Friday Blog Round-Up: Human Rights and Superconsumers

Seems that going after Wal-Mart wasn’t enough.......now, it’s Tesco’s turn to face the wrath of the mighty union.

lookin for my main man matt.you all see him cause i want to learn about being about.wonder if he price’in and countin at the local ufcw grocer or target or any of them high priced china shops when you can get that china crap at your fn local walmart.matt you need to come into the radar and we can both light up the screen.missing you.

..HRC has not called for a boycott of Wal-Mart but instead urged supporters to “shop elsewhere”...

There’s a distinction that escapes me. All you Wal-Mart boycotters out there are now Wal-Mart Shop Elsewheres.

It appears that you anti Walmart people are completely divorced from reality.

You continually talk about how Walmart is going down.  Then you go look at the newspapers and find out that Walmart is actually doing very well.

All WMW is doing is wasting millions of dollars of hard working union membe’s money.

John in OKC: That’s not quite correct, John. This is merely a legal separation,the completion of the divorce decree has yet to be finalized.

P.S.: And, if WMW has agreed to maing the alimony payments,what’s it to you? Are you a third party in the divorce?

tThat should have been “making”

..Walmart is actually doing very well.

By all means, John in OKC, give us some examples.

Go Missouri!

In the last two days I have visited a Walmart, a Target and a K-Mart.

The Walmart was busy on Sunday morning.  The K-Mart was almost empty on both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.  The Target was not empty, but not nearly as busy as the Walmart on Saturday afternoon.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Target.  It is a neat store, but they are tending to be more a specialty store.  They do not even stock computers.  K-Mart is practically worthless.  Unfortunately, neither a Sam’s Club or Costco was available.

John in OKC: Have you ever been to or heard of Best Buy and Circuit City? If you know the particular model computer you are searching for, or of ANY items (electronics or otherwise) you may be seeking,you can go to BizRate.com, type in your preferred item-Presto,you’ll get a competetive price list for online merchants stocking your item.(No tax,and at times,free shipping,too!)

ddrb - NEWSFLASH - not ALL towns have a Best Buy/Circuit City within reach.

And many towns in rural America still do not have access to broadband internet, which kills the online shopping (ever tried dial-up in 2007?  Not a pretty sight).

Point is your suggestions, while they can work for some, they don’t work for all which is where Walmart comes-in.

John

Just for future reference, there are 5 Sam’s Clubs in the OKC area. 3 in OKC, 1 in Norman, and 1 (the first sam’s built) in Midwest City.

As for Costco unfortunately there are NONE in the state of Oklahoma as of yet. I do look forward to buying my membership as soon as they open their first store.

bbrd:  Point is---That’s why it’s called a “suggestion- “I don’t know what is available to John. I would assume,perhaps wrongly,that since he’s capable of posting via internet here, wouldn’t that presuppose access to internet shopping sites and their avaiablity to him??

ddrd

I live in Midwest City and I can assure you that John has access to Best Buy’s/ Circuit Cities/ Sam’s/ High speed dial up/ cable T.V./ and Higher Education. I think that most of the state has indoor plumbing as well.

Big D: Perhaps he has CHOSEN not to avail himself of some of these amenities???

Big D.  For your information, not all OKCs are Oklahoma City.

ddrb.  I looked in a Best Buy, K-Mart, Circuit City, Walmart, Office Max, Office Depot and Target for a computer.  I was surprised that Target did not stock computers.  I ended up buying in a Circuit City because in this particular case, they had the best price for exactly what I wanted.

John in OKC: You still might want to consider my suggestion. I know I’ve been able to save lots of $$ on shipping and especially tax, on big ticket items,by purchasing over the Internet!

Online shopping for electronics sucks. I recently had to buy and take back 3 or 4 Vista laptops before I found one that worked. I did this with existing big-box stores. This would have been a nightmare if I had to mail order the non-working computers and send them back over and over.

As for computers at Wal-Mart, they tend to cost 20% more than the ones at Best Buy. The Sams Club ones were even more expensive. Wal-Mart may provide the best deal much of the time, but not all of the time.

economic realist

I agree about the on-line shopping.

Your comments about computers costing 20% more at Walmart is wrong.  I looked at Toshibas, Acers, HP and Compaqs at Walmart, Sams Club, Best Buy and a number of other retailers.  They were the least expensive at Sam’s Club and Walmart.  Best Buy came in last.  I ended up buying at Circuit city because I like Toshiba and the only Toshiba’s that Walmart had were some of the more expensive models.  I found exactly what I wanted at Circuit City.

John in OKC: I can understand one’s concerns when buying electronic equipment-there is always the issue of service after the sale. (But I bought a piece of electronic equpment at a retailer locally,and had to send it back to the manufacturer for repair.) I don’t know if this is standard procedure-I’m not too much of a techie. I can unequivically say that I saved thousands of $$$ buying some furniture,off the web...and delivered and set up in my home. Bizrate is the best site for price comparison shopping,IMHO.

Wal-Mart really isn’t exacty doing well at all if you actually read the papers.Wal-mart is cost cutting new store opening ,stocks for wal-mart are going down ,alo one should realize that many people in several communities accrose the country are also banning Wal-Mart stores from opening.One also needs to remember that Wal-Mart also doesn’t list EVERYTHING bad about the company and while Wal-Mart is trying to publicize that they are infact a good company thier image of the Wal-Mart Corp is ruined everytime Lee Scott opens his mouth.Truth be told I for one don’t preffer Wal-Mart and I have begun boycotting the 4 we have in our city we don’t need Wal-Mart.Target,K-Mart,Shopko, and Home Depot is all we need.Fact is I live 2 blocks away from No-Frills,Kroger , and a Dollar Store so yes my money goes farther than goin to Wal-Mart. As for my clothing I just goto a retail outlet 5 miles away that’s better than going 20 miles to Wal-Mart.As for dial up I’ve had net zero never bothered me when I shopped on-line one only needs patience. For computer’s and computer part’s I buy those online along with my DVD’s so yes one has alot of opprotunities if one can utilize the power. And to that dumb Matthew think of it like this if Wal-mart is so wonderful why does it make its employees depend on federal aid and federal healthcare?Why does Wal-Mart depend on its employee’s to help out other employee’s in bad time’s? Reason being Wal-Mart is greedy and the companies over sight of this greed is being its down fall,Point proven Wal-Mart is slowing down opening stores because thier other stores are only 4-5 miles away from each other,3 of our Wal-Mart’s are 10 miles within each other so each store cuts into the other stores profit.Mass opening of stores has cost Wal-Mart more than they bargain for.We have 4 targets in this city however they are between 20-40 miles inbetween so there you go.Wal-Mart doesn’t list all of it’s problems to the media because it will humiliate them more than Lee Scott has but not by much.Wal-Mart care’s more about the public image than anything else but remember the old saying “Looks Are Decieving”

*Some Words may be misspelled but at least I have the bravery to say it*

Consumer buyer.  Apparently 75% of the population disagrees with you since they continue to happily shop at Walmart.

It doesn’t take much bravery to say anti Walmart things on this sire.  However, it does take some bravery to post pro Walmart things.  I was just blocked as “John”.

John(boy) - absolutely amazing, but certainly not surprising.

As we pull back the curtain, we get a better look at the REAL WMW........

...we get a better look at the REAL WMW........

Oh no! Not a conspiracy! Perhaps you were “blocked” because of the content of your posts, and not the ‘name’ you posted under?

Ken V - you mean..........

“The Walmart was busy on Sunday morning.  The K-Mart was almost empty on both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.  The Target was not empty, but not nearly as busy as the Walmart on Saturday afternoon.”

Yeah, I guess a statement like that could be considered Nick-level “controversial”, if I worked for WMW.

Ken V - you mean..........

No. What I mean is that’s one store. This quote from Businessweek is more what I mean:

Wal-Mart disclosed a year and a half ago that same-store sales were rising 10 times, or 1,000%, faster at the 800 best-managed outlets than at the 800 worst-run ones. Equally shocking was its admission that 25% of its stores failed to meet minimum expectations of cleanliness, product availability, checkout times, and so on.

You know. The Big Picture!

consumer buddy how about all the people at the ufcw union grocery stores you shop at and love so dearly and all their folks on the govt food stamp and welfare doles? they have more workers on food stamps and welfare across the country because of poverty level wages and lack of quality hrs at their union grocery stores across the country than walmart does.got an answer on that pal?walmart workers are not on welfare or all this bs of govt assistance programs either.you are buying too much of the govt and ufcw union bs bud.pull your head out of the sand.

funny consumer target takes business away from places you shop at we dont hear shit from you.walmart does the same thing you bitch?explain why you dont bitch about target doing the same thing?

Ken V in Texas: One of the issues originally included on this thread referred to toxic toys. There is another astonishing tale of toxic toys,with a” twist"-an accusation of shoplifting and arrest of concerned citizen attempting to get a Dora the Explorer lamp taken off the WalMart shelves.(It was on recall list.) Go to Spprawl-Busters,type in newsflash-re: Des Arcs,Arkansas. It’s also on Huffington Post.I guess this proves the old adage that, “No good deed goes unpunished!”

A Wal-Mart Xmas Toy Story