The Jon Swift Memorial 2024 Blog Roundup
47 minutes ago
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
I Don’t Work Here
The other day I was in my local Walmart. There was exactly one staffed checkout lane in operation. Of course one of the workers tried to direct me to the self checkout.
“I don’t work here,” I said.
Then I got in line at the full service checkout. Now I’m wondering about how hard it will be to completely stop going there. One of the downsides of living way out in the country is the lack of shopping options. However, Walmart keeps encouraging me to find solutions.
They also keep running out of stuff. The other day they had no bananas. My gas station has bananas. Recently they were out of peanut butter. It wasn’t just one brand or size, they were out of everything. How does that even happen?
Walmart is huge, but that doesn’t mean it can’t fail. Sears and Kmart used to be huge too. Now they are a mere shadow of their former self and shrinking all the time. When the next recession/depression hits we are going to see a much faster contraction in retail. Companies are going to disappear right and left.
I’ve friends who never shop Walmart. However, they travel a lot and have more disposable income than I do. Frankly, it’s easy to make a statement when you can afford alternatives. Then again, just because it’s harder for me doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Walmart’s drop in service and products have been making the alternatives look better all the time.
-Sixbears
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I have to agree with you even though that is the only place my wife will shop at for some reason. Even better, there is one exactly one mile from the house but she won't shop there. She drives five miles to the next closest one. Weird, I know.
ReplyDeleteSomething else myself and a coworker who lives across the river in Oregon have both noticed over the last year, they have very slowly gotten rid of many of the Name Brand products and now only offer their In Store brands.
I have never been a big fan of Wally World but one thing in their favor is that they are at least open when I get off of work at One Thirty in the morning.
My dad lived in a town of 8000 people that had 3 Walmarts in the city limits. Crazy.
DeleteThey are pushing the store brands pretty heavily.
Don't ya know, those Walton's gotta increase the margin. They wanna become the first trillionaires...
ReplyDeleteNot gonna get there from my pocketbook, I'll tell you that fo sho.
They need more mansions in Arkansas. We have to all do our part to make that happen.
DeleteI park at the Wal-Mart garden center door and usually checkout there too. Never a line.
ReplyDeleteOnly one other grocery store in my small town of 16,000.
The lack of options makes it tough.
DeleteI know what you mean. Went to Wal-Mart Sunday night to buy dog food. They only had about six varieties, two for puppies. Even Ol' Roy was two varieties. From what I recall, they used to have at least six or seven of that alone.
ReplyDeleteJust less, a lot less. No cotter pins either which really ticked me off. Lawn tractor wheel replacement had to wait.
There's a whole list of things they once had but no longer carry. They are starting to feel the pinch, I think.
DeleteMy wife picked up a couple things at Kroger's the other day and came back saying that she wished we could afford to go back to shopping there. Their meat and produce make the stuff at Walmart look like garbage.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who worked there told me how their produce is handled and I've been avoiding it ever since.
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