Do you refuse to shop @ Walmart?

Admit it here. My reasons are many, but mainly:

~ I think they are on a Christian crusaide to take over the world. They have partially succeeded, because they've cornered so much of the book/movie market that media is censored based on how it will sell at one store.

~ Worldwide, they open an average of one store per DAY

~ They destroy the local economy of every town they build in

~ Their employees don't make enough money to shop anywhere else

I absolutely refuse to shop there unless it's an emergency (ie. 2am and I need an electical outlet or some crap like that). I know that there are more of you out there.

I have never spent $1 in Walmart. And I never will.

I try very hard to avoid Walmart. I would rather shop at Zellers (a Canadian owned company) if I need to go to a store like that. Mostly, I tend to shop at smaller, more locally owned businesses. My parents own their own business, so I believe in supporting the smaller businesses whenever possible. Plus, I have serious issues environmentally with Big Box stores in general, and Walmart is terrible for the way they treat their employees and pay them.


[Edited on Dec 09, 2003 by sylvan]

How can Walmart be on a Christian crusade to take over the world if they made a deal with the devil?

I dont shop at walmart....even in an emergency.
they are direct greed in action.

SinAmen said:
~ Their employees don't make enough money to shop anywhere else

Well, judging by the people they have employed at the Walmart in S.Philly,

they don't deserve to make anymore, and are pretty fortunate to have j-o-b's.

What the hell is wrong with direct greed?



...I suppose that's a different debate. I won't hijack this thread.

Nope, WalMart are evil, soul-sucking pigs who treat their employees like shit and don't deserve one cent of my money.

But I shop at other corporate places like CostCo, so I suppose I'm pretty much a total hypocrite.

I live in a small town. Not so small that walmart ran everyone else out of business, but small. I don't go there regularly, but they have cheaper food and a better selection of veg/vegan food to pick from. So yes, they are evil, but so are a great many other things in this world.

they have the cheapest groceries around where I live by a long shot...so that's where I go...maybe when i have more money i will go somewhere else

[Edited on Dec 09, 2003 by strikinghelix]

Wal-Mart also uses the forced servitude of Chinese prisoners for a great deal of their products. Slave labour is usually something I try to avoid supporting.

The most interesting thing about that company to me is, well, why sell guns if you're going to refuse to sell ANY music with parental advisory labels on it? Wouldn't you say that guns ruin more family (or whatever) then the damage brought on by evil devil music?

I digress.

I dont shop there, mainly because its always packed full of poor white trash.

No kidding, I agree.

I will get shit for this, because I have gotten shit on SG before, but... I don't care. I shop Walmart because they're cheap, and because they're open at 3 AM and nothing else in my town is. I love Walmart. I don't care if the place is "evil" because I'm willing to bet if I do my homework, a lot of other places that I frequent are pretty evil too.

If I'm going to hell, it's probably not because I shopped at Walmart.

What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that Walmart is using the strategy of dropping all their prices to drive out the competition, but once they have, they will most likely raise all the prices even higher then they were before, because there will be no other option but to shop there.

Last time I shopped there I was in Nowheresville, East Texas, working on a dig. It was almost too depressing for words. I can usually quiet my hate for humanity into a sort of low keening in the back of my brain, but Walmart makes me want scoop out all of middle America and launch it into space.

Thankfully, we never had them here on Long Island, up until recently. I had been to one of those 24-hour Super Wal-Mart's in Florida on the way back from my trip to the Keys. I was amazed that one store had a supermarket, an auto center, a food court, an optical, in addition to the normal stuff they usually would have (I guess)...and then outside in the parking lot they had a coin operated carwash and a gas station.

I went into the one they built here when it first opened and I wasn't amazed, only disappointed. I don't shop there.

that's why it's a great idea to shop elsewhere if you can, and if you can afford to. when i was a student, i spent more time in Walmart than i care to admit. now that i have a job and know more about Walmart than i did then, i can afford to be choosy and shop at smaller stores or other retailers.

sometimes, one's choice of where to shop is dictated by money...unfortunately.

Walmart started out with a good idea-cheap stuff. Then the devil got involved. The almighty doller. Now shit is made by the kids that were too young for Kathy Lee. I read a story of a woman who makes $35 a week for sewing 35,000 shirts. Evil white trash heaven.

Let me tell you about the Wal-Mart here in Trailer Park Hell, NC, where I live. Because this town is so shitty, the only place to congregate on friday and saturday nights is... you guessed it, the super walmart. Some of the people here actually dress up in their white-trash or gangsta finest to go to this monument to capitalism at three o clock in the morning to buy a new mop head or bathroom tiles. I don't now about you, but that seems like the perfect time of the day to buy ceramic tile. I personally hate Wal-Mart, and though I usually get kicked out for doing stupid stuff there, like riding the kids bikes around, I make it a point to steal something every time I go. Fuck Wal-Mart, and fuck faceless corporations.

There is not a single Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, negating that problem entirely.

One more reason why I love this town.

1)I like indie shops whenever possible
2) in St. Louis, MO with the recent strike by the grocery store unions, it came out that Wal-Mart in the majority of their stores only has 1(the GM) full time employee per store. Everyone else is part time in order to not have to offer benefits.

3) I have a guilty conscious and would feel bad
4) I would have to go out of my way to actually shop at one.

Wal Mart destroys. There was an interesting discussion about it last week on To The Point.

Go to http://moretothepoint.com/


and about two thirds down the page is the link to listen. The one about Wal Mart is titled The Hidden Costs of Discount Retail. They talk a lot about what Mindless touched on in his post. Very interesting stuff.