Quote:
Originally Posted by UtahDan
I live in an town that has a large outlying area that is pretty rural and our super Walmart draws every single lower class country person of every race for miles and miles and miles. The vast majority of them don't work there. I think there is little question for them that cheaper groceries and other items are a net plus in their lives. My wife and I were snobby at first about shopping there until we were forced to one day and realized how much less expensive groceries are there (a lot less) and now that is where we go too.
I think it depends on where it is located. I can see how in a city or even a nice suburb those jobs are not very good. But in a small town with a lot of unskilled uneducated labor, that is actually a pretty good job for a lot of people. No question Walmart is a net plus in my small town, not least of all for the tax revenue it provides. Certainly it has hurt a few small store owners who it has put out of business.
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I didn't mean to imply that they *all* work at Walmart. I meant that Walmart is so powerful it keeps the wages across the sector down, and all of those employees, regardless of employer, have no choice but to shop there.
It's interesting that you and your wife, and my husband and I, came to opposite conclusions. When we realized (1) what percentage of our budget was going directly to walmart (it was staggering) and (2) how absurdly low the prices were compared to the rest of the market and (3) what kind of business practices they're using, we decided to - as much as it's possible anymore in Oklahoma - discontinue shopping there. It's not worth the 10-15% savings to us.