anyone notice anything different at Wal-mart (LONG RANT)

[RickiHupp]

We also have 2 wal marts close. One is a bit better than the other though. I normally shop thier when I see they are having a sale on deli meat or something. My DH works in construction and this time if the year he needs to pack his lunch everyday rather than going out to eat and spending way more. So when wal mart has a sale on something he likes I will go and stock up but thats about the only time I go there.

That said....I did do the horrid black friday thing this year and I went to wal mart. Now this year it really wasnt that bad, AND I only spent 62 dollars!!

 

[Leah-yes I know I'm crazy]

Quote:
I have one of those kids. Learning disabled, IQ=47, terrified of new situations and places. No one will keep him for a few hours because he is an escape risk. One day when one of the other kids had to have a new pair of shoes I had to take him with me. Went to a small overpriced store so that I didn't have to deal with the crowd in a big box store only to have the clerk call him a monster to his face and in front of his older brother. Try not to judge too harshly. Like me, it could be the only time the guy was out of the house for three or four weeks.

 

[FrChuckW]

Leah-yes I know I'm crazy :

Quote:
I have one of those kids. Learning disabled, IQ=47, terrified of new situations and places. No one will keep him for a few hours because he is an escape risk. One day when one of the other kids had to have a new pair of shoes I had to take him with me. Went to a small overpriced store so that I didn't have to deal with the crowd in a big box store only to have the clerk call him a monster to his face and in front of his older brother. Try not to judge too harshly. Like me, it could be the only time the guy was out of the house for three or four weeks.

I would have asked to speak to the owner/manager immediately. There is a big difference between spoiled brats and a mentally/physically challenged child. When I worked for our local Board of Education as a Special Needs Assistant Teacher during the day and Wally World at night, a couple of my students would come into the store with their parents when they were shopping.

If the kids saw me, it was always "Hi Mr. Chuck!" and then if they would have a meltdown in the store, I was always paged to where they were. Usually, once the kid saw me, I could almost always get them to calm down and refocus. I used to train my cashiers on how to recognize special needs children and how to be calm around them and talk softly to them so as to not scare them.

Working at both places, I got to know the parents of some of my students very well.​

 

[zatsdeb]

I work at walmart, and I have found too many managers, or dept. managers who have let the "power" go to their heads.
for the most part there are a lot of good people who work at walmart, as for these people who act like they are superior to everyone.... in each walmart bathroom there is a phone number for the store manager, and next to that is another person, that is the store managers boss... you can call them, and if they would have looked at the reciept and listened to you, looked at the book also, you should not have had any problem.
you can always ask for a manager and they have to get you one, and if you make a big enough fuss they will bend over backwards to make you happy.
especially if you call the area supervisor!!!

 

[sclanimals]

Quote:
I am A Love and Logic Parent and love to use this technique on my 4 young children. I have gotten my kids to behave wonderfully for me using love and logic. If I had been there I'd have felt bad for the father. It's seems like it's just harder for some reason for some people. We don't know what had happened in his day prior to being seen in the store with some crazy kids. He may have been preoccupied mentally for all we know. I hope he had a better night once he got home.

 

[greyfields]

It's always with deep irony I watch the news reporters interviewing people outside Walmarts who are complaining they are unemployed or lost their jobs... they just don't realize their shopping habits led to the money being siphoned from teh economy which cost them their jobs.

 

[AngieChick]

One of the ways they keep prices artificially low is by strong-arming communities to giving their properties tax-exempt status, so that they don't pay property taxes. They also have been able to have sales taxes "rebated" to them, meaning they charge sales tax and then keep it instead of it going to the state (this practice doesn't impact OR, as we don't have a sales tax). They get away with this by threatening communities that if they don't let them build and get infrastructure improvements for free and tax subsidies that they will just build up the road in a neighboring community, putting their local businesses out of business anyway. It's a shrewd tactic, and it works. Walmart doesn't create jobs for a region, it just moves them from higher paying retail jobs to very very low wage jobs with no benefits. We don't have one, and they wouldn't even try it here. A neighboring community was able to keep them out for years, but there is one moving in there.

I remember when I lived in CA, I avoided it like the plague. It's just overstimulating and grumpy. I bought a sewing machine there years ago and when it broke I called the manufacturer, who told me that that model was made specifically for Wal-mart and was substandard and unable to be repaired in any permanent way. Grrr. This was a major brand as well. No wonder people have a tendency to be cranky there.

 

[ole-crone]

I don't blame them. This results from too many people taking advantage of generous return policies. I've known people who would buy tennies from KMart, have their kids wear them for the school year and then turn them in all scuffed and torn, expecting a refund. Being made in China has nothing to do with it. Being at WalMart has nothing to do with it. It is all the fault of those who will cheat to save a buck. As far as the book, they probably fugure that if you buy a book, it can have it read in a few hours and returned for a refund. They ain't the library.

 

[Wifezilla]

Angie you are correct. All big box stores are basically money siphons. Small independents COULD compete if the local gooberments didn't give such preferential treatment to these places.

 

[Chicabee19]

This results from too many people taking advantage of generous return policies. I've known people who would buy tennies from KMart, have their kids wear them for the school year and then turn them in all scuffed and torn, expecting a refund.

A friend who works in a local store told me that over the last 6 months, this type of return has tripled. They are now recording IDs and you are allowed 3 returns in a certain time period.

She told me one family bought a tent and four sleeping bags, used them to go camping, then brought them back.​