- Joined
- Feb 6, 2008
- Messages
- 25,116
- Reaction score
- 7,658
- Location
- Theoretical Physics Lab
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian - Right
j-mac said:Stand the sight of them? Hell, I like WalMart. Because of them, I am able to have things I couldn't afford otherwise. My standard of living is better with them than without. They employ my son as he works his way through collage, and likes his job. Because of that he can afford to have a pretty nice car, and spending money to take his girlfriend out, plus contribute through his purchases to the economy.
They are building a more local store closer to my home here, and I can't wait until they complete it because you know why? Along with that there is a strip mall going in with it to provide space to localized businesses that can benefit off of Wal Marts traffic. Mom and Pop's aren't failing solely because the big bad Wal Mart came to town, no, they are failing because they refuse to update their business models and go to where the shoppers are.
I'm glad your son likes his job, and I wouldn't say that every employee there probably hates his job. However, when I go into Walmart (yes I do shop there, pretty much by force), I don't see people making eye contact with you, being cheerful and friendly, and promoting great service. They drone on like zombies. They're there to do a job you could train a monkey to do, for a pretty low wage. I for one don't blame them for being less than exuberant when I go in there. I expect them to help me, to provide services needed for my shopping experience, and for them to make inane well-wishes. However, I don't go in there with the expectation of smiling faces and people bending over backwards for me.
Those supercenters with stores in it are not impressive. Woodforest Bank is essentially the subprime version of today's banking, catered to today's fast-food mentality. I imagine that many of the "independent" stores who operate on Walmart soil are essentially dancing with the devil.
Here in the semi-rural south, Walmart has monopsony power anywhere it's put down. If you were to take away Walmart from the local city around where I live, it would devastate the community. I'm not a big fan of that.