I Love Walmart!
have the best ammo prices.
Two weeks ago, when it was 104 here, the crappy
Fridgidaire air conditioner in the bedroom went out.
It was a whole 2 years old. There wasn't another
one for sale in the county, so I looked at Walmart's
page and they sell them online, free shipping if its
over $45. They had a GE, same model I have in my
office, on sale for $78. WTF? So I ordered it and 2
days later it was on my porch. Shipped free. Works
great, twice the cold air as the one that broke.
So I'm looking around the Walmart site, and holy
crap, they sell everything under the sun, stuff you
can't even get in their stores, and most of it is free
shipping over $45. I buy a lot of animal food every
month and cat litter. Walmart is always almost out
of 13oz food cans every time I go, its very depressing.
So I order 96 cans, 4 big bags of dry food, and a
big bag of litter. Two days later its all on my porch,
175 pounds of product shipped free. I felt light
headed. No trips to the store and lugging all this
stuff around. No more wrestling and carrying heavy
bags of litter. Its like a weight has been lifted.
How can they do this, ship 175 pounds for free? I'm
at a loss.. I used to ship with FedeX, which is how
this came. I checked the FedEx site and ground
shipping is $321 for this much weight.
If I were to ship a 175 pound package, its $321. Some
guy must have sat down and figured out the price FedEx
can charge overall to Walmart and still make money.
For every delivery like mine where FedEx really eats
it, there must be a lot of light deliveries where they
make money from Walmart.
I'm looking at a lot of stuff now, I hate going to the
dang store.
Quote: ahiromuI feel depressed walking through Walmarts, most of my friends feel the same way. Don't get me wrong, if they have the best price on something (last thing I bought there was a tent) then by all means I'll go out of my way to shop there. If I can though, I avoid Walmarts like the plague.
I love People of Walmart
But they should pay less in taxes, cause it wouldn't be fair otherwise.
Quote: WongBoBut they should pay less in taxes, cause it wouldn't be fair otherwise.
Whats fair is, work hard, make the right decisions, and enjoy
the fruits of your labor. Fair has nothing to do with anything.
Its a word children use before they go out into the real world.
Quote: ahiromuI feel depressed walking through Walmarts, most of my friends feel the same way.
Ironically (because this is a gambling website), most of my friends feel that way when they walk through casinos.
Since they have all brought actions against walmart for their labor practices.
But when you are violating child labor laws I guess you should just tell those kids to grow up,
Since fair is only a word for children before they enter the real world
Quote: cclub79Ironically (because this is a gambling website), most of my friends feel that way when they walk through casinos.
I would agree with them if I wasn't one of the pathetic souls at the tables.
And the 3 stores in town are regional chains, not mom n pops. I don't love Walmart, but I save $50.
Quote: WongBoThe six heirs of Sam Walton have more personal wealth than the "poorest" 90 million Americans.
But they should pay less in taxes, cause it wouldn't be fair otherwise.
No one is saying they (or anyone wealthy) should pay less....In fact they don't pay less they pay more. But I fail to see why they should be gouged by our wasteful profligate government because they have more money. The whole income tax system in this country is waaaayyyy too complicated. Steve Forbes was right you should be able to do your taxes on a postcard. All these deductions and exemptions blah blah blah...just pay a percentage and be done with it. It would be so much easier...not to mention efficient. Don't even get me started on the fundemental unfairness of the estate tax. You work your whole life, and pay taxes along the way, hopefully building something; and when you die the government has its hand out for more.
Quote: WongBoThe six heirs of Sam Walton have more personal wealth than the "poorest" 90 million Americans.
But they should pay less in taxes, cause it wouldn't be fair otherwise.
I have more personal wealth than the 80 million poorest Americans. Their net worth is less than zero, that is, their debts exceed their worth.
But what I really love is Dressbarn :P
Quote: vendman1Don't even get me started on the fundemental unfairness of the estate tax.
$471 million estate tax
Also, the whole "taxing an unsellable item" thing is ridiculous.
Quote: WongBoThe six heirs of Sam Walton have more personal wealth than the "poorest" 90 million Americans.
But they should pay less in taxes, cause it wouldn't be fair otherwise.
You are probably correct in that the Waltons pay more in taxes than the poorest 90MM Americans. Not sure if it is fair that the bottom half of the USA pays almost nothing in income tax, but what can you do. I do think the Walton Family are great Americans, what with being the largest private employer in the USA.
Example of Wallmarts donations:
$20 million in cash donations, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers . Not to mention generators, truckloads of water, computers and clothing.
Wallmart had plans in place even before Katrina actually hit. If only government could act thi s faST.
Sure there was good publicity for the chain but it was well earned and they showed they really cared for the people.
Quote: buzzpaffIt might surprise people that Walmart is not the largest food chain. Kroeger is. Check their prices out. evidently not passing on the economies of scale to the consumer !
If you want guaranteed low, "Regular prices," WalMart is the place to go for brand name items. If you want the best sales, Kroger is easily the place to go. If you want the best prices on store brand merchandise, it is a mix, it depends on the item and Kroger (or Kroger Value) makes some stuff not offered by Great Value and vice-versa.
You just basically have to go in knowing what to get from where, and it will save you $100 or more per month.
Quote: rxwineWalmart matches all low prices. If you can find the exact product, there's the catch.
WalMart matches all advertised prices, but Kroger is slick. Kroger will often discount items and not advertise those items, which is something that the Kroger shoppers know about. That's why I always shop at Kroger first. I have all of WalMart's, "Regular prices," memorized, so I know where I am getting the best deal.
You don't always have to find the exact product, in a sample size of two, Wal-Mart will price match a Great Value brand vs. Kroger Brand, provided the quantities are the same...and for most items, they are.
Quote: WongBoThe six heirs of Sam Walton have more personal wealth than the "poorest" 90 million Americans.
But they should pay less in taxes, cause it wouldn't be fair otherwise.
I've heard that the bottom 40% of potential American tax payers don't pay any federal income tax. I'd be willing to bet that what the Walton heirs pay is greater than 0.
Quote:After their daughter Paige graduated from University of Southern California in 2004, a former roommate charged that she had been paid $20,000 over four years to do Paige's homework for her. Once the charges were aired on the ABC news program 20/20, the elder Lauries relinquished naming rights of the facility, which is now known as Mizzou Arena. In June 2005, the college roommate appeared on the Ion Television show Lie Detector.[7] In September 2005, Paige voluntarily surrendered her degree and returned her diploma to USC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Walton_Laurie
for sale online. Phooey on them...
Quote: Mission146WalMart matches all advertised prices, but Kroger is slick. Kroger will often discount items and not advertise those items, which is something that the Kroger shoppers know about. That's why I always shop at Kroger first. I have all of WalMart's, "Regular prices," memorized, so I know where I am getting the best deal.
You don't always have to find the exact product, in a sample size of two, Wal-Mart will price match a Great Value brand vs. Kroger Brand, provided the quantities are the same...and for most items, they are.
I've never understood the "match the price" deal. Why would I drive to your store and have to wait in line to see a manager then have to convince them to match the price when I can just walk into the competitor and buy the thing?
FWIW I would nominate WMT to run the logistics of FEMA. Who gets stuff there faster? And WMT actually has some very sophisticated algorithms that track buying patterns to weather patterns to predict demand. Generally I prefer Target and rarely buy food at WMT, but I respect the heck out of them as a retailer.
Quote: AZDuffmanI've never understood the "match the price" deal. Why would I drive to your store and have to wait in line to see a manager then have to convince them to match the price when I can just walk into the competitor and buy the thing?
FWIW I would nominate WMT to run the logistics of FEMA. Who gets stuff there faster? And WMT actually has some very sophisticated algorithms that track buying patterns to weather patterns to predict demand. Generally I prefer Target and rarely buy food at WMT, but I respect the heck out of them as a retailer.
I agree with the second paragraph and lack any further elaboration.
To the first paragraph, I do not know what your experience has been, but I have never needed a manager for the price match. I'll usually invoke the price match guarantee when a local store that I don't like (name withheld to protect privacy of location) or CVS has a really great deal going on. In my experience, you show the cashier the ad, she puts in that price under, "Grocery," or something to that effect.
If you have the ad, then you don't have to do any convincing. I had to convince them to match a Toys 'R Us price I saw on a commercial once, because the item was in the ad, I had to go to WalMart anyway, and did not want to go to Toys 'R Us, but that's the only time I ever had any difficulty.
Quote: Mission146I agree with the second paragraph and lack any further elaboration.
To the first paragraph, I do not know what your experience has been, but I have never needed a manager for the price match. I'll usually invoke the price match guarantee when a local store that I don't like (name withheld to protect privacy of location) or CVS has a really great deal going on. In my experience, you show the cashier the ad, she puts in that price under, "Grocery," or something to that effect.
If you have the ad, then you don't have to do any convincing. I had to convince them to match a Toys 'R Us price I saw on a commercial once, because the item was in the ad, I had to go to WalMart anyway, and did not want to go to Toys 'R Us, but that's the only time I ever had any difficulty.
My point isn't that you will have to make a big case, it is that someone needs to approve it. And unless I hate the store with the ad, I will just go to the first place. I have never even tried the price-match thing.
Quote: AZDuffmanMy point isn't that you will have to make a big case, it is that someone needs to approve it. And unless I hate the store with the ad, I will just go to the first place. I have never even tried the price-match thing.
I recommend it very highly! Just to experiment, I once did a regular week of grocery shopping, no coupons, no comparisons, no price match...Kroger and whatever was on sale, straight-up. Based on this experiment, I concluded that I save myself nearly $300/month shopping the way that I do. I'm neither rich nor poor by any stretch of the imagination, but I will admit to being in a financial position that $3,600/year matters to me a good deal.
It really depends on the cashier. The policy at Wal-Mart (at one point) was just to take the customer's word for it. It didn't take that long for the AS's (Advantage Shoppers!) to exploit that to the extent that WalMart got rid of it. I am not an advantage shopper to that extent, just for the record.
Quote: Mission146I recommend it very highly! Just to experiment, I once did a regular week of grocery shopping, no coupons, no comparisons, no price match...Kroger and whatever was on sale, straight-up. Based on this experiment, I concluded that I save myself nearly $300/month shopping the way that I do. I'm neither rich nor poor by any stretch of the imagination, but I will admit to being in a financial position that $3,600/year matters to me a good deal.
Kroger is pretty aggressive with the in-store sales. When I moved to Phoenix I went to Fry's (a Kroger company) with the then-new roommate. When we went in neither of us felt like getting the shopper's club card as we were both new in town that week and this was very much an "essentials" trip. I didn't want to have to fill anything out. Heck, I didn't even have my address memorized! But after 20 minutes I saw all the savings I would be losing and went to the office to get the card, which they just handed over. He did the same, for the same reasoning. MAWGs seem to think alike I guess.
Quote: AZDuffmanKroger is pretty aggressive with the in-store sales. When I moved to Phoenix I went to Fry's (a Kroger company) with the then-new roommate. When we went in neither of us felt like getting the shopper's club card as we were both new in town that week and this was very much an "essentials" trip. I didn't want to have to fill anything out. Heck, I didn't even have my address memorized! But after 20 minutes I saw all the savings I would be losing and went to the office to get the card, which they just handed over. He did the same, for the same reasoning. MAWGs seem to think alike I guess.
You're absolutely right, but the one thing to watch out for with Kroger's is that there are two types of sales:
1.) Aggressive sales.
2.) Sales that seem aggressive.
The first type is obvious, but the second type, not quite as much. For example, Kroger will often have a sale on MorningStar vegetarian meat-substitute products, and the sale is usually $3.99/product. They are discounting from a regular price of $4.89/product, so it looks really good on paper, but WalMart's reatil on MorningStar (where I live) is $3.49/product. This is the case with many items all over the store, not just vegetarian products. The deli, btw, there is not a single type of cheese you will EVER find on sale at Kroger that is less per pound than WalMart's regular prices.
The best advice I can give people is to know the retail price of the items you most commonly use, if not on all of your items. The sales you see at one store might be higher than retail at another.
Kroger does very well with the Catalina coupons, though, and WalMart (at least, here) honors the coupons of other stores. There was one occasion where Kroger had the MorningStar products at $3.99/apiece, but if you bought three of them, you got a coupon for $2.00/off another three. I took that coupon right over to WalMart and saved $0.50 overall v. WalMart's lower retail price!
Quote: teddysFood prices are ridiculous. There are about five major groceries within 2 miles of me, and a couple farm stands and produce markets. The competition is insane. I spend a pittance, and eat very well. They say grocery spending takes up only 14% of the average American's budget now.
Most bpeople don't know we spent 35% of income on food
in 1940, and 40% in 1901.
Quote: Mission146
The best advice I can give people is to know the retail price of the items you most commonly use, if not on all of your items. The sales you see at one store might be higher than retail at another.
This is the best advice. When I lived in WNY I just shoped at Wegman's. The market was Wegmans, Tops, and WMT with WMT still fairly new to the grocery-side. Tops was a mess, took forever to check out. The only reasons I would stop is if I came from that direction and needed 1-2 items or for IBC cherry soda in the big bottle which Wegmans did not carry for some reason. Sometimes I went to WMT just for variety, but I do like the gorund beef at WMT better since it is packed very loosely. You can take it out of the package very carefully and it will not clump up, which to me makes it good for a meat-sauce or some other recipies.
The best for all-time sales I ever saw was when I was a cashier. Kleenex had some new product out and it was on sale for $.85. The same time they put a coupon in the paper for $1.00 off. They never said limit the coupon, and the manufacturer pays face value for it anyways. So people got the tissue and $.15 back!
Quote: rxwineThey are just average folks trying to get by, like everyone else.
Nancy Walton Laurie is the daughter of "Bud" Walton, not of "Sam" Walton. She is only worth $2.6 billion, a fraction of what her four cousins are worth.
Since September 2007, Nancy Walton has lived in Henderson. She is the second youngest of the 6 members of the Forbes 400 who lives in Nevada.
Rank Name Net Worth Age Residence Source
8 Sheldon Adelson $21.5B, 78 Las Vegas, Nevada casinos
130 Steve Wynn $2.8B, 69 Las Vegas, Nevada casinos, hotels
139 Nancy Walton Laurie $2.7B, 60 Henderson, Nevada Wal-Mart
166 Phillip Ruffin $2.4B, 76 Las Vegas, Nevada casinos, real estate
263 Elaine Wynn $1.7B, 68 Las Vegas, Nevada Hotels
355 Frank Fertitta III $1.25B, 50 Las Vegas, Nevada Casinos, Ultimate Fighting Championship
town in the late 50's by a Dutch immagrant named Frederick
Meijer. Nobody in the world had auto, hardware, shoes,
clothes, pet supplies, electronics, drugs, etc, and food, all under
one roof. He took 15 or 20 speciality stores and made them
a one stop shopping experience.
There's almost 200 Meijer stores today and they are in the top
10 family owned businesses in the world. Walton didn't open
his first store till 25 years later. When I moved to Calif in the
70's they had nothing like this. I had to go to 14 different
stores to get what I wanted, it was an unbelivable pain in the
ass.
Quote: ahiromu$471 million estate tax
Also, the whole "taxing an unsellable item" thing is ridiculous.
This is a great post...exactly what I'm talking about. The IRS is completely clueless. They don't even understand their own rules. How could they?..there are too many over complicated and even conflicting bits of the tax code. It's an abomination.
Quote: vegasWallmart got my respect when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the south coast. NO other organization stepped forward like Wallmart.
Sure there was good publicity for the chain but it was well earned and they showed they really cared for the people.
Of course Walmart helped! Those poor folks in Naw'lins are Walmart's base! You didn't see Tiffany and Rolex stepping in to help!
Quote: EvenBobThats right, I love Walmart. And not only because they
have the best ammo prices.
Two weeks ago, when it was 104 here, the crappy
Fridgidaire air conditioner in the bedroom went out.
It was a whole 2 years old. There wasn't another
one for sale in the county, so I looked at Walmart's
page and they sell them online, free shipping if its
over $45. They had a GE, same model I have in my
office, on sale for $78. WTF? So I ordered it and 2
days later it was on my porch. Shipped free. Works
great, twice the cold air as the one that broke.
So I'm looking around the Walmart site, and holy
crap, they sell everything under the sun, stuff you
can't even get in their stores, and most of it is free
shipping over $45. I buy a lot of animal food every
month and cat litter. Walmart is always almost out
of 13oz food cans every time I go, its very depressing.
So I order 96 cans, 4 big bags of dry food, and a
big bag of litter. Two days later its all on my porch,
175 pounds of product shipped free. I felt light
headed. No trips to the store and lugging all this
stuff around. No more wrestling and carrying heavy
bags of litter. Its like a weight has been lifted.
How can they do this, ship 175 pounds for free? I'm
at a loss.. I used to ship with FedeX, which is how
this came. I checked the FedEx site and ground
shipping is $321 for this much weight.
Replace "Walmart" with "Amazon" in this post and almost everything holds true, except the shipping is free over $25 :)
Seriously, when I worked there it was tough trying to get people to understand that Amazon was about more than just books these days, so I always tried to describe Amazon as the "Walmart of the internet, you can get anything there." Of course not mentioning that Walmart has their own website...
Not trying to push an agenda as I no longer work for Amazon or hold any stock or anything, just pointing it out. I'm sure some things are cheaper on each site. Also on Amazon they have a lot of 3rd party sellers which come with their own shipping rates; I don't believe Walmart has 3rd party sellers (correct me if I'm wrong).
Quote: AcesAndEightsI don't believe Walmart has 3rd party sellers (correct me if I'm wrong).
They may not have had in the past, but when I purchased my last computer from them, the whole process went third party seller even though I got it from a Walmart site. Also, I had one other item, same thing, though I ended up returning it to the seller.
I've purchased about 3 other things online from them besides that, and they came from Walmart though.
got it from Walmart. I called them, got a very nice
lady, and she refunded me the money immediately
and said I have 60 days to return it and they pay
the shipping.
I love Walmart.
Quote: Mission146It really depends on the cashier. The policy at Wal-Mart (at one point) was just to take the customer's word for it. It didn't take that long for the AS's (Advantage Shoppers!) to exploit that to the extent that WalMart got rid of it. I am not an advantage shopper to that extent, just for the record.
Some WalMart's still allow this, but in a limited fashion. One employee that I spoke with told me that the higher level cashiers are informed that if the match amount the customer mentions "seems" legitimate, to go ahead and do it. I really couldn't get much more out of him on the subject. Would love to talk to a manager to see what the official policies are. I'm not a shopper at WalMart, other than once a year to use up a gift card I receive regularly at Christmas. However, at Target, I have seen cashiers approve a matched price based upon a customer's say so.
Quote: pacomartinNancy Walton Laurie is the daughter of "Bud" Walton, not of "Sam" Walton. She is only worth $2.6 billion, a fraction of what her four cousins are worth.
Since September 2007, Nancy Walton has lived in Henderson. She is the second youngest of the 6 members of the Forbes 400 who lives in Nevada.
Rank Name Net Worth Age Residence Source
8 Sheldon Adelson $21.5B, 78 Las Vegas, Nevada casinos
130 Steve Wynn $2.8B, 69 Las Vegas, Nevada casinos, hotels
139 Nancy Walton Laurie $2.7B, 60 Henderson, Nevada Wal-Mart
166 Phillip Ruffin $2.4B, 76 Las Vegas, Nevada casinos, real estate
263 Elaine Wynn $1.7B, 68 Las Vegas, Nevada Hotels
355 Frank Fertitta III $1.25B, 50 Las Vegas, Nevada Casinos, Ultimate Fighting Championship
I wouldn't be surprised if they just live there on paper because of no state income tax. Many people do that to save bucks.
I still love Walmart. They dropped the amount
you have to buy from $50 to $35 to get free
shipping. Ordered all my pet supplies for the
month on Monday and they were on my deck this
afternoon. Brings tears to my eyes.
The nice thing about spending $40 on pet food is,
I can order a bunch of other stuff, like canned
goods and bulk paper towels, anything, and it's
shipped free with the pet food. I even ordered
a CO2 pistol for my brother for Xmas.
