Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices documentary

Dead Winter

Dead Winter

STAHP
Apr 30, 2002
11,974
62
48
Italy/US
I've got to say (and I agree with the complaints by their employees) that although Wal-Mart seems to wreck small town America, they seem like a bunch of greedy assholes, and they may be a fungus on humankind, after watching this documentary I have to say that I don't think it's their fault.

It's the fault of the American consumer. If the average American consumer would do a little soul searching and put his/her priorities in order, I think they'd find that they really don't need Wal-Mart. Sure, it's great to get things all in one place, and I go to Wal-Mart when I'm in the states when I absolutely can't find something anywhere else, but it's not a place to buy in bulk. Why would you buy in bulk in the first place? Stop buying stupid crap in bulk and maybe Wal-Mart wouldn't wreck your podunk little town.

Then there's the matter of the insurance. Yes, Wal-Mart fucks their people with medical insurance and whatnot, but all the complaints I heard were from retarded 25 year old welfare single moms with 3 kids. How about you put the dick down and maybe go to school to better yourself? It's not Wal-Mart's fault you weren't on birth control, or that you chose the route you took instead of furthering you education for a better job. These people work in retail, and they want the salary of a person of higher learning. The salary is a reflection on the job. If janitors made $50,000 a year, I don't think anyone would have a problem with cleaning shit up. Want a guarantee? Join the military. You'll get more benefits than you could ever imagine, see the world, and go to college for fucking free.


I just don't see how Wal-Mart is the bane of all civilization when these people have brought this mess unto themselves. Ok, they may be a shitty corporation, but there are hundreds of shitty corporations that do the same thing, they just aren't in the spotlight.

All the German Wal-Mart employees are extremely happy because they're in line with federal worker mandates. Things like 35 days a year paid vacation, full medical benefits, and decent wages. You can't explain this to Americans because they automatically shout "COMMIE!!!" and then go on some tirade about freedom. In my opinion, if you have to work at Wal-Mart in the US, you aren't free. You're either there because you need an interim job or you've made some dumb choices in your life.

In the end, it was an interesting documentary, albeit completely one-sided. Wal-Mart IS a nasty boil on the ass of America, but the American consumer made them that way.
 
Buying in bulk? Walmart isn't really the place for that, at least none that I've been into. Sure they have a few larger tubs of pudding or sauerkraut but so do most of the grocery stores I've been into.

Sams Club or Costco, et al, on the other hand are what "buying in bulk" is all about, and the reasoning behind it is perfectly reasonable, it's cheaper and more cost effective.

Also, as the economy keeps spiraling downwards, more and more are going to be shopping at Walmart because it really is that much cheaper. Sure, there are ways to be much more efficient in your grocery shopping (buying in bulk is a prime way to do this), but until things are serious enough that major lifestyle changes occur, why shouldn't the average person do their grocery shopping at walmart instead of the grocery store the same distance away, and pay much much less?
 
But one of the big problems is the way that Wal-Mart itself buys in such tremendous bulk that even the people selling to them get stiffed. Only Wal-Mart makes out in the end. Everyone else loses.

Wal-Mart has still never seen a dollar from my pocket.





I did buy a Now and Later for a quarter. But that doesn't count!
 
I know that Sam's Club and Costco are stores where you buy in bulk (I remember my mom dragging me through that fucker when I was a kid), but in my opinion it's not really bulk. It's industrial size products. Who buys a gallon bucket of mayonnaise? Again, that's not bulk, that's industrial size for things like restaurants. Yes it's cheap, because it's really not designed for the consumer, but for an industry. Our consumerism has just gotten so out of hand that we think we need to buy 5 pounds of Wheaties instead of one box. Our excuse of, "it's not really bulk unless it comes on a pallet" is bullshit, in my opinion. We're only fooling ourselves.

It's all wholesale, so yes you save money...but should we really do our shopping with a pallet jack?

Wal-Mart's sizes are big enough that you shouldn't NEED to go to Sam's Club in the first place unless you've got 5 kids or a business. There's a reason it's a "club" and you have to be a "member" to get in. We have the same thing here but it's reserved only for people who are self-employed with a partita iva (Italian version of VAT), like businesses, pubs, restaurants, etc.
 
If you want to go to Costco and buy a tub of Sabras hummus which is 3x the size of the tiny little package you can get from the grocery store, for the same price, why not? This is not an industry sized product. Also it works well because those hummus bowls are too tiny if you have a family desiring to actually use it as a food product.

3 boxes of wheaties packaged into 1 larger box that you can get from price clubs saves on the amount of packaging used. If you like wheaties that much you'll eat them eventually. This is not an industry sized product.

Canned goods, dry products, they can last. Buy a lot and put them away for later. Why make things difficult and keep returning to the store for your couple of cans of dog food when you can save money, get them all at once, and put them away for later, it's something that'll be used anyway.
 
Yeah, that was Smart and Final, though. They're bulk for restaurants, but they allow Joe Schmo in too.

Ok, so I like bulk in Smart and Final and Costco.
 
Chromatose said:
If you want to go to Costco and buy a tub of Sabras hummus which is 3x the size of the tiny little package you can get from the grocery store, for the same price, why not? This is not an industry sized product. Also it works well because those hummus bowls are too tiny if you have a family desiring to actually use it as a food product.

3 boxes of wheaties packaged into 1 larger box that you can get from price clubs saves on the amount of packaging used. If you like wheaties that much you'll eat them eventually. This is not an industry sized product.

Canned goods, dry products, they can last. Buy a lot and put them away for later. Why make things difficult and keep returning to the store for your couple of cans of dog food when you can save money, get them all at once, and put them away for later, it's something that'll be used anyway.
Click to expand...

I like your style of thinking good sir!
Derick is right, Its more cost effective to buy in bulk what you need, then save the rest. Like buying meat. You could buy a huge family pack of chicken then break it up into smaller portions, use what you need then put the rest in the freezer.Also thats why they make things like containers that have seals on them. But your fifty Lbs. box of Wheaties and split it up with some containers. Or use one of those sweet food sealers.

Plus you save yourself several trips, waste less of your time, and if you drive, then you'll save money on gas.
 
Oh yeah, Wal-Mart sucks for sure.
However in the town I live in there isn't really much of an option to shop anywhere else. The walmart we have isn't one of those supercenters with all the food and shit though it does have some, not enough for me to warrent buying food there. I just go their for my Sundries.
 
Indeed. Bulk frozen chicken breasts, those giant several bags of store brand cereal, etc: If the storage means are available, I think this step in economical thinking is needed to be enforced in the American psyche before any "war on Walmart" can begin. As I stated, any run of the mill store carries such bulk items, and if this style of shopping was done then the savings would be noticeable without having to resort to shopping at Walmart.

But of course, there are other reasons people shop there: one stop shopping locations (if you're graced with a Supercenter).
 
So my mom is a sniveling demon for shopping at Costco to feed four kids, herself, her husband, and a cat?

Seriously, you know how long one gallon of milk stays available in this house? Three days tops. Hell, we just ate a thing full of mixed fruit and nuts; huge bag.
 
Because of the overwhelming size of Costco, they also have a benefit of carrying products that no other retailer in the area manages to carry, i.e. MYSTIC PIZZAS, perhaps the greatest frozen pizza ever.
 
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