Poll about shopping @ Walmart (or other "evil" companies)

[Coventina]

I'm curious about how DU members feel about their shopping habits. I've made this poll about Walmart, but it can really apply to any company that applies to your situation. So give me your thoughts! I'm really curious.

[liberal N proud]

1. I shop there because I get a discount at Wal-Mart

My wife gave Wal-Mart 20+ years of company service. She started there back when Sam still ran the company and they promoted American Made products. When they valued their employees.
We get a life time discount on non-perishable goods as part of her benefit and company service. Hard to turn that down.
We still go elsewhere when a more quality product is available.
I also know that SOME of the stories you hear about Wal-Mart and how they treat people are either isolated to specific managers or false. We are fairly well versed in the Wal-Mart culture after this many years and although it is not the company Sam Walton started and has grown too large, we have to deal with them and can not stop them. The only thing the consumers and workers can do is affect change within Wal-Mart through shopping practices and lobbying them for change.

[opihimoimoi]

2. How is it this store is EVIL??? Whad dey do to earn dis?

[NeedleCast]

3. I don't think the stores are evil

in the same manner that I don't think guns are evil or Dungeons and Dragons is evil or any other inanimate object can have any sort of emotional feeling. That being said, their business practices are not what I would consider good. They have a reputation for putting "mom-and-pop" small, local businesses out of business because the little guys can't compete with Wal-Mart volume pricing.

I travel a lot for work, so I admit I occasionally go to a Wal-Mart or Target when I need item (x) and don't know where to get it locally, but in my own community, I steer toward smaller, community friendly businesses.

[Breeze54]

4. Read it and weep....

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/#gender">The Real Facts About Wal-Mart

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/research/">Research done on Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart & Nazis Again!

snip-->

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/nazishirts/

On Nov. 9, 2006, a blog named Bent Corner revlealed that Wal-Mart was selling
a t-shirt with the insignia of Nazi Germany’s 3rd SS Division Totenkopf.

On Nov. 13, 2006, Wal-Mart said it would stop selling and immediately remove
the t-shirts with the Nazi insignia.

But, last week, bloggers from Consumerist were still able to buy the offensive
t-shirt at a Wal-Mart store in Georgia.

This outrage prompted 21 members of the U.S. Congress, led by Rep. Jan Schakowsky,
to write Wal-Mart and say, “We are gravely dismayed about Wal-Mart’s inaction on
its pledge to remove this product from its stores, and we ask that you take immediate
steps to comply with last November’s commitment to remove this offensive merchandise
from your shelves.”

There is no explanation why Wal-Mart is still selling the offensive t-shirt which
it agreed to pull from its shelves over 3 months ago.

In addition, this is the second incident in less than 2 years that Wal-Mart has used a Nazi image.


-------------------------------------------------------------------


Wal-Mart discriminates against women

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/#gender


* In 2001, six women sued Wal-Mart in California claiming the company discriminated against women by systematically denying them promotions and paying them less than men. The lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart,
has expanded to include more than 1.6 million current and former female employees, and was certified
on June 21 2004 as the largest class action lawsuit ever.

* In 2001, while more than two-thirds of Wal-Mart's hourly workers were female, women held only
one-third of managerial positions and made up less than 15 percent of store managers. This is all
despite women having had on average longer seniority and higher merit ratings than their male
counterparts. Stacking Up Against the World’s Biggest Company,"” Financial Times 11, 11/20/03]

* In 2001, women managers on average earned $14,500 less than their male counterparts.
Female hourly workers earned on average $1,100 less than male counterparts.

* In 2001, for the same job classification, women earned from 5 percent to 15 percent less than men,
even after taking into account factors such as seniority and performance.

[Bentcorner]

15. Wow! Wal-Mart is selling Nazi t-shirts?

[orleans]

7. follow this link:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/

and then watch the movie

[Breeze54]

10. Wal-Mart: it's just not American anymore - You Tube video

Our Latest TV Ad

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

Watch our powerful new TV ad, and see for yourself how Wal-Mart,

after shipping thousands of American jobs to China, is just not American anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEzm27Xjmmg

Buy America or Buy China?

It's time to tell Wal-Mart to be American again.

Don't let Wal-Mart continue to ship our good-paying, middle class jobs overseas.

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/chinaletter">Please write your Member of Congress

and tell him/her to stand up for America, not Wal-Mart and China.


-----------------------------------------

Read Sam Walton’s ‘Buy America’ letter.
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/downloads/sam-imports.pdf

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. I Shop There Every Now And Then Cause I Feel Like It.

Same reason I shop anywhere else.

[Rosemary2205]

6. My Walmart is NOT wheelchair friendly and I try hard to avoid them.

I always manage to pick up gum on my wheelchair in the parking lot. There's never any handicapped spots avail or else some idiot has parked in the blocked off area between handicapped spots to make room for the lift. The customers in there are total freaking retards - they see you coming with a wheelchair and act like you've ruined their day because they have to get the cart out of the exact middle of an aisle -- or else they completely ignore you and when you finally break down and try to move their cart they have a hissy. -- and cashiers don't seem to understand the concept that cannot reach the big items they plop on the very top of that bag turnstyle and almost always get snotty when I ask them if they can hand it to me or put it in my cart.

I have similar type problems at my local Kroger.

Fortunately Target and Publix are much more wheelchair friendly - I cannot really put my finger on what the difference is, but I don't seem to be constantly dodging retarded customers and their carts the whole time and having to watch what skank is in the parking lot every move I make.


Yeah I know, sounds like a crabby rant city.

[SoCalDem]

8. other..

I am at the stage of my life where I am "divesting"..not buying..

We buy very little..and when we do , we usually buy at Target..

I do not shop at places with a company philosophy that runs counter to my own..

When Sam's Club calls me to try and get me to join, I always tell the caller that I do not like their politics, so I only use Costco..

[hobbit709]

On our budget, Walmart is upscale shopping

[ThomWV]

9. One Is Being Built Today In This County - It Will Destroy Every Small Retail Business In The County

Within 2 years, mark my words.

[China_cat]

11. Try living here

15 Wal-Marts (10 superstores) and one Sam's Club within a 25 mile radius. (And 2 denied the permits they needed)

We have a very hard time finding local business people. They are about as rare and endangered as cloud leopards. The only saving grace is that we DO have Costco.

[Bentcorner]

14. What small retail businesses specifically do you think will be destroyed?

[Lil Missy]

12. I shop there only when I have to, otherwise try to avoid it.

[gratuitous]

13. Just because I think Wal-Mart is evil

I don't pass any judgment on the folks who shop there, a distinction that often gets lost. I make sure that my friends and acquaintances know how I feel about Wal-Mart, and I keep them abreast of their latest transgressions against labor, but if someone shops at Wal-Mart, I don't know anything about their circumstances, so I don't have anything to say about that, except that I hope that with the information about Wal-Mart, they will at least make an informed choice.

[ellenfl]

16. no wal-mart for me . . . not 'evil' but decidedly 'greedy' and

with no social conscience at all . . . or any other redeeming quality. they are one of the families behind killing the inheritance tax which DOES NOT affect small business or farms . . . only the waltons and paris hiltons of this world.

ellen fl

[NoPasaran]

17. I don't shop at WalMart because I'm a liberal elitist

And I hate the very idea of rubbing shoulders with the hicks and hillbillies who do shop there.