Anti Wal-Mart?

I've always loved going to Wal-Mart. Ok stuff for cheap prices...but when I went today, I was a little disturbed by something I found. Though it may not seem like much to a lot of people, I was bothered by their "Pet Dept". The fish tanks were WAY over crowded and the betta bowls were filthy! Not to mention the bettas were so so skinny and inactive. Is it rediculous for me to be upset? How can I shop there when I know that they mistreat animals??

 

more than that look what they are doing for the country ?

absolutely nothing, cept helping to bring tons of chinese crap into the country and we spend our money on the junk

well i dont i know

good luck

 

I have a post in the Consumer Advocacy forum, if you want to read it.... it's called like Save the World this Christmas or something... I have some links to some helpful sites.

 

what wal-mart is doing is far worse than not cleaning over-crowded fish-bowls and "making" us spend our money on "cheap chinese crap".

wal-mart is ruining the economy of small towns and cities. when a wal-mart opens up, the main streets of all neighboring towns wither and die. wal-mart will deliberately underprice when they move in, to drive local, privately owned shops out of business, and then raise prices once competition is removed.

wal-mart has unfair labor practices. i'm sure many of you have already heard about their hiring of illegal immigrant workers, and the enormous class action lawsuit against them for discriminating against women in pay and promotion opportunities.

wal-mart is hurting the economy in countries like the honduras, where they will buy from a company until they become their primary source of income, and then force them to lower prices more, which in turn leads to lower wages and poorer working conditions in what are already sweatshop factories.

i'll keep my money in local, family-owned specialty shops or thrift stores, thank you very much.

 

Here... http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47370

 

Hmmmmm...this all sounds like a recent episode of South Park...

 

I detest Wal-Mart as it is. I refuse to shop there. I'm not sure how it is in other areas of the country, but the employees that work at the Wal-Marts near my neck of the woods are horrendous degenerates. Everytime I see a commerical on the television depicting smiling, friendly workers, I want to laugh out loud, because around here, they are far from that. In addition, they are overly crowded, the items stocked are sparce, and it just isn't worth the aggrivation.

However, I DO shop at the Sam's Club, which is affiliated with Wal-Mart. Due to being a family of 5 and being able to purchase items in bulk and spend less money for them in the long-run is a major plus.

I've always been weary of places that carry just about everything you
can imagine and sell animals as well. I often-times wonder if the animals are being cared for as they should be. JMHO

Peace...

 

Just be done with Wal mart for good.

 

You should report them to the local Humane Society.

Walmarts are disgusting. If you simply MUST get something cheap, try your local dollar store and Costco first.

 

dollar stores aren't any more innocent than wal-mart. there's a reason why the stuff's only a dollar.


i buy bulk for my family too, only instead of putting my money into sam's club/wal-mart, i have a share in a co-op where i can buy beans, grains, flour, nuts, seeds, pasta, cookies, granola, tofu, dried fruit, and more in bulk. i can order cases of soymilk, or whatever else i need. the money goes back into my community, and i know that they go to great lengths to see that everything's organic if possible and either local or fairly-traded. for produce, we have a share in CSA. community supported agriculture is so wonderful.

when i need to buy something, i prioritze where my money goes this way: is it something i can do without? if i can, often i do. can i improvise or make it myself? if not, do i need it new, or can i find it second-hand? there's an excellent thrift store within walking distance, and we purchase most of our clothes there and lots of household stuff there. if i must buy it new, can i get it from the co-op or one of the privately-owned shops along my street? our better clothes, and sometimes shoes, books, gifts, toys for the children, cosmetics, toiletries, and some household items, come from those places. my money goes into the pockets of people i know, and they in turn put it into the community.

if i can't get it from one of the small, local businesses, then i'll put my money into the stores like family dollar or the dollar store in our dying downtown business district. the little CD player i bought recently for my son's birthday is an example of one of these purchases. often these are chain stores of questionable social responsibility, but downtown rochester is in such trouble it desperately needs all the business it can get, and these few remaining stores are all that's keeping it from becoming a total ghost town, so i'd rather spend my money there than order online from an eco-boutique across the country.

a few times a year there will be something i just can't get second-hand or locally (by that i mean within two or three miles, which is walking distance for me) and that's when i'll bite the bullet and venture by bus into the paved suburban hell of plazas. shakti's car seat, for example, or sometimes camp gear. i usually end up going to target instead of wal-mart, although they're probably not much better.

plazas and malls are a dire last resort. i hate going into them, let alone spending my money there. shopping plazas freak me out. they scare me. are all those bells & whistles necessary just to shop? this is considered "normal" to most people? *runs and hides*

 

Just imagine what Wendys and Burger king have done to mom and pop restaurants.

 

ok, i have to get this off my chest - this doesn't have anything to do with wal-mart, but chain stores, or in this case, eateries, did play a role.

i live in the lurching zombified corpse of what used to be rochester's "alternative" neighborhood. when i first came here over 10 years ago, the place was alive with charming little shops, a vegetarian cafe, the old "co-op" foodstore...well, it was a real community. it attracted all types, from homeless, green-haired punk kids to affluent, birkenstock-wearing eco-yuppies.

one of the business owners decided he didn't like the "freaks", and so he borrowed some money from a wealthy relative and bought several buildings in the neighborhood, with the idea that he was going to turn it "upscale". he gave the merchant's association some bullshit story about turning this place into "another park avenue", which is our trendy, upscale neighborhood. then he began raising rents and forcing out businesses that had been around for 30 years or longer. apparently he had the delusion that higher rents would attract "upscale" businesses. he hired security guards to harrass the punk kids that hung out in some of the parking lots, which drove away much of the business of the remaining stores in the buildings he didn't own.

in a few years, monroe avenue was block after block of empty storefronts. some long-time monroe avenue businesses just left in disgust. the chain stores were waiting like vultures to swoop in. a starbucks opened. the village green bookstore was replaced by a hollywood video and a pizza hut. crime in the neighborhood began to inch its way up. the drugs and violence he'd used as an excuse to harrass the punk kids began to appear for real.

the final blow came when he refused to renew the lease on the deadhead shop that had been the heartbeat of monroe avenue subculture for nearly 12 years. i don't know the full story, but it seemed to me that aaron and jen tried really hard to work with this bastard, and they got screwed over, too in the end. for awhile aaron said he was going to close, which would have been the death blow to the neighborhood. something made him change his mind, however, and he moved into a much tinier space in one of the buildings the guy didn't own. his old store stood empty for a long time. it is a subway now.

it isn't just the chain stores that wreak havoc on local economies and neighborhoods. in the case of monroe avenue, they were only there to feast on the decaying carcasses of former businesses, they weren't the ones responsible for driving them out. greed occurrs in the private sector too and can be just as deadly. the guy who bought the neighborhood ended up closing his own store, and soon the "for rent" signs on his buildings were replaced by those of a different agency. i don't know what happened to him, but i genuinely hope he went bankrupt. i hope he was ruined, 3 times over how he ruined this neighborhood. i hate him for what he did to the wonderful, vibrant community that was one of this dying city's few remaining strengths. i hope he's bankrupt, i hope his wife leaves him and his kids hate him and his dog craps on his carpet, that's how much i hate the guy.

gradually there have been new businesses that came in to replace the old, and not all of them are chain stores. slowly the neighborhood is starting to get it's "alternative" flavor back; ironically, i the guy's old shop is one of the only remaining empty storefronts. but the damage is done and it's changed forever, and certainly not for the better.

 

wow kitty. I'm glad they stuck it out. That kind of thing happens everywhere the big franchises invade. Depersonalization. They kill the local buisinesses and with that goes any local culture. It hurts their buisiness to have a thriving local culture.

 

kitty, the exact same scenario is unfolding in my area. A neighborhood full of unique, locally owned shops and restaurants is being bought out in chunks. They have recently added a chain grocery store, a Starbucks, a Wendy's and other chain stores. Traffic has started to become a problem and the whole neighborhood losing its luster. It is very sad. But, I hope that some of the folks who have been there a long time will hold their ground and not sell out.

 

Ah, it's not just you who thinks that way. That's exactly how and why these bastards stay in business

 

this is true. that's why i prioritize my spending the way i do. it's better, i believe, for my family to cut down on unnecessary expenses, than it is to "save money" shopping at sam's club. it is useless to boycott wal-mart and shop at sam's club, they are practically one and the same.

please do not believe the myth of "saving money". my family saves more money not buying all the consumerist crap the tv would tell us we "need" in the first place, even if we end up spending a little extra on organics.

 

Mmmm wonderful, Kitty fabulous is absolutely on the right path!



If we all looks at the ethics of the situation when we buy all this consumerist materialized crap, we will see that buying that organic apple from your local farmer's market is far better. Not just for the quality of the product and support of local Community, but for the energy consumption that goes into shipping food thousands of mile's across the sea and land. The depletion of soil in mono-cropping for all that "$cheaper$" produce...... and this is just food...



Our world in North America is soo rushed! we seem to think we "NEED" to get here this fast, and do this before then, and need to be so "fast and efficient"



sooo people make decisions like going to Mc Donald's, and Wall-mart -(not to say that this is the only reason we make these decisions)- and support these corporations. If we take into consideration our ethics of supporting a huge corporation and long term effect's it has on our planet Environmentally and Socially with the miss treatment of family’s in sweatshop's and working condition’s, and local business that get driven out.



We need to Act local eat local, and think global

 

Wow, applause for Kitty Fabulous (and others who posted too, her story just hits real close to home), the world needs more like you. I too buy high quality organic food in exchange for many things i forgo that society says i "need". It is a funny world we live in where people are brainwashed so easily. When you bring it back down to the basics its just like we all learned in school, elements of survival, food, shelter, clothing, man. Obviously that may be a bit strict for some but its a good thing to remember with the constant bombardament of "newer, better, faster, gotta have it to live" things that are quite trivial to basic human existence. In my opinion, it all comes down to the natural human trait of laziness and selfishness. We all like to make it easier, don't we? Sure we do, so go through the drive through and gorge yourself on processed, packaged food; don't bother to separate recycling from trash, just throw it in a big plastic bag at the end of the driveway, close your eyes, and poof its gone; go to the big box store thats everything in one because you've got a van full of screaming kids that you don't want to load and unload multiple times, never daring to go in a small local store with the crew. Someone said in a post earlier about the rushedness (word? kidding) of many peoples' lives. Its true and it seems to be everyone is after that faster, easier way of getting something (scarily enough, many everyday activities) done no matter what the reprecussions as long as they get what they want. Sorry for this rant, its negative and that gets nothing accomplished but i get real heated sometimes.

 

About four years ago a Wal-Mart supercenter came to my town. Thats the enormous store with a deli, a pharmacy, an optometrist, a bank, a salon, and a tire and lube garage. First off, the entire top of a mountain(a small one, more like a very large hill) was flattened to build on, which completely destroyed a small stream running through the area. Secondly I can think of at least half a dozen businesses that have gone out of business since. To name a few: a locally owned pharmacy that was part of the community for 30+ years, a shoe store, a sewing/vacuum store, and a Food Lion chain grocery store. Soon after the supercenter came a number of thing began to change: a before seldom used road is now a major travel route, the main highway has been widened in front of the Wal-Mart entrance, and the town now has more traffic/noise/pollution. A number of businesses have sprung up or plan to: a car was that we didn't need, a Taco Bell, more chain restraunt are on their way and plans are being made for a stripmall like plaza to be built. No, sir. I don't like Wal-Mart one bit.

 

Walmart is kinda sick... It's going to end up like Microsoft - everyone has to use it...Yeah there will still be your K-marts and stuff around soit's not a total monopoly, but you'll have to basically buy from Walmart because of how high the priceswill be then at other stores... And did you guys hear one of the reasons why they hire those "Walmart Greeters" (the old people that greet you when you come in) is so when they croke, Walmart makes money.... Very sick... but it doesn't hurt the actual person in any way...