to folks like us. Trade deficit? There was a time when I worried about Japan, no more, it’ll take care of itself.
I don’t get out to Wal-Mart very often (the closest one is roughly 15 miles away, and we have a Target and Fred Meyer in town that are overall much nicer stores, but don’t have the selection of the Wal-mart.) I do still shop there on occasion, and I’ll even see cars in the parking lot plastered in all the usual lefty bumper stickers, right down to the “Kucinich 2004″ sticker. It seems that some people don’t exactly practice what they preach…
Crazy shopping anywhere you look huh? I don’t know how people handle the mania of Black Friday let alone at Wal-Mart. I had my own say in the matter but I can’t say it was quite so political as spending my social security check at the big box.
Almost Girl
http://almostgirl.coffeespoons.org/
I’m retired USAF, 5 minutes from Walmart and 12 minutes from commissary/BX. Guess where I do 80% of my shopping? Roger, I missed why you don’t shop at Walmart?
I hope not far OT. Heather, overweight ain’t what it used to be. My 7-year-old granddaughter stands 45″ and weighs 52#. Her stature is slim and petite. The school sent home a notice last week that her body mass index puts her in the overweight category. The girl is a perpetual-motion machine, not an ounce of fat on her. (She’s extremely sweet, beautiful and intelligent, too. But that’s all the way OT.) We’re taking the notice in search of an appropriate orifice when we go for routine counselling this week. Typical PC/elite/bad science madness.
I don’t shop at Walmart much because it is an unpleasant shopping experience. I prefer Target or the mall. I’ve been in a few good Walmarts where the experience was pleasant, but they tend to be in the deeper South. That’s nowhere near my current location.
I’ve got nothing against the company, but the Walmarts in locations other than the South need to get their stores in a more user-friendly order and counsel their employees to be more helpful to the customers.
kynna
I may have to defer to you, as my entire Wal-Mart experience over the years is a deep south one. Having been raised in New Jersey, I can appreciate the fact that coarse customer service is the norm in most businesses. However, certainly part of that is the NE attitude towards customers in general. While I’m sorry you have poor impressions of Wal-Mart, I continue to thrive on it. Must admit I didn’t go near any retail organizations on Black and Blue Friday. Regards
Kynna:
I chalk up the preference of Target over Wal-Mart to snobbery. The two stores are functionally equivalent in merchandise and pricing although Wal-Mart probably has the edge in selection. Target (pronounced as “Tarjey’s” by my friends) has always marketed itself as the upper class discount store. It’s all illusion. Wal-Mart is the new Sears and Target is merely an upscale looking K-mart.
FWIW, my experience at the local stores has been that Target personnel resent having to stop gossiping to do actual check-out work, whereas Wal-mart people go out of their way to be helpful. One exception comes to mind: the Galveston, TX Wal-mart personnel could do with a refresher course in manners. My conclusion is that alot depends on the manager