Zogby: Nearly 4 In 10 Americans Hold Unfavorable Opinion Of Wal-Mart

[Mark E. Smith]

New National Zogby Poll Finds Americans Hold Diverse, Strong, & Increasingly Negative Opinions About Wal-Mart.

A national survey of American adults, conducted by Zogby Int'l, indicated that 38 percent of American adults now hold an unfavorable opinion of Wal-Mart. The results of the poll also found that a clear majority of the American public (55%) have a less favorable opinion of Wal-Mart based on what they have recently seen, heard, or read.

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1045

[liberal N proud]

1. But they all continue to shop Wal-Mart

[WI_DEM]

2. not necessarily

they can still do the type of business they are doing with the 62% who do approve of them or have no opinion.

[LynneSin]

3. Yes, there's till 50 % of the population that loves the place

But then again there was like 80% that supported Bush when we went to war in Iraq back in 2003.

The good thing is it seems the numbers are increasing which means we need to keep pushing the issue. Revolution is not something that happens overnight but will happen if we are persistant enough!

[UrbScotty]

9. Not all - ESPECIALLY not me (nt)

[napi21]

4. Do you know ANYONE who really LIKES WM?

I know several people who hate that company, but still shop there because they just don't have enough $$ to shop based on principle.

I have personally NEVER met anyone who really likes WM.

[anotherdrew]

6. never. and that goes back 10 years.

[VegasWolf]

7. Judging from Free Republic, a lot of FReepers like WalMart, they can

get their hunting and fishing supplies there.

[Chovexani]

8. My fundie suburbanite sister

Just looooves the cheap prices at the Wally World across the road from her subdivision and goes there at every opportunity, despite my trying to educate her. The thing is, she's not exactly poor (not rich, but hell she ain't exactly hurting), so she can definitely afford to shop elsewhere.

For some people cheap is all that matters, regardless of WHY. :(

[azmouse]

14. Well, at least we turned out alright despite our mothers! LOL

:hi:

[Chovexani]

15. LOL

I hear ya. :hi:

[azmouse]

11. My mom loves Walmart

I've tried to talk to her about how badly they treat their employees and how they are ruining America but she just doesn't care. It drives me nuts! I won't even go into the store with her; I wait outside. Otherwise my mom is a good Dem and hates Bush with a passion. Even telling her that Walmart donates to the Reps doesn't faze her. :banghead:

[Chovexani]

12. My mom's exactly the same way

Also a Bush-hating Dem that loves Walmart despite my trying to educate her. She's even gone so far as to tease me whenever the subject comes up, making fun of my "crusade". It's all about cheap at any cost to her.

Thankfully we don't live anywhere near a Wally World (thank the gods for living in Union Blue Brooklyn), so her only opportunity to shop there is when she visits my sister in MD suburban strip mall hell.

[napi21]

16. I suspect your mom's attitude is a product of age.

I'm not criticizing her, hell, I'm 62! When I was first married in 1964, my weekly grocery bill was always under $10.00, and that included buying cigaretts (25 cents a pack!) and dog food. It stayed under $10.00 even after we had our first son and included formula. Our new house was $14,500, and I never spent more than $5.00 on clothes. I still could NEVER pay $20,000 for a car!

When I grocery shop today, I always buy sales items because there's just no way I can mentally justify spending $6 or $8 a pound for lunch meat, or $5.00 a pound for a roast!!! I wait for end of season clearances for clothes too.

We can't forget our past, and I bet that's a big part of the reason your Mom thinks she loves WM.

I won't shop there. Partly because of the way they treat their employees and even worse treatment of their vendors, but also because the junk they sell is exactly that...JUNK!

Buy things on sale, shop at good resale shops, and stay away from convenience items, and you can beat WM all the time.

[Lorien]

20. See post #18. n/t

[Sinistrous]

5. Not a bad start

but let's keep getting the word out.

Sinistrous

[Nickdfresh]

10. Bait N' Switch

Wal-Mart's not even that cheap really. According to an ex-manager, now turned union activists profiled on PBS's Frontline program, they rely heavily on bait-and-switch advertising techniques.

Personally, when I used to shop there, I'd leave pissed because of what a crowded hell it could be all politics aside.

[Angry Girl]

13. A list of some anti-Wal-Mart sites

Please add your links too!

Time to Target Wal-Mart
AlterNet.Org's EXCELLENT coverage of Wal-Mart - and don't forget to check out the info in the left-hand column!
http://alternet.org/walmart/28263/

A national public education campaign to challenge the world's largest retailer
http://walmartwatch.com/

Giving Americans the tools to change the world's largest employer. WakeUpWalMart.com is about Americans joining together in common purpose to change Wal-Mart
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

A new weapon for Wal-Mart: A war room
Propaganda by Wal-Mart
http://www.spinwatch.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1835

Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him
Yet another reason to despise Wal-Mart
http://progressive.org/mag_mc100405

Symbol of the System
What do you get when you cross gutted labor laws with a corporate culture of impunity? Why, Wal-Mart, of course!
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2377/

Open Doors, Closed Minds
From our December issue (full content): How one Wal-Mart true believer was excommunicated for his faith in doing what he thought the company expected of him: crying foul.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10574

Billionaires R Us
Wal-Mart's Walton family now has 771,287 times more money than the median U.S. household. What gives?
http://alternet.org/walmart/27168/

The Hometown Advantage
Suggestions on how to strengthen local economices and defend your main street from chain stores.
http://www.newrules.org/retail/index.php

[donkeyotay]

17. So, almost 40% now dislike WM and 55% will soon be joining them?

I wonder what the shareholders will say.

I've been in a WM twice in my life. The first time it sucked. I went back a second time and it still sucked. WM is completely unnecessary. We have an employee-owned "mart" that's just as good, a much more pleasant shopping experience, and you don't have to worry about neighbors who HATE WM because it's destroying the grocery store they work for going postal on you.

Kind of ironic that it got started with a "buy American" message.

[BenDavid]

18. Okay, so a majority

in here wants to bring down Wal-mart. Okay bring it down and put thousands out of work. Why not bring the pressure more so to changing the policies at Wal-Mart and not put in jeopardy the workers.
Goodness, most seem to think that Wal-mart went out and forced all the employees to come to work for them. A person made up their mind and it was their decision to work there. Whatever the pay is. Whatever the benefits are or a lack of. People choose to work at Wal-Mart. People choose to shop at Wal-Mart. I choose to buy my groceries at Wal-Mart. I chose to write the coporate headquarters and tell them my thoughts about the issue you all have raised in here, but I will not be one to cause someone to lose their job because I stopped buy groceries.
Think about it. Hell, maybe one day people will find something wrong at your place of work and boycott it and you lose your job.

[Lorien]

19. Shopping at Wal-Mart costs America thousands of jobs and dollars

already. Supporting Wal-Mart supports an overall reduction of worker's rights and benefits and drains dollars from local economies while benefiting Chinese factories that also abuse workers.

Or, for a very simple explanation: www.jibjab.com (Big Box)

The old GOP argument that by not supporting a corrupt institution one is not supporting poor unfortunate workers is utter bullshit here. Sure, you have the "choice" to support an uber-red company that abuses it's workforce and contributes heavily to the GOP, but don't kid yourself; it's not a moral or pro-worker, pro-American, pro-Democratic, pro-environment, or pro-economic health choice. It's a choice to spend a little less now and risk losing your entire paycheck later to overseas workers.

Oh, and yes-people do boycott my employer (Disney). But do you know what's a greater threat to my job than Christian fundies who are pissed about my company's benefit support of gay partners? Cheap Chinese labor. Wal-Mart has lead the way as China's #1 customer, and the corporate profits haven't gone unnoticed by other corporations. Already the department I once worked for- Feature Animation-has been shuttered and outsourced to S. Korea. Short term profits and cheap foreign goods will eventually destroy the American economy.

[TommyO]

21. consider this:

If you shop for groceries at another local food store, you support the employees of that store and keep them from losing their jobs. In the same shopping center as my local Wallyworld Supercenter is an employee-owned grocery store, across the street is a Wegmans (Forbes #1 employer as rated by their employees) - guess where I shop? Hint, it's not at Wal-Mart!

Wal-Mart would need to do an awful lot to get me to shop there, including much better labor and supplier practices, as well as apologies and reparations for their past behavior.