This will not be a spittle-laden rant full of breathless claims about how Wal-Mart is raping the world and destroying the merkin way of life, which I typically find misleading at best. I don’t have a problem with effective execution of a solid business plan; au contraire, I consider it one of the most critical societal forces.
No, I quit Wal-Mart for that most basic of reasons: because I find it so damned unpleasant to shop there.
I actually stopped buying durable goods there several years ago because of unacceptably high defect and damage rates, but I kept it on the list for consumables. I have to get my Crystal Light and Mobil 1 somewhere, and Wal-Mart’s prices are reliably low. However, they aren’t compellingly low, such that sustained irritation in order to receive them becomes a rational transaction.
By and large, except for Big Spring Jam and similar events, I don’t like crowds. Whatever store it is, I try to be there when you aren’t. (Nothing personal.) Wal-Mart screws me both ways here:
- If I need something at a rush time, like lunch or right after work, it’s incredibly congested and there aren’t enough registers open.
- If I shop at an off-time, like 9 pm on a weeknight, there is minimal traffic but no registers are open, except for the one selling cigarettes that has five or six people ahead of me and those damnable self checkouts that take much longer than a human-staffed register. Furthermore, half the time they require a human anyway for some thing or another, only s/he has to come from some distance away, further increasing the time I’m standing around in Wal-Mart instead of doing something I want to be doing. You could say I’m not a big fan of do-it-yourself checking out at my local discount retailer.
It was a night like that a couple of years ago with Nathan, when it took us more than 15 minutes to spend $.84 on a Hot Wheels car, when I realized I was done with Wal-Mart.
That said, it’s not a boycott. If I stayed somewhere on business and needed something, and the only place I saw was a Wal-Mart, I wouldn’t drive around until I found a Target. And I do have a prescription or two there, but only because my lovely and considerate wife picks them up for me most of the time, and she gets them there because the pharmacy is actually pretty good.
But on a typical need-something trip around town–a phrase descriptive of 90+% of the times Wal-Mart would be an option in my life–they lose thousands of my dollars every year. Target’s right over there. Costco’s a bit further than Sam’s, but I’ll recover the additional time in line. AutoZone’s got my oil.
I vaguely recall an article in Forbes or similar a year or so ago on Wal-Mart’s realization that they’re losing people like me, and the steps they were taking to get us back. Well, good then. If it’s ever the buzz on the street how nice Wal-Mart is now, perhaps I’ll give it another go.
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I hate Walmart for those very reasons. That, and it attracks Walmartians (tip to Mike Straka). You know, those idiots who sloooowly walk down the middle of the parking lot, or stop and have conversations in the aisles blocking the way.
My trips to Wal-Mart have become less and less frequent over the years for those very same reasons. Usually when I stop there, it’s 1 or 2 in the morning, and I need something that is not a grocery item that the 24 hour supermarkets carry. Now if you want to see the interesting characters, wander into a Wal-Mart at 2 am. I’ve seen stoned looking moms dragging around their brood of crying, bleary-eyed toddlers through the store at 2 am. Now that’s some quality parenting.
Saintseester: Does it attract Walmartians, or does it make them? I think it’s as “simple” as a difference in philosophy. I haven’t considered a discount store a destination per se in many years. It’s something to endure until I can get back to my life. For some others, I think it’s a social “going out” sort of thing.
Jeremy: I used to do the 2 am thing when I was single, and I’ve seen that mom! ‘Course, the other problem with going at 2 am is you have to fight the stockers with their pallets and carts and boxes.