Why I Love Walmart
By Dy Phan on Monday, June 4, 2007 - 9:00 am
Category Frugal Living, Life | 11,182 Views |
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Here’s a shocker. I love Walmart. I know it’s almost always on the receiving end of bad press. It ruins neighborhoods. It puts small businesses out of business. It wrecks the balance of trade. It pays its workers poorly and treats them mean. It makes overseas workers into slaves. That’s what the news says. The truth is that Walmart is a major blessing for most Americans who live close enough to one to shop there and for the people who work at them. When a Walmart opens in a town, it’s as if everyone in the town got a raise. That’s because the stuff at Walmart is so much cheaper than that same merchandise was anywhere else. This is not a trivial thing. Now, don’t get me wrong. Target and Sears and K-Mart and J.C. Penney and Brooks Brothers also sell good stuff usually at bargain prices, but they do not have the same reach of stores, the same astounding prices that Walmart offers every day. This makes the people who shop there richer. Price matters a lot to most people.
I am sure Walmart is stiff competition for the stores and supermarkets across America. I feel bad for the people who lose their stores because of Walmart. But not everyone is a store owner. Everyone is a consumer, and Walmart is about as good a friend as the consumer ever had. Is Walmart ruining the balance of trade? Well, let me put it like this: I buy American whenever I can find it.
But there are a lot of things that are just not usually made in the USA any longer. Toasters. Hot pots. Color televisions. Underwear. Since the goods are almost always made overseas, why not buy them at the best possible price? By the way, if someone knows of a good American made toaster, please stand up and shout.
Is Walmart wrecking small towns? Not the ones I see, which are mostly in North Idaho. Those towns are booming. And the closest you get to a town square is the Walmart, where neighbors visit with neighbors in the aisles all day and all night, in air conditioning, out of the rain.
Is Walmart impoverishing third world workers in sweat shops? Heck, no. Conditions in those places are far from ideal. But they are far better than working on the farm or begging in the streets or selling themselves into prostitution or whatever they were doing before they came to work for foreign suppliers of US stores. The gains in prosperity in the developing countries because their people can sell to America through Walmart are astounding. As to the people who work at Walmart, they seem to me to be bright, alert men and women who work there because it’s the best they can do in their town or at their age. Plus, they seem happy. The usual clerk at Walmart gives a lot better service than the clerk at Tiffany. I would like it if they were paid more, but they are in a competitive labor market. And what about those greedy stockholders? A lot of them are those same Walmart clerks, many of whom got rich from their stock.
In the real world, Walmart is as much of a boon to the American shopper as the Sears catalogue was long ago.
Jeer at it all you want, all you cool people, but, it’s progress, big time. If you think otherwise, leave a comment.
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have you read the book the walmart effect? i find it very interesting. you claim these negatives are just what the news says, and the “truth” is that walmart is a major blessing. the popular opinion and the book say otherwise - that walmart appears to generally depress an area. now of course you could say that’s the author’s opinion vs. your opinion - but there is a lot of strong evidence on the author’s side, in terms of multiple scholastic studies that have been held up to academic scrutiny. those aren’t just ideas someone pulled out of thin air, they’re conclusions based on years of collection and analysis of data. cheap prices are great, but price obsession is not.
do i really need to save that 5 cents on a can of corn? how many consumer blow tons more money on absolutely unecessary stuff? louis vuitton dog purse. $100 (or more) to get into a club. car rice. bottled water. etc. people would save a lot more money with a few lifestyle changes vs. shopping at walmart.
part of the reason walmart is so cheap is because the products are inferior. the jeans you buy at the levis store are not the ones you buy at walmart - they came up with levis signature series just to sell at walmart. they are lower quality jeans (and cheaper, of course) i recently bought my 3rd hose gun and another hose (although at ace) - i bought a cheap hose there before and cheap guns. i’m kind of an idiot and have a tendency to leave that shit outside, and over the winter… although i’m not sure it was my bad this year. anyway this gun was fucked and the hose had leaks. i went to ace this time and bought an expensive hose and a tank quality gun. problem solved a transformer could eat and crap out this gun and it would still work. if something breaks on it i can repair it as well and for cheap. so buying 1 quality product vs. a new substandard one every couple years is a better deal (financially, and more) than buying the cheap one. i’d much rather buy a bad ass $300 mower today than a new $50 lawn mower from walmart every 2 years. walmart sacrifices quality for price. because they keep dropping prices down. at some point you can’t save any more money manufacturing the product because you’ve already fixed all of your operational inefficiencies. maybe getting your lazy workers to be more active saved 10 cents per product, better machines another 10 cents. but now walmart just told you yeah… you’re gonna need to drop the product by another 10 cents in the next year. kthnx. how are you going to do it if everything is already running as best as it can be? you’re going to sacrifice quality, that’s your only option left. that or stop selling to walmart - which if your business depends on them as a buyer (which many do) would be catastrophic to most.
i think i read that walmart needs to sell $35 worth of crap to making a single dollar. is it really that great having such a small margin? the book talks about towns where walmart becomes one of the main employers, and that with the employees shopping at walmart, they still really don’t have enough money to live. it’s literally impossible for walmart to pay them all a dollar an hour more though, because walmart would not be able to afford that! in the book the guy visits walmart hq, which has a mishmash of furniture available, as they buy cheap, use demos from vendors, etc. that’s something you do when you and your buddy start up a company and can barely live month to month. doesn’t it sound a little ridiculous for a powerhouse such as walmart to be doing that?
maybe your one town or small area does have a walmart that is bringing things up. but that is a small sample and based on your observations over x window of time. the data researched has shown something else.
there is a response from walmart in the latest edition of the book. it seems that walmart even acknowledges that the effects mentioned in the book are rather true. i believe one exec likens themself to baby huey, saying they mean well but don’t know their own strength.
mike | Jun 4, 2007 | Reply
I think the concept of NIMBY (not in my backyard) comes into play. I don’t have a problem with Walmart at all, because, you’re right, the stuff there is typically quite a bit cheaper than anywhere else. This is especially true for a Canadian like me who heads across the border every once in a while. American Walmarts are cheaper than Canadian ones. I enjoy the cheap food and wacky t-shirts that I can get.
At the same time, however, I can see how having a Walmart in a neighbourhood can ruin said neighbourhood. Walmart pushes out mom and pop-type shops, because the smaller stores simply cannot compete based on price. Walmart’s exceptionally low pricing is a double-edged sword in this way.
Speaking for myself, since I’m a freelance writer, my business is not tied to any particular geographical area, so — as greedy and selfish as this sounds — the poorer the city I live in, the better off I am in terms of relative wealth. If everyone around me is making a Walmart entry-level wage, then I am one rich bastard by comparison. I’m probably better off living in a small town than in a city like Vancouver, but I don’t foresee that change happening any time soon.
I can understand the sentiment of people not wanting a Walmart in their neck of the woods, but these same people likely have less of an issue with a Walmart opening up 15 minutes away. They want the cheap prices so long as it doesn’t adversely affect them directly.
Michael Kwan | Jun 4, 2007 | Reply
walmart is a total mom and pop shop killa, they will sell the small shop’s item at a loss until they drive that shop out of business.
interestingly the book did mention that people would driver greater distances than was initially expected to get a lower price. although in today’s world of rising gas prices that may not happen as often anymore. i don’t think anti walmart in my town people would be so quick to run out to walmart in another town 15 minutes away… at least of the people i know, they will go out of their way to *not* go to a walmart.
aren’t you supposed to go to “The Real Canadian Superstore” !! i worked up in vancouver and saw some of those.
mike | Jun 4, 2007 | Reply
I love Wal-Mart.
We live on a very strick budget. We have to if we want to be able to send our kids to school in the future and retire before we die. Every single cent we save at Wal-Mart means that we can take the kids to see their grandparents. Living in Rural America, you have to drive to get anywhere. I commute 74 miles round trip each day for work. I have to fill the car up every 4 days. People talk about are you really saving that much by going to Wal-Mart, yes I am.
I grew up in a small town in Kentucky where either you went to the local grocery or drove 30 miles one way for groceries. The cost at the local grocery was so high that you actually saved money driving those 30 miles; talk to nothing about selection.
Wal-Mart is a blessing. I live 2 minutes from a Super Wal-mart. Traffic has increased, but its worth it, IMMHO.
Desty | Jun 22, 2007 | Reply
Don’t forget that generally mom and pop stores employ people that then to know their products better. Every walk in to the Wal-mart and ask them a question about digital cameras? They can barely read the box to you in English. For the 1st time I had to go into a cleaning supply store for some specialty sanding discs. This guy knew everything about them. Which is better for what job. I’m sure that the Wal-mart employee would be unable to help me with the same type of questions. …Just my 2 cents
Steve | Sep 8, 2007 | Reply
I love Super Wal-Mart as well. I am on a very tight budget and I’m a single mom raising a hungry little toddler boy. My son loves good food, he’s not your typical picky eating toddler. I have to buy and keep good food in the house and that is impossible going to any other grocery store, inclucing “mom & pop” store. Example, I spent $110 for food at Raley’s grocery store and we went through that food in a week and a half and mind you, there are only 2 of us. The same $110 got me enough food to last most of the entire month. Not to mention I can buy household cleanser, laundry detergent and other misc. goods at Wal-mart for a fraction of the cost of the same goods at any other store. So, I, too, save a lot of money shopping with Wal-Mart.
As far as it ruining neighborhoods; I haven’t seen that. I figure if you think Wal-mart ruins neighborhoods, chances are the neighborhood wasn’t very great to begin with.
As long as there is a Wal-mart in the vacinity, I will continue to be a shopper and when the “mom & pops” can lower their prices to meet my budget, I will shop there as well.
Sherry | Oct 11, 2007 | Reply