Walmart.

[ValleyGal]

Our Wal Mart is about five minute drive and it is on-reserve, meaning I can save on taxes. And yes, it's cheaper for a lot of things. I have a butcher a five minute walk from me, which is great for last-minute items if I happen to run out. But when I do a big "shop" I go to Wal Mart. Like I say, I wish I didn't have to. If I did not need my car, chances are I would go to the butcher down the street because I would not be spending upward of $250 per month on my car and could afford to go there.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

I love Walmart.they have so much stuff there and I can always find what I want there.

 

[Nithavela]

Why do I shop there? Hmmm. The Wal Mart here is 1/2 hour away. The local grocer is only 5 minutes away. But who is better?

1. I already go to the "city" (pop. 9,000) around once a week.

2. If I get chicken there, it's usually $5 per packet where as the grocer is about $5.50-$6. The chicken is fresher at Wal Mart.

3. Hamburger, 92% lean, is about the same price as the grocer, but it's not going to go bad on me after sitting in the fridge for half a day. The grocer, frozen hamburger 85% lean, usually starts get rank within an hour after thawing.

4. The bread from Wal Mart can last me 3-4 weeks without being opened (it's the climate). Same brand from the grocer, is about 50 cents per loaf more and I'm lucky if it doesn't get moldy within 4 days.

5. Canned veggies, on sale at the grocer per case, is about 65 cents/can. At Wal Mart, regular price is the same, but on sale any where from 40 to 50 cents/can. One sale had it down to 36 cents a can.

I already drive to the city anyhow, so why not save money and get something decent to eat instead of paying a little extra for food that leaves me wondering if I'm going to get food poisoning from so the mom & pop can stay in business? Let me break this down for you if you don't "get it"-
Drive 30 minutes and pay $5 for a meal.
Drive 5 minutes, pay $6.50 for a meal, and be uncertain if you're gonna spend that night sitting on the toilet playing Rocket Man for a few hours.

Why is walmart so much cheaper?

Why are its goods more reliably of good quality, while still being cheaper?

Why are there food items on sale in smaller shops that go bad within an hour?

 

[bhsmte]

Because it's cheap, and if you are on a budget and can't afford the expensive stores, that's where I go. A lot of hardworking families with mouths to feed can stretch their dollar farther.

I could shop at other stores and pay a bit more, but why pay more when you don't have to.

If I buy 80 dollars worth of groceries at wal mart, the same things would cost me 100 somewhere else. Pretty easy decision for me.

 

[ForJesusChrist]

Take a look at apple.

$300 for a phone. Come on, be real. I could by 3 months worth of groceries for my family with that money.

 

[Cactus Jack]

Why is walmart so much cheaper?

Why are its goods more reliably of good quality, while still being cheaper?

Why are there food items on sale in smaller shops that go bad within an hour?

You tell me.

 

[Tigereyes12]

I could shop at other stores and pay a bit more, but why pay more when you don't have to.

If I buy 80 dollars worth of groceries at wal mart, the same things would cost me 100 somewhere else. Pretty easy decision for me.

That's why they have Wal Mart for people on budgets. It's a win-win.

 

[Nithavela]

Here in Germany, we don't have walmart. There are discount markets, but those save money by buying in huge bulks, and by only selling a small sortiment of stuff, especially the food discounters. The two biggest discounters, Aldi and Lidl, both have only 2-3 choices for each item, and until recently, you couldn't even get coca cola and other brand products in Aldi, only their own no name stuff.

You can also get food for low prices at smaller shops, and while you might miss out on some small savings, you get more choices and the quality is often better.

As is said in the video I posted, low prices aren't free. If you don't pay for the profits, the people who manufacture the goods do, or the people who sell them to you, or the products are produced in a cheap manner. (which doesn't have to mean that they are of a low quality, but those animals from which your meat came most likely didn't live a happy life on the farm, to put it this way...)

There are many reasons to pay more than you have to.

To use an analogue: I am a roleplayer, a reader of fantasy novels and a sometimes player of tabletop wargames (warhammer and warmachine). There is a shop in my small city who sells supplies for each of those hobbies, books for roleplaying and reading, dice, music, figurines for tabletop and so on. It also has space set apart for people to engage in wargaming, roleplaying and trading card gaming.

Now, are they cheaper than any alternative? No, they are not. I could buy my books and other supplies online, and most likely shave off 10% from any purchase. But I still make a point of buying there, or ordering stuff trough them, because with those few extra euros, I pay for the continued existense of this place, which also provides me with a very convenient place for talking about my hobbies and play them.

 

[Armoured]

Most of us shop there but have mixed feelings about the ethics of it. Walmart is like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dollars from local economies.

Well I've never shopped there.

 

[Strathos]

I have always been suspicious of them.

 

[bhsmte]

That's why they have Wal Mart for people on budgets. It's a win-win.

Regardless of whether you are on a tight budget, what is the purpose of paying 20% more for products, when you can get the exact same product for 20% less somewhere else?

 

[Nithavela]

Regardless of whether you are on a tight budget, what is the purpose of paying 20% more for products, when you can get the exact same product for 20% less somewhere else?

Want to adress the reasons I posted for paying more, or are you just going to ask the same question over and over again?

 

[bhsmte]

Want to adress the reasons I posted for paying more, or are you just going to ask the same question over and over again?

Sure no problem:

Why is walmart so much cheaper?

I would think several reasons:
They have a large national footprint, which gives them immense buying power with manufactures and wholesalers. The more you commit to buying, the better price you get. Also, their stores are not fancy by any means and require less overhead to maintain then their other competitors. The employees they hire, can be those that can not find employment elsewhere; older employees, employees that don't have a pleasant physical appearance etc.. As I stated, many of their employees, were likely turned down at other stores and wal mart is able to get them at a lower hourly pay rate, because they are not in demand.

Why are its goods more reliably of good quality, while still being cheaper?

I never claimed their goods were more reliable or of better quality. What I can say is this; I can buy the EXACT same product at wal mart, for 15-20% less than I can any other store and that is compelling to me.

Why are there food items on sale in smaller shops that go bad within an hour?

I never claimed this.

 

[Nithavela]

Wrong post. I meant #28

 

[bhsmte]

Here in Germany, we don't have walmart. There are discount markets, but those save money by buying in huge bulks, and by only selling a small sortiment of stuff, especially the food discounters. The two biggest discounters, Aldi and Lidl, both have only 2-3 choices for each item, and until recently, you couldn't even get coca cola and other brand products in Aldi, only their own no name stuff.

You can also get food for low prices at smaller shops, and while you might miss out on some small savings, you get more choices and the quality is often better.

As is said in the video I posted, low prices aren't free. If you don't pay for the profits, the people who manufacture the goods do, or the people who sell them to you, or the products are produced in a cheap manner. (which doesn't have to mean that they are of a low quality, but those animals from which your meat came most likely didn't live a happy life on the farm, to put it this way...)

There are many reasons to pay more than you have to.

To use an analogue: I am a roleplayer, a reader of fantasy novels and a sometimes player of tabletop wargames (warhammer and warmachine). There is a shop in my small city who sells supplies for each of those hobbies, books for roleplaying and reading, dice, music, figurines for tabletop and so on. It also has space set apart for people to engage in wargaming, roleplaying and trading card gaming.

Now, are they cheaper than any alternative? No, they are not. I could buy my books and other supplies online, and most likely shave off 10% from any purchase. But I still make a point of buying there, or ordering stuff trough them, because with those few extra euros, I pay for the continued existense of this place, which also provides me with a very convenient place for talking about my hobbies and play them.

I believe I answered these same questions in my other post.

As I already stated, it is not about lower quality etc., because I am buying the exact same product I would be buying at another store, but getting it at a lower price.

Regarding the manufacture, as with any business dealing in products they manufacture, if a retailer is going to commit to bying 50% more product from them than other competitors, guess what, it behooves the that manufacture to make it worth wal marts while to make that commitment.

Manufactures will always take lower profit margins in exchange for high volume and this has been going on forever.

 

[Nithavela]

So you are just going to ignore the other reasons I posted, like that by buying at walmart

- You support sweatshop labour
- You support animal products made by abusing animals
- You contribute to the downfall of your local economy, which would be able to offer you services that go further than walmarts
- You contribute to unemployment, and force those unemployed people to then work at walmart
- You support a company that systemetically destroys any attempts to unionize (sometimes closing down entire marts because their workers organise)
- You contribute to pollution because of the long miles the goods have to travel to walmart, instead of coming from your region (because they are cheaper when shipped in from overseas)

and so on.

 

[Ruthie24]

So you are just going to ignore the other reasons I posted, like that by buying at walmart

- You support sweatshop labour
- You support animal products made by abusing animals
- You contribute to the downfall of your local economy, which would be able to offer you services that go further than walmarts
- You contribute to unemployment, and force those unemployed people to then work at walmart
- You support a company that systemetically destroys any attempts to unionize (sometimes closing down entire marts because their workers organise)
- You contribute to pollution because of the long miles the goods have to travel to walmart, instead of coming from your region (because they are cheaper when shipped in from overseas)

and so on.

I agree with all of this but when you are on a tight budget, saving money is the bottom line.

 

[Nithavela]

By all means, if its 'Buy at walmart or starve', buy at walmart. But I was talking to bshmte's point that you should always buy at wallmart, no matter your budget, because it's cheaper there, and that there is no reason to not buy there.

 

[dogs4thewin]

I agree with all of this but when you are on a tight budget, saving money is the bottom line.

Which PROVES that appearntly money is more important than a LOT of things. Raise food yourself sew things yourself. Yes, I shop at walmart, BUT if I had enough issues with them or any other business you quit providing them business. Same applies to people complaining that businesses are open on Sunday do not provide business on that day and they will either be forced to close on Sunday or just be flat out required to close.

 

[bhsmte]

So you are just going to ignore the other reasons I posted, like that by buying at walmart

- You support sweatshop labour
If I am supporting sweat shop labor, I would be supporting it if I bought the same goods at another store.

- You support animal products made by abusing animals

No idea what you are referring to.

- You contribute to the downfall of your local economy, which would be able to offer you services that go further than walmarts

What services am I looking for, other than walking in a store and buying certain products?

- You contribute to unemployment, and force those unemployed people to then work at walmart

On the contrary, I believe wal mart actually help unemployment, because the folks who work at wal mart, likely have trouble finding jobs elsewhere. And, where I live there are plenty of other stores people can work at, as I live in a suburb of a major city and wal mart has boatloads of competition and has for many years.

- You support a company that systemetically destroys any attempts to unionize (sometimes closing down entire marts because their workers organise)

Unions can be good and they can be bad, for the consumers. Unions, almost completely cratered the automobile industry in the United States and they are still recovering from it. Costs became so high and the product was so bad, people stopped buying the product and American car companies are still trying to catch up to the value the Japanese manufactures can provide. I am a consumer when it comes to buying items and I will go for the best value I can find.

- You contribute to pollution because of the long miles the goods have to travel to walmart, instead of coming from your region (because they are cheaper when shipped in from overseas)

Again, maybe you aren't getting this, but the vast majority of the products I purchase at wal mart, are the same brand products I would buy if I shopped elsewhere and that product would still need to be shipped. Lastly, wal mart has set up numerous regional distribution sites, so products don't have to travel as far as some of their other competitors products need to and this saves consumers money.

and so on.

And so on, yes.