Do you shop or boycott Walmart?

[lyra]

Date: 12/8/2009 11:10:07 PM
Author: Haven
How do they screw over their employees? And do they do so in a way that is any more harmful than other retailers?

I don''t know really. Both of my daughters worked at walmart for over a year. They did not receive bad treatment at all, in fact WM was rather accomodating and flexible. The wage was better than other retailers nearby. They recieved horrendous personal treatment working at McDonalds and Blockbuster.

I don''t see how Walmart is any worse than the other big box retailers. And isn''t Sam''s Club the same thing? I''m sure Target, Kmart, and all related stores follow the same practices. I''ve seen Walmart come to my former hometown and actually create a lot of jobs and bring in goods and services not available before. It''s not always a bad thing. It''s easy to look down on these stores, but for some people, there aren''t so many choices in shopping and making a dollar stretch.

 

[Elmorton]

Here''s the link to the documentary I mentioned earlier, which describes a lot of the points other people have brought up:
Walmart: High Cost of Low Price

 

[isaku5]

When we heard that a Walmart ''might'' be coming to town, our then current retailers fought their best to get our town council to stop it. Most of us fought with them, but we lost....As area residents, DH and I refused to darken their door for years and pleaded with others to do the same.

However, I''m sorry to say that once our granddaughter was born, WM was the only place we could find many of the things she wanted/needed. After upteen shopping trips to Toronto, we came home empty handed and had to patronize that darn retailer. We certainly don''t go in often, but when we can''t find a certain product that we can''t get anywhere else, we reluctantly venture in.

 

[diamondringlover]

I shop at Walmart!

 

[Logan Sapphire]

We only shop at Wal-mart on rare occasions, mostly because the ones near us make me feel gross and dirty. My husband put himself through 4 years of college (3 of those years were at an expensive private school) by working there. He hates Wal-mart not necessarily because of the business/ethical practices, but more because the stores are always so crowded and customer service is not-so-great. His opinion is that the company really went downhill after Sam Walton died. However, he worked at several different Wal-marts (due to a change in colleges), and they all were very accommodating to him and his schedule.

BTW, we only have one car and it''s a Saturn, and we''re not big fans. Despite the fact that both my BILs are car engineers in Detroit for American companies, we regret we didn''t buy the Toyota!