I Love Walmart!

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: Hunterhill

You have to be a member at Costco so they can require you to show your receipt as part of the membership agreement.
You don’t like it then don’t become a member.
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Back before covid I rented a lot of cars on weekends for a couple years to go to the casinos because Michigan didn't have online gaming yet. With the Costco membership renting cars was extremely cheap, sometimes I could rent a car for 3 days for under $40. I think I went into Costco twice and it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday in the middle of the day and the place was absolutely jammed with people. Had to drive around looking for a parking space. And stuff isn't that much cheaper than any place else, in fact Walmart was cheaper on almost everything. Yet people were in there loading up on all kinds of crap. I walked around and could not find one single thing I wanted to buy. My brother is a member now because Costco gas is so much cheaper and he says the same thing about going in the store, it's a huge waste of time.
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Yes I feel the same way about those stores. They have their uses for some people, but I went to Costco and found no reason to go back. Back east I briefly had a membership at BJ's which is the same thing, no great deals to be found there. (Also: Aldi. No, ugh. If I want mystery brands I can get that even cheaper at Dollar Tree.)

I guess the fair comparison would be between Walmart and Sam's Club. Are the prices any better if you go to a Walmart that's called a Sam's Club?

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: Hunterhill

You have to be a member at Costco so they can require you to show your receipt as part of the membership agreement.
You don’t like it then don’t become a member.
link to original post

Back before covid I rented a lot of cars on weekends for a couple years to go to the casinos because Michigan didn't have online gaming yet. With the Costco membership renting cars was extremely cheap, sometimes I could rent a car for 3 days for under $40. I think I went into Costco twice and it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday in the middle of the day and the place was absolutely jammed with people. Had to drive around looking for a parking space. And stuff isn't that much cheaper than any place else, in fact Walmart was cheaper on almost everything. Yet people were in there loading up on all kinds of crap. I walked around and could not find one single thing I wanted to buy. My brother is a member now because Costco gas is so much cheaper and he says the same thing about going in the store, it's a huge waste of time.
link to original post

Yes I feel the same way about those stores. They have their uses for some people, but I went to Costco and found no reason to go back. Back east I briefly had a membership at BJ's which is the same thing, no great deals to be found there. (Also: Aldi. No, ugh. If I want mystery brands I can get that even cheaper at Dollar Tree.)

I guess the fair comparison would be between Walmart and Sam's Club. Are the prices any better if you go to a Walmart that's called a Sam's Club?
link to original post

I absolutely hate Aldi grocery store. The store itself is too small, the aisles are so narrow you can barely get two carts by each other, the selection is pitiful, check out is a nightmare, I don't see the point of it. Yeah they have cheaper prices on meat but their produce section is practically non-existent. I have to go to yet another store to get what I can't buy at Aldi, forget it.

Clear thinking at Walmart. Stacking these fans like this keeps the pile out of a condition where it could topple onto someone if it was bumped or became unstable due to shopping. They can only be unstacked easily evenly from the top.

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Clear thinking at Walmart. Stacking these fans like this keeps the pile out of a condition where it could topple onto someone if it was bumped or became unstable due to shopping. They can only be unstacked easily evenly from the top.


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That looks more like a distribution center and not a retail outlet. Probably not a lot of people in danger but it still looks sketchy.

Quote: DRich

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Clear thinking at Walmart. Stacking these fans like this keeps the pile out of a condition where it could topple onto someone if it was bumped or became unstable due to shopping. They can only be unstacked easily evenly from the top.


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That looks more like a distribution center and not a retail outlet. Probably not a lot of people in danger but it still looks sketchy.
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The image is rotated, and there are clear indications it is a retail site.

Quote: DRich

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Clear thinking at Walmart. Stacking these fans like this keeps the pile out of a condition where it could topple onto someone if it was bumped or became unstable due to shopping. They can only be unstacked easily evenly from the top.


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That looks more like a distribution center and not a retail outlet. Probably not a lot of people in danger but it still looks sketchy.
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That's just an ordinary Walmart in Las Vegas.

I mean what I said as a legit compliment; someone was thinking when they came up with that idea. If you stacked 4 piles or so that high jack-on-jack, they're going to be unstable and get worse when people start pulling on them. I pushed on it and no way, that structure is not moving en masse, and I'm reasonably but not extremely tall and I could reach the top layer and take one down if I wanted to. It would take a lot of force to pull one from lower down in the structure due to friction and even if you did, the fans above that point would still be supported by the other columns and it would not topple.

Black Friday is such a ripoff. I was reading that Amazon sends a letter to all its sellers usually the middle of September telling them to be aware of what sale prices they are going to be charging for Black Friday. This is to alert the higher price items to raise their prices by 50% in October and November so they can take 40% off on Black Friday and still make money. It's just another scam like everything else these days and people don't notice it because they never look at those items normally so they have no idea what a regular price is.

Quote: EvenBob

Black Friday is such a ripoff. I was reading that Amazon sends a letter to all its sellers usually the middle of September telling them to be aware of what sale prices they are going to be charging for Black Friday. This is to alert the higher price items to raise their prices by 50% in October and November so they can take 40% off on Black Friday and still make money. It's just another scam like everything else these days and people don't notice it because they never look at those items normally so they have no idea what a regular price is.
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It's not just gift items.
A 6 pack of Coke (500mL plastic) has been $3.98 for the last 6 months or so. I believe last week, the price did the holiday spike to $5.98, where I expect it to stay until around January 10th.

I know the prices on brand name mix traditionally increase around holiday entertaining season, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

On the other hand, commodity electronics will be slightly less overpriced than usual for the next few weeks.

Quote: EvenBob

Black Friday is such a ripoff. I was reading that Amazon sends a letter to all its sellers usually the middle of September telling them to be aware of what sale prices they are going to be charging for Black Friday. This is to alert the higher price items to raise their prices by 50% in October and November so they can take 40% off on Black Friday and still make money. It's just another scam like everything else these days and people don't notice it because they never look at those items normally so they have no idea what a regular price is.
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This is old stuff. My dad used to tell me about when he worked at Sears during a mill layoff. Said he spent an entire day jacking up prices on something or other. That weekend there was a "sale" on it, more or less back to previous price.

What I SMH at are the goofballs that spend half of Thanksgiving day standing outside Best Buy, in the cold and rain. Don't know if they still do it they did as late as early 2010s.

Quote: AZDuffman

[...
What I SMH at are the goofballs that spend half of Thanksgiving day standing outside Best Buy, in the cold and rain. Don't know if they still do it they did as late as early 2010s.
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Sometimes I wonder how many of those people are doing that just for the community of it. The fall and winter holiday season is a time of despair for many, and camping out overnight in the rain with a bunch of like-minded strangers might be just the thing to raise the spirits.

Quote: AZDuffman

This is old stuff. My dad used to tell me about when he worked at Sears during a mill layoff. Said he spent an entire day jacking up prices on something or other. That weekend there was a "sale" on it, more or less back to previous price.

The ones that I always laugh about are the jewelry stores in the malls. 50% off everything every day of the week.

Quote: DRich

Quote: AZDuffman

This is old stuff. My dad used to tell me about when he worked at Sears during a mill layoff. Said he spent an entire day jacking up prices on something or other. That weekend there was a "sale" on it, more or less back to previous price.

The ones that I always laugh about are the jewelry stores in the malls. 50% off everything every day of the week.
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I read years ago that diamonds are not that rare and they're expensive only because the diamond market is so controlled by just very few people who've been in the business for a very long time. They could easily flood the market but then the value of diamonds would plummet.