Wal Mart Braggin' Rights

The post about grocery shopping must have contained 30 mentions of Wal Mart. I live in Madison, MS, just outside Jackson. We are building the largest WM in the United States here. Our female mayor has real tight standards, allows no signs over 3 feet tall, every building adheres to a paint scheme code, lot sizes are dictated strictly,etc. Our Wal Mart is going to be not only the biggest in the country (now Memphis is) but it will be the first red brick one. She allows none of the WM colors, all must be earth tones. The new interchange on the interstate at our exit is also the same matching red brick. And there is a requirement that they face the docks away from the road so they cannot be seen and there'll be none of those rickety buggy collectors out front that have signs saying, "Help us save you money by putting your cart here". Boy, talk about letters to the editor in the statewide newspaper. Anyway, I look forward to shopping the wide new aisles and riding the escalator at the new Wal Mart up to the helipad. I just hope they have good stuff in hardware.
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  • Don D -

    I think your mayor needs to find a job! I'm all for "keep our city beautiful," but that's bordering on ridiculous!


  • Don:

    Does your mayor have any say over customer service at Wal-Mart? If so- THEN you have Wal Mart Braggin' rights!

    Zanne
  • So you're going to have to tell us Don, just what the differences are (other than the obvious that one is tearing down while the other is building up) between your dreaded Super K Mart and the red bricked Wal-Mart. Most folks in the grocery store thread didn't appear to thrilled with their Wal-Marts.
  • The Super K that's just closed for the third and hopefully final time was notorious for keeping a hundred people standing in two lines and having filthy aisles. The wal marts in this area are super clean. We've not had one in this little town yet. We've grown from 1500 to 15,000 population in 9 years and still climbing. The mayor really had to come down off her high horse to even let wal mart enter the community. When they first came looking, she passed out bumper stickers that read "Madison's not for sale". She allows no apartments in the city limits and would like to prohibit cars over 4 years old, but then I'd have to leave too. She would prefer nothing but antique malls and strolling pathways around ponds. Otherwise, she's a charming person. But, when it rains, she almost drowns immediately....
  • I hear the same thing about turkeys!
  • Does she have a strict color scheme for a bottle tree? x:7
  • Well, fdr your sake Don, I hope your Wal-mart is better than ours is here. Because how you described SuperK is exactly what you find in alot of Houston Wal-marts. Who knows though, maybe that mayor of yours will have "hall monitors" to make sure no ugly congestions mars the aisles! ;;)
  • I can't decide which is worse here the Big K or Wal Mart. Wal Mart is notorious for birds dive bombing your head in the summer (they let the garden center doors open and the birds fly in). Big K is just plain gross. Filth could be for sale in both.

    Enjoy your new Wal Mart, if it stays open 24 hrs like ours use to, it will attract every freak and lunatic within a 20 mile radius. Hence the use to stay open.

    Oh and don't let me forget this...our Wal Mart has the first 40 spaces in front of the store reserved for handicapped people. You have to park in the north 40 and hike to the store. Every time I go there, there are 3 cars in handicap and 8 bazillion in the north 40. I love the people that roll in with no handicap card displayed but whip it out once they are parked 10 steps from the front door...and I've been hikin for an hour with a complaining kid...ERRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

    Sorry...I feel better now. Trust me Don, you'll find something to complain about with Wal Mart. I can't wait, please be sure and share it with the rest of us.
  • If you take a close look, you can see how much of a Wal Mart's inventory
    comes from CHINA.(cringe- look at our nation's trade deficit ! ) But you do not see Wal Mart itself bragging about that! I try very hard to buy American-made products at our Riverside Wal-Mart.

    Chari

  • "I love the people that roll in with no handicap card displayed but whip it
    out once they are parked 10 steps from the front door"


    They don't do that to be sneaky -- they are supposed to hang it up only when they are ready to park. It says right on the tag that it's illegal to drive around with your handicap tag displayed.

    I do, however, believe that some of them hang it up a bit too gleefully.

  • [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-12-03 AT 09:37AM (CST)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-12-03 AT 09:36 AM (CST)[/font]

    I know that I will regret even bringing this up. Reading HRGirl's post reminded me that when our Wal-Mart (just regular, not Super) opened, they had what must have been 15 spots for disabled shoppers, 10 spots for disabled shoppers in vans, 5 spots for expectant mothers and 3 spots for parents with sick children. I'm serious! I don't know if this is common throughout the rest of the country, but Wal-Mart isn't the only one to do this in my community.
  • Hell if my Wal Mart had parking spots for mothers with sick kids, I could just park there forever (my kid has a new ailment every day)! In my travels, I have found no place in Pennsylvania that caters to pregnant women (I guess PA feels you did it to yourself), mothers with sick kids (I guess again PA feels you did it to yourself and why are you taking a sick kid shopping any way)!


  • Don-- is it possible you want to take back your brag and/or change to something else?
  • I wish America had more mayors like Don's, actually.
  • Don: If your Wal-Mart turns out to look like you are describing, then it has got to be the first one that I have EVER seen that looked like this. Your mayor must really have some pull with the corporate giants! Let me know if your wide aisles are truly aisles or pseudo-storage for cardboard boxes they don't have room for in the warehouse. Again, wide, unobstructed aisles at Wal-Mart is an oxyi-moron.

    I am off to our annual employee cookout!

    Cheers!
  • Don't know what Wal Mart's you guys been shopping at...I couldn't live without mine! Great bargains, only crowded during Christmas time, usually have what I'm looking for, etc. I just love their lemonade soda, and can't wait til summer when they start selling it again. I unfortunately don't have a super Wal Mart near me and wish that they would put one in...Oh well!

    Happy Friday!
  • HS

    I just looked at your profile and you truly do make the best with what you have!

    Zanne
  • Guess it is truth or dare time.... I must confess I worked for Wally World from 1973 through 1994 and they were very good to me and my family and I take great pride in having been a Wal-Martian. This story will ring true with the grocery store bashing when an HR from a grocery finally responded and added a different tilt to the stories. I know first hand how frustrating it can be shopping these stores, especially after having spent my last five or six years in the home office in Bentonville in the Personnel and Training divisions, 'cause you know how they are taught/instructed to take care of the customers. But on the flip side, I too (now-a-days) just about have to be dragged into the local Super Wal-Mart. Maybe becasue I nearly lived in those stores for 20 years. I still can't walk down an aisle without stopping to straighten an end cap or such. Mr. Sam was extremely generous to us with those Wal-Mart stock options and I do appreciate the 10% discount that I still receive. However, there has truely been a changing of the guard since Mr. Sam passed away.
  • Okay - I feel a sense of guilt having started the Grocery store bashing thread and now us unrestrained HR people are Wal Mart bashing. But hopefully I made up for it with the soap opera name thread.

    I think we can ALL agree that there are two sides to every story. (In some cases - three or four sides!) I did a stint of small discount store and retail pharmacy. We had our customers that we liked and the ones that we didn't. The same holds true for cashiers and sales clerks. Admit it. You actually have been waited on by a nice and competent clerk at least once in your life! Don? Parabeagle? Rockie? Aprilshowers? I know that I have been waited on by pleasant, happy and productive people.

    I usually give my card to those folks and try to recruit them!
  • Yes, exactly! I size them up into categories: (1) I give them a card in an effort to recruit, or (2) If they have a certain look, I ask them when was the last time they went on a motorcycle ride and what time does their shift end, or (3) I ask them if theirs is the only line that's open today. There is an additional thing....if they sneeze and blow their nose between customers, that's a sure fire way to get me to move on down the line.
  • What is that certain look?

    Would we find a description of it in the Dress Code thread?
  • >What is that certain look?
    >
    >Would we find a description of it in the Dress Code thread?


    Hey...that's probably that "googly" eye look again. Watch out Don!


  • She allows none of the WM colors, all must be earth tones.

    What are the Wal Mart colors? I've never been in a Wal Mart. Are they really garish or something?



  • Hey Beagle! Neva been in a Wal Mart? WOW! What else is wrong with you? You can tell us. ;;)
  • I live in Portland and from what I understand Wal Mart doesn't like to locate in large cities where there is a lot of competition. We have some regional heavyweights such as Fred Meyer that basically serve the same function as Wal Mart, so I don't think Wal Mart is interested in this area, except maybe in the outlying suburbs. That's why I've never been in one.
  • Whew. You had me worried there for a minute. Here, there's WalMart, Target, KMart, Frye's, BJ's, Costco all competing for the same customer.
  • Every WalMart I've ever seen is a barfy yellow colored metal pole barn type building. Red brick? Unheard of, it costs too much (King of the discounts, remember?)

    We have a plain ol' WalMart in the next town over, which is currently in the process of expanding to a Super WalMart. The problem I see in smaller communities (it just happened in a neighboring county), is that WalMart drives every little guy out of business. The neighboring county had three local groceries, a couple of neighborhood hardware stores and a downtown with some small clothing stores, etc. Now you may choose your grocery store, either WalMart or Shop N Save, no others managed to survive. The JC Penney is still there, but all the other clothing stores are gone. Downtown has nearly died. I hope it doesn't happen here.

    In our little town we just got our first traffic light. We still have no fast food, but I hear there may be plans for a Subway! We are a long way from getting a Super WalMart, or any other WalMart.

    That said, my aunt works at the WalMart in the neighboring county, and she says they are horrible employers, making employees work "off the clock" and giving them far too much to do in 40 hours then making them stay (off the clock) to finish. Customer service, as you can imagine, is non existent with overworked, underpaid, ill-treated employees. It is clean, cheap and has wide aisles, though.
  • >"Every WalMart I've ever seen is a barfy yellow colored metal pole barn
    >type building. Red brick? Unheard of, it costs too much (King of
    >the discounts, remember?)"


    I don't know where yours is, or how old, but all the ones I've seen are grey with red and blue accents. Much better than a "barfy yellow barn"!
  • Wal Mart not only drives little guys ( retailers ) out of business, but also
    AMERICAN manufacturers also ! Ever see how much stuff Wal Mart sells that comes from CHINA? The consumers in the small communities still have the ( buying )power to choose their very own AMERICAN-made products , and buy from their local sources...

    Chari
  • Parabeagle---I congratulate you on your good taste.
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