I try to shop at Wal-Mart as little as possible. yes, I'm one of THOSE people. I really think your money is your vote, one way you help decide what kind of world you want. In Ohio, I usually shop at another grocery because they pay higher wages and I am pretty sure they are unionized. So, I shop at Wal-Mart maybe once every two months and only when I need things like shampoo, which is soooo much cheaper at Wal-Mart that I can't rationalize shopping anywhere else.
That said, I was shocked that a bag of lentils was only 72 cents at Wal-Mart but $1.32 at the other grocery. Made me think twice. Usually the price differential on most of the things I buy isn't the great.
What to do? I heart saving money. So do I got to Wal-Mart more often and sell out the other store, which actually pays workers benefits and a living wage? Or do I just decide to pay more than I really have to for groceries?
Darn you WalMart!
July 11th, 2008 at 05:19 pm
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However, if you go on a spending diet for a finite period of time to raise money or pay a bill, definitely shop at WalMart temporarily if you need to.
July 11th, 2008 at 06:13 pm 1215796422
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July 11th, 2008 at 07:47 pm 1215802078
Check out this blog post - very interesting and there were 50 comments to the post.
I, too, am torn between frugal and fair. I frequent Walmart monthly in the winter - we have a turtle that eats bait and when the ground is frozen, we need to buy worms. I have found that SuperTarget has cheaper prices than the average grocery store, still not as cheap as Walmart.
July 11th, 2008 at 07:53 pm 1215802388
July 11th, 2008 at 08:44 pm 1215805444
BUT, on the flip side I hate the place, so I avoid it like the plague. It's dirty, it's awful, it's crowded, and the prices aren't always that great. (Though admittedly they have some very good deals). The parking lot for ours is terrible so we really try to just stay away. IT's for those reasons I wonder why it does so well.
I like your decision though. If you were seriously going to ban Wal-Mart because of its Corporate policies I think you would have to really re-examine every single purchase you ever make. Just because it gets the most press doesn't make it the worst of its kind.
I am with you - I will brave the place on a rare occasion for a really good deal. But for the most part I wouldn't choose to give them my money.
July 11th, 2008 at 08:45 pm 1215805534
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July 11th, 2008 at 10:02 pm 1215810128
If people don't want to work at Wal-Mart, no one is forcing them to work there.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:01 pm 1215813666
BF worked at a national grocery store that was unionized for 5 years. Even though he was part-time, he still had to pay union dues out of his paycheck (usually about $5), even when he was just in high school. Over the years, he discovered the the union did very little to help the average worker. They only saved people's butts when they were about to get fired (even though they usually deserved it). It also made it impossible to get promoted or get full-time status, because everything was based on seniority.
At the chain he's at now (another national chain, but doesn't have a union), two of his department managers are under 25, and they seem to base rewards on performance and attitude, as well as years served.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what the big deal is about Walmart. I worked there in high school, and it was so much easier for people to get full-time status there than other groceries in the area.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:14 pm 1215814492
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/interviews/tonelson.html
Monkeymama, if you can't afford to boycott every company that does bad things, and even if you haven't done research on every single company you use yet, I still don't think it's hypocritical to target a poster child like WalMart, who does bad things on a huge scale and is widely known to do so. If that's all you can do, at least you're sending a message that you don't like that behavior, and you hope that in the long run your actions will trickle down to a change in more and more corporations' philosophies.
Just my opinion though, and I have been known to be wrong a time or million.
July 12th, 2008 at 02:09 am 1215824943
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July 12th, 2008 at 04:33 pm 1215876833
at least where i live, the Wal-Marts are kinda turning around.
I shop there for groceries 2x a month... guess what happened to me last week? Two {TWO!} associates actually asked me if I needed help, or if there was something I was looking for that they could help me find. I almost died. That's NEVER happened to me before.
My mom works for a union grocery store - and for years, none of us were allowed to step into a Wal-Mart... but she's so mad at her store now-a-days (they honestly aren't that much better anymore, sad to say) that she even goes to Wal-Mart once every blue moon (she's normally @ Target).
To each his own, I say.
Oh, and we have a HUGE populatation of elderly and Winter Visitors - it's nice that they can make a buck!
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