Quote:
Walmart goes into communities, usually small ones, lowers prices until the local stores can't compete and go out of business, then raises prices back up, just when the local wages go down because Walmart is the only employer in town.

Not to mention that they're still riding on their pro-US-manufacturers binge a while back (before Sam Walton died, maybe?) despite the fact that they do as little business with them as possible (not that I can blame a bottom-of-the-barrel discount store for going Chinese).

And their poor employee treatment doesn't help. I don't know about you, but the places I've had my tires put on weren't places like Pep Boys or JustTires, either, but local honest mechanics, who I feel much better about patronizing.

When you add onto all that the fact that it's just a terrible, terrible, store with the dregs of humanity working there as both managers and clerks (sorry: register-monkeys and stockboys), and it takes half an hour just to stand in line to pay for something, I cannot envision ever setting foot in that store again.

Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia has a good list of Wal-Mart criticisms.

Amen.
These are the reasons to boycott Walmart.
edit: Is there any truth to the story that Walmart maintains a large portion of its workforce as 'part time' employees (with the result being the exclusion of such employees from benefit packages)?

Shop where you like, fine with me. I vote with my dollars going to the local shops.
Furthermore- I avoid 'chain garages' like the plague. I worked as a mechanic and in the parts supply world. It's worth it to find a good local mechanic that you can trust.
It's too easy to hide behind the anonymity of the big-name shops.
In general, I don't mind spending the difference in price for the peace of mind that the job is done right- and believe me, the job is done wrong more often in a big-name shop than in a small local one.
My $0.02.


Edited by Robotic (14/07/2005 21:25)
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