dagblog - Comments for "The Walmart Saga: Empty Shelves, Full Exec Pockets"

I remember the last time I

Tim Danahey — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:33:52 +0000

In reply to The Walmart Saga: Empty Shelves, Full Exec Pockets

I remember the last time I was in Wal-mart five years ago. I was in Sheridan, Wyoming for a construction project, it was Sunday, and I needed rubber boots due to mud/snow. I still have self-loathing for succumbing to their accessibility. Next time, rather than face the moral consequences, I choose to slog in my work boots.

We'll see ... Few people

MrSmith1 — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:25:44 +0000

In reply to I was finally able to read

We'll see ... Few people believed that Walmart could come into their town and devastate their mom and pop small businesses ... until they did.

Walmart has never played fair and if what they do results in something good for consumers, you have to ask, at what price?

Congrats & Welcome to the

synchronicity — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:25:21 +0000

In reply to The Walmart Saga: Empty Shelves, Full Exec Pockets

Congrats & Welcome to the club. I just renewed my
Costco membership. I buy all of my gas at Costco and I purchase organic meat and high quality chocolate there regularly. My daughter and I share a membership so it makes it even better. We both stopped shopping at Walmart a few years ago. I feel good about supporting businesses that are treating their employees well. I would love to support more of them by voting for their business with my dollars. Here's hoping it catches on.

I was finally able to read

Ramona — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:25:00 +0000

In reply to It's a lot different when

I was finally able to read that article, MrSmith. For some reason it wouldn't load before. I can't see it happening the way the title suggests. The liability would be enormous, for one thing.

What I read was that they're looking at shipping online orders from local stores, but the idea of using customers to help deliver goods is in the talking stages and not expected to go much further.

Wal-Mart has millions of customers visiting its stores each week. Some of these shoppers could tell the retailer where they live and sign up to drop off packages for online customers who live on their route back home, Anderson explained.

Wal-Mart would offer a discount on the customers' shopping bill, effectively covering the cost of their gas in return for the delivery of packages, he added.

"This is at the brain-storming stage, but it's possible in a year or two," said Jeff McAllister, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. innovations.

Indeed, the likelihood of this being broadly adopted across the company's network of more than 4,000 stores in the United States is low, according to Matt Nemer, a retail analyst at Wells Fargo Securities.

"I'm sure it will be a test in some stores," he added. "But they may only keep it for metro markets and for higher-priced items."

By the way, we get our prescriptions through WalMart and they're shipped free via UPS. Sometimes we get them the next day. Our doctor keeps the WalMart generic list in his office ($3/30 days or $10/90 days) and tries to prescribe accordingly. So there are a few things WalMart does right. (WalMart's move in that direction has prompted other major drug stores and supermarkets with pharmacies to do the same or nearly the same. That's a good thing, too.)

It's a lot different when

MrSmith1 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:20:22 +0000

In reply to Oh, boy, leave it to WalMart!

It's a lot different when you're in a somewhat remote location, like Nantucket or Whidbey island ... this is not islanders helping each other out because the mail service doesn't go there every day, or UPS only gets there once a week. This is a deliberate attempt to eliminate their costs of doing business by using free labor and thus avoid hiring workers or using services like UPS, FedEx and the USPS. It's unconscionable.

Oh, boy, leave it to WalMart!

Ramona — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:54:48 +0000

In reply to If there was ever any doubt

Oh, boy, leave it to WalMart! We do this all the time up in the north country, though on a much smaller scale. We were in a GFS 60 miles away from home last summer and someone up front yelled, "Anyone going to the island today?" So we delivered a case of coffee cups to the gas station on our way home.

People make requests like that on our local Facebook pages all the time. Nobody ever thought to make a business out of it.

If there was ever any doubt

MrSmith1 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:36:47 +0000

In reply to The Walmart Saga: Empty Shelves, Full Exec Pockets

If there was ever any doubt that Walmart is pure evil, their latest idea proves it. In order to compete with Amazon.com, Walmart is thinking about asking their in-store customers to deliver packages to their online shoppers. It's not enough to bust unions anymore, it's now asking the masses to assist in putting their own neighbors out of work. Unbelievable.

Down in the south where we're

Ramona — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:11:06 +0000

In reply to I also noticed that items

Down in the south where we're snowbirding we shop at Kroger's, which also has the gas plan. We're leaving here on Saturday so we'll fill up tomorrow and we'll get 20 cents a gallon off of our gas price. Our daughter is here, too, so we'll do the same thing you do. We can get 35 gallons on that 20 cents off so it'll be enough to fill both tanks. Every little bit counts.

With the savings on our costs up north in the winter (electricity, propane, satellite dish, internet, etc.) it costs us only a little more to head south and spend the winter in relative warmth. Because everything is at such a distance up north (120 mile round-trip to the city) we spend a fortune on gas for our car. Down here everything is within a few miles, and the gas prices are 40 to 50 cents a gallon less than they are up north, so the savings on gas alone is pretty significant.

But you're right. WalMart does have competition in most places and it's easy to side-step them. It's the ease of one-stop shopping that is often the lure.

Momoe, that's fascinating!

Ramona — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:33:00 +0000

In reply to Walmart's customer decline

Momoe, that's fascinating! Yes, I remember when they gutted the fabric department, too. Stupid. But soon after they opened a WalMart up north in the town where I shop they also opened a small JoAnnes, so it was no big loss.

When I lived on Maui the clothes were so expensive if I wanted Hawaiian muu muus for me and my daughters and Hawaiian shirts for my husband and my son I had to make them. I bought my fabric at the Ben Franklin and they had such a huge stock of gorgeous fabrics I went nuts trying to decide which to choose. I brought lengths of fabric back with me and when my husband and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary we chose a Hawaiian theme and I made our "fancy duds" out of that fabric. I still have them tucked away. I can't bear to give them away because they're like works of art to me.

Anyway, I thought of it when you mentioned Ben Franklin. On Maui in the 60s the stores stayed open late on Friday nights and for some reason everybody dressed up and met at the Kahului Shopping Center, where the anchor store was the Ben Franklin. It was the only big store on the entire island and it had everything. Somehow we managed to get along without a WalMart. (But, yes, WalMart is there now.)

Yes, to your last comment.

Ramona — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:17:41 +0000

In reply to Good question Ramona, but as

Yes, to your last comment. And if there are other major super stores doing it, we should stop shopping there, too. I'm looking to write a piece about the right-wingedness of the home improvement superstores soon. You just can't get away from those bastards.