Walmart - an observation

I hate WalMart because the stores reek of cheap. Cheap items, cheap service, poorly maintained stores and it's always messy. Last time I had to go grocery shopping, I went there out of laziness, and I was surprised to find they didn't have bananas. How can you run out of BANANAS?

I prefer Target. It's cleaner, the stores are neater, and I don't feel like everything there is gross.

My local Walmart is spotless and has an excellent produce ffor our area. I however do not buy meat there or at any grocery store. Our local groceries are dirty and have no produce at all.

Last time I went it seemed like everyone looked like crazy eyed zombies. People let their kids run all over the place, so I spent a great deal of the trip abruptly stopping the cart to avoid running over the unsupervised children. People just randomly stop in the middle of the row. People were yelling at the food on the shelves like they were mad at it. It's just a miserable store to go to.

I hate it too but like you, I usually go there. The lines are too long, the cashiers are usually very rude, the people I end up in line behind shop one item at a time. I actually had some woman have the cashier add one item at a time until she reached her budget and then kept having her take something off and put something back on. All I could think was, "USE THE F'ING CALCULATOR ON YOUR EXPENSIVE SMART PHONE!!!!!" I ALWAYS end up in line behind the dumbest most annoying people who came into the store that day and the slowest most rude cashier. But I still go because they're cheap and I can get everything. I don't buy produce their though. I'm a produce snob and spend the extra few dollars for quality fresh stuff at the produce store by my house. Totally worth it.

I shop at Bi-Lo because it is 24 hours so I don't have to go to Walmart for groceries.

I hate Walmart for various reasons, including my parents having worked there, completely rude and ****ty treatement as a WIC mom, crap clothes quality for my three boys, and this attitude of entitled contempt from most of the employees.

When I was a mom on WIC, we were allowed blends of certain fruit juices from one specific company, Old Orchard. Included in the list of blends were berry blends (blueberry, raspberry, cranberry etc) and pomegranate blends. So I picked up a blueberry apple juice for the boys and as I rung out the cashier tells me I will have to march back to the juice aisle and pick up a "proper" juice. I patiently explained that I had just been from the WIC office and had directly asked the dietician if that juice was covered, with her approval. The cashier refused to believe me, so I pulled out my food list and pointed out where it covered blends. The cashier called the CM, another cashier, and the GM. So now I have three tired hungry kids squirming in the cart, a line of people *****ing about me taking up the line, and the GM and CM whispering to each other about people being difficult, demanding, rude. I angrily informed them that I could hear them, there was nothing rude and difficult about getting food for my kids that is explicitly on my list, and then called the dietician again. On speakerphone in front of the CM, GM and two cashiers, I asked her if I could get the juice. She said absolutely. I asked her if there was any reason that Walmart would have a problem with me having that juice. She said very clearly that if stores begin to limit what the WIC customers are allowed to buy beyond the food list, they risk being revoked as a WIC supplier. The GM and CM clenched their jaws at that. I thanked the dietician and hung up, then asked for my juice. The CM rung me the rest out, and told me angrily that this was the only time I was going to be allowed that blend, because she was breaking "store policy" by doing so. I said that was fine, because I wasn't coming back again anyways. I found out later from the dietician that she had ten, TEN! calls about juices and Walmart from WIC families that week, and that she had had to go and have a not-so-friendly chat with the GM about how the WIC program determines the food list, not Walmart.

On top of how quickly their clothes warp and shred, the furniture breaks, the toys break...there is only one time we go there, and it is to buy non-detergent oil for the tractor. Otherwise I shop for groceries from the Super One and Target. I actually discovered that I didn't save money much at all Walmart...since switching stores, I spend *maybe* an extra 15 dollars.

I don't go back. Just walking into that store makes me irritable. With all of the **** they told my folks when mom and dad worked there...unions will destroy the fabric of America, if you try to unionize you will be blackballed, breaks are suggestions, your local public assistance office is just down the road, they'll give you medical coverage...screw 'em. There's something worse than unions destroying the fabric of America...and it starts with Walmar and ends in t.

And to people who are going to say "MRRR!!! WAL MART IS A CORPORATION!!! I HATE CAPITALISM!!!".... what do you think Walmart started as? Go to Bentonville, Arkansas and see the original store. It probably looks similar to the "mom and pop" store you want to support now.

I don't hate Capitalism. Capitalism is fine, when it's done right. Walmart, or as somebody else put it (and I'm stealing it) Hellmart does not do it right.

"Is it the general demeanor of the employees and other shoppers in the store??"

--Yes. They buy in huge quantities, so they can put places like Albertsons and Safeway (not that those are teriffic either, but at least grocery employees have unions) out of business and control prices. The employees are treated terribly and don't have benefits, because they try to keep them under full time.

WalMart is awful. I'm thrilled Seattle doesn't allow them within city limits (this could also be due to the fact we don't have any room for one of those mongo stores).

I avoid Wal-Mart unless I need a wide variety of items (as in not just groceries) and I don't have time to go to five different stores. If I only need groceries, I go to Aldi. A lot better quality food and WAY cheaper.

I think it's because they know they're the only store where you can basically get everything, so they don't even attempt to lift a finger for "customer satisfaction". The quality of people who shop there isn't the greatest, either.

I've been to 4 Walmarts in Florida. All of them were full of loud and smelly people. Mothers running around with 7 kids who are opening packages and dumping crap all over and rude people that have no civility. When I go into Target afterwards, I feel like I just walked into high-society. People don't smell, they aren't pushy, they say "excuse me" and "thank you,"

Also, in 3 of the 4 Walmarts, I half-expected to be stabbed in the parking lot.
I'm about to move to Orlando and I've been told by local residents to avoid a particular Walmart because people are robbed at gunpoint a lot there. I laughed and said they must be joking because it isn't in a bad neighborhood. Then I turned on the tv and saw there was a shooting there last week...