Why I Do Not Shop at Walmart

I avoid Wal-Mart whenever possible, but living in a tiny town makes it impossible sometimes. The closest Target is 40 miles away. The local grocery store is overpriced and not exactly the cleanest store I’ve been in.

As much as I hate Wal-Mart, it has become a necessary evil for many Americans struggling to make ends meet.

I’ve never heard anything good about Wal-Mart, other than that their prices are cheap. They treat their employees badly, which you already know, and shut down Mom & Pop businesses in small towns across the country, like in Brian’s hometown. But like Denise said, there isn’t much of a choice for shopping where his family lives because the nearest Target is probably about 40 miles away.

Me, I LOVES me my Target! Most aren’t open 24 hours, but they’re still pretty cheap and their stuff, though not the best, is certainly of better quality than Wal-Mart’s. I’ve bought some clothes from there that aren’t too bad. I don’t know anything about how they treat their employees, though.

Don’t get me wrong–I don’t love all the clothes there, either, but they have some nice plain Ts for pretty cheap, so I have a whole bunch of short- and long-sleeved in all different colors! They’re a good source for socks and underwear, though. I’m not exactly a Victoria’s Secret kind of girl. Well, for one thing, they don’t carry my size. :whistle:

I saw that movie. We have a copy on DVD. I thought it was pretty good, but there’s one thing I noticed about it. Movies (along with books, articles, etc.) of this type rarely feature any kind of local comparison when they talk about overseas factories operated by American companies.

Sometimes, not always — sometimes, these hellhole factories with 14 hours shifts and no bathroom breaks for a dollar a week are actually the best opportunity in town.

I agree unequivocally that many corporations are turning unwitting consumers into accidental slave laborers and that American companies should do as much as possible to ensure fair wages and humane working conditions.

But it is unfair to omit that some of these factories are actually raising living standards by giving workers a salary in third-world shitholes where most people live in abject poverty as shack-dwelling subsistence farmers.

Mind you, I’m not defending Wal-Mart. I worked for that company for years (and my Barb still does). I’ve seen first hand and in glorious Technicolor the vile things that company does to its own workers. There’s no doubt in my mind that company, and those like it, should conduct business more appropriately.

But still… fairness demands we put everything in context.

Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. I’m just sayin’… perspective.

Like others have said, a lot of towns haven’t got anyplace to buy things. Like my home town. There isn’t anything within 45 minutes except Wal*Mart and even then it’s a 20 minute drive. There is a market, but they have limited selections and they are very expensive and for a town that size, a lot of folks cannot afford to shop there or drive the extra 45 minutes to the supermarket.

I personally don’t shop at Wal*Mart here in California because of their clientèle.

I think you also have to remember that those jobs in China that they pay the small wages to, are the best jobs in their town AND that Wal*Mart isn’t the only ones to use labor like that. Pretty much ANY store, big or small, has things that are made in foreign countries paying their people small wages compared to U.S. wages.

As for the insurance and treatment of their employees, my sister worked for them for 5 years. She did not have any problem getting insurance or working the amount of hours necessary to qualify. She never had problems and only left when she was elected county clerk.

And again, it isn’t just Wal*Mart who keeps employees from getting hours to qualify for benefits. When I was fresh out of college, I worked for a union grocery store. For about 6 months, the bosses there would only work me right up to the line to qualify for “full-time” status. It was through a technicality that I got full time eventually.

So…now that I’ve written a book, let me sum it up by saying again, “It isn’t just Wal*Mart who does this.”

I have long mourned the fact the Wal-Mart has destroyed Main Street USA.

It’s hard to imagine any company can keep going the way they are…it’ll be interesting to see. I hope I can convince more people to stop going to Walmart, at least the ones who can avoid it.

It would have been a lot more complicated to make a movie like this about all the companies and it seems that Walmart may be in the spot light because they’ve taken it all way too far. I hope this movie opens a lot of people’s eyes, just so they are aware.