Wal-Mart is at it again… yesterday, they closed the Super Wal-Mart in my town and moved four miles away into a new Wal-Mart SuperCenter.
Why? The old Wal-Mart was perfectly good, the building can’t be more than 10 years old, yeah traffic is a pain in the ass during the Christmas season, but it is everywhere. It’s a perfectly good Wal-Mart any other time of year. Heck, they even repainted the building last year!
I have a love-hate relationship with Wal-Mart. I hate going to Wal-Mart, I hate the crowds, I hate the dumb rednecks that go there. I hate the self-service checkout lanes. But I like the prices. Why should I spend more for an item I can get cheaper at Wal-Mart? It’s not that I can’t afford to shop in more expensive places, it’s just that I have this strong desire to actually save money for my eventual retirement to Hawaii.
Now, there’s a couple of things I would never buy at Wal-Mart: gas and groceries. When I think of Wal-Mart, those two things never pop up in my mind. For groceries, I go to my local grocery store (in my case, Publix); for gas, I stop at a gas station (likely BP or QuikTrip). People say you can save money on your groceries by buying at Wal-Mart. That may be so, but Wal-Mart is annoying. It’s loud, it’s full of obnoxious out-of-control kids, dumbass rednecks, and incompetent employees. I’d much rather head to my local grocery store where it’s almost relaxing to shop!
One good thing that came of Wal-Mart selling food was that my Publix couldn’t compete with the Wal-Mart traffic and actually moved closer to my house, and now thrives.
Some folks, like Utopia, believe that Wal-Mart is the downfall of our economy. I agree with the result: the Wal-Mart is bad for the economy, but I don’t agree with how she gets there. The argument is that the more money Wal-Mart makes, the less people have to spend. That’s simply not true. People would spend the same amount of money on stuff if they shopped at Wal-Mart, or at conventional stores. However, they buy more at Wal-Mart, because it stretches their dollar further. The more folks buy, the more Wal-Mart relies on it’s overseas partners to produce stuff, which causes job loss.
So, it’s not that people have less to spend… it’s that they have no job with which to earn money to spend. The real price gouging comes from the gas and oil companies after a time of crisis (war, hurricanes, etc). After three consecutive months of record profits, you’d think someone would step in… but that’s for another post. We’re talking about Wal-Mart here.
Another problem, which is downplayed in Utopia’s argument, is people living beyond their means. More people do it than people who don’t. In this world of “gotta have it now”, eBay, No Interest Financing, Internet Shopping, and Wal-Mart, people want to have everything bigger and better than their neighbor. I should know, I fell victim to this a couple months ago, getting a big-screen TV that’s 5 inches bigger than my good friend, Whitey’s. The difference is, I can afford it. I have a decent paying job, my car is paid off, I’m not married and I don’t have any kids (that I know of).
In one of my many prior lives, I sold cars for a living. I sold cars to people who had payments bigger than my house payment! I remember selling a brand new truck to a guy, and he was happy that his truck payment was going to be “only” $838 a month… for five six years. If that’s not living beyond one’s means, I don’t know what is. Is it really necessary to have a brand new vehicle every couple of years? Buy a car and pay it off! Drive around for free for a couple of years, save up what you would have spent in car payments and use it as a down payment on your next car! Buy cars in cash! They’re a losing “investment”.
Let’s also look at the housing market. Here in Georgia, it’s cheaper to buy a place than to rent. But people are buying houses that are over a quarter of a million dollars and they’re putting three people in the house! One person I know, “Blondie”, who’s making not much more than I am, and is living in this very situation! She’s the only wage earner in the household, so on top of the monster house payment, she has a new car, pays all the bills, and then wonders why she has no money at the end of the month! My house cost half of hers brand new, my car is paid for, and I can afford things like the big screen TV.
Wal-Mart is definitely not the consumers friend, but it’s also not the only evil out there. The “keeping up with the Joneses” is just as big of a problem. It’s all about your priorities in life. Learn to live within your means. Be humble. It takes people years to acquire nice things… you don’t need it all at once.
This cartoon also derives the same wrong message, but shows my point exactly… “My house is full of crap now, it used to be empty!”
Oh Big Box Mart! My paycheck reminds me… your everyday low prices have a price, they aren’t free!
02/02/2006 at 6:32 am Permalink
You’re right, I did only briefly touch on the living outside of their means. I mentioned the -2% savings every year and I thought I had made that point clearer. I know people live outside of their means and that is a problem.
I also shop for groceries (now) at the local Publix.
Anyway, I wasn’t talking so much about Walmart here in Atlanta. Out west, Walmart is a whole different kind of giant. It is the store people go to. I drove 60 miles to go to one because it was so much cheaper to grocery shop and buy stuff at. With only $150 dollars a month to spend on food, I had to make it stretch as far as I could. Here, Walmart is replacable, but in New Mexico it wasn’t, not by a long shot.
Out west, people shopped there because it made the difference between have and have not. Where the having not generally meant clothing or food or baby formula. The working poor are abundant and that makes it very hard. In New Mexico, Walmart was considered a good job because they did pay more for stock boy jobs. You could get 10-15 dollars an hour as compared to the minimum wage at other places. People fought over Walmart jobs. That may sound sad, but it’s true.
02/02/2006 at 10:37 am Permalink
Wally Mall isn’t evil it’s just the spawn of Satan
02/02/2006 at 2:43 pm Permalink
Dude, go back and retake Econ 101. You failed.
Gas and Oil companies aren’t gouging you. Supply is the same (or less in some cases), and demand is up. China and India consume way more fuel than ever. We do, too.
So. Explain how they are gouging? They are processing the same amount, but because there is higher demand…bingo…they get higher prices.
Are gas companies supposed to care about you, or their shareholders? People forget that businesses are businesses. They are in it for profit.
If you owned ExxonMobil stock, you wouldn’t be unhappy.
This has happened before, and it will happen for eternity. The more people want something, the more valuable that commodity becomes.
The only criminals involved are the OPEC folks, and the Democraps that won’t let us into ANWR.
02/02/2006 at 8:04 pm Permalink
me no likey the walmart.
thankfully we only have them in the ghetto.
I go to target (pronounced tar- ghey) when I need discount stuff.
It’s only marginally better.
03/02/2006 at 4:11 pm Permalink
I have to ask if you actually read your post before you hit the enter button….
It seems the thrust of your entire post is that Wal-Mart is not the consumer’s friend yet you start the post by saying that you shop there because the prices are so low. So how is that not friendly to consumers?
You said that you’re using your savings from shopping at Wal-Mart to save for retirement. Do you think that you’re the only one there who isn’t using the savings they get by shopping at Wal-Mart to some other purpose?
You complain about how “those people” shopping at Wal-Mart cause all these problems down the line, yet take absolutely no responsibility upon yourself for those problems even though you admit to being one of “those people.” Your abject failure to recognize that you are doing the *exact same thing as everyone else* speaks of a complete inability for honest self-examination and personal responsibility. Are you always prone to blaming “other people” for problems you do every bit as much as they did to create, or is this a relatively new phenomenon for you?
The inherent snobbiness of calling your fellow shoppers at Wal-Mart “dumb rednecks” is another funny point. They’re dumb rednecks but you’re what…the only enlightened shopper ever to enter Wal-Mart’s door? I’ve got news for you, I don’t dress up to go shopping at Wal-Mart, so if you mistake me for a “dumb redneck” because your self-important, overly-judgmental nose is too far up in the air to look down on the “little people” because of their appearance, then a look in the mirror is long overdue.
The difference between “them” and you is that they’re honest about what they do, and why they do it….
They’re not the problem, you are…
05/02/2006 at 2:58 am Permalink
yeah, Walmart sucks. Give me a trip to Target anyday