Kinja reply list

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BrocephalusHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:26am
Well, that depends who you are. In the short term, this is likely a very bad sign for you if you are: a Walmart employee, a Walmart investor, or an unemployed person who had been hoping to get a job at the local Walmart, that is now closing. In the long term, the existence of fewer Walmarts is a good thing for: small businesses everywhere and their employees, most other non-Walmart retailers, and humanity’s soul in general. Since life is lived in the short term, though, it’s worth thinking about what’s happening right now.

I’m always fascinated by the liberal elite’s tendency to completely ignore the fact that some people shop at Wal-Mart because they don’t have much money and Wal-Mart is cheap.
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  foolyooBrocephalus
  1/15/16 11:31am
  Like Walmart employees!
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  AlectharBrocephalus
  1/15/16 11:33am
  I’m always fascinated by the conservative tendency to deliberately obscure the fact that people could pay more for goods and services if wages were higher, so I guess I spend a lot of time fascinated.
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GeorgeGeoffersonLivesHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:36am
On a kind of side note, when these stores go abandoned, they are so purpose-built that they are very rarely reused. They then sit and often rot for years particularly in small and/or poor communities. And, even if they get to the point of being able to be foreclose on the communities don’t usually have the funds to tear them down. This has already been an issue with particularly Walmart for quite a few years, now, where they over-retailed themselves.

Fortunately, I’ve seen an increase in creative reuses for these abandoned big boxes. Where I live I’ve seen some turned into churches, office buildings, and even laboratories, but this is the exception to the rule.
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  AndrewGeorgeGeoffersonLives
  1/15/16 11:46am
  One in my hometown quickly turned into a Big Lots & a Planet Fitness.
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  WaltDisneyGeorgeGeoffersonLives
  1/15/16 11:46am
  Bingo. Cities need to be better about adding ordinances to deal with this type of thing — especially if they are giving companies sweetheart deals to build.
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#NotAllYzermanHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:22am
It’s going to be great when President Trump* creates a 45% tariff on Chinese goods and the entire state of Arkansas spontaneously combusts.

*please god no god no
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  Sktroop#NotAllYzerman
  1/15/16 11:43am
  The first thing that came to my mind when Trump talked about a 45% tariff on Chinese goods was “well, that will fuck Walmart over really well” but then remembered that a huge percentage of consumer products sold in ALL stores are made in China, as are components for automobiles, appliances and most electrical/electronic devices built in the US.
  
  So, he’s either totally unaware of the extent of the economic impact of such a tariff, just throwing red meat to his followers, completely stupid or a combination of all three.
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  blameitonthecroutons goodbye tourSktroop
  1/15/16 11:54am
  If you believe that Donald Trump is going to put a 45% tariff on Chinese trade you’re kidding yourself.
  
  What you should shit your pants over is Donald Trump trying to handle the increasing hostilities between China and the rest of Asia competing for the islands in the South China Sea/Sea of Japan. Mr. Nuance will really help us then!
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FloodHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:26am
I hate shopping at Walmart so much but their prices are so low when it’s time to get groceries.
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  AskYourMotherFlood
  1/15/16 11:37am
  Compared to Kroger: Ground beef is lower, but ground chuck is higher. Yogurt slightly higher. Mrs Edwards pies are lower. Chopped frozen spinach, higher. Coke 12 packs, higher.
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  The Devil Drives a Mustang (Rotary Pending)Flood
  1/15/16 11:38am
  True, but the quality is terrible, especially with fresh ingredients. My wife and I have found that Wal Mart still lags way behind the traditional grocery stores (Safeway, Kroger, HEB, etc) in areas like fresh produce, the butcher’s counter, and deli.
  
  And even for dry and frozen goods, the selection can be hit or miss. They carry all of the most common items of course, but if you want anything a little off beat there’s a chance they won’t have it. For example, my wife has us on a high fiber/low carb diet. As such, when she does spaghetti or anything with noodles she buys wheat pasta. Our local Tom Thumb (local name for Safeway) carries a good variety of wheat pastas. Wal Mart may carry some wheat pasta, but not in a wide variety of noodle styles.
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phunkshunHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:27am
Fuck Walmart, and fuck Amazon.

What you’re really wanting to say is fuck our unrestrained consumption with absolutely no purpose.

But you, like me, are a coward.

So we won’t say it.

Because we don’t know any other way to be.
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  Sid and Financyphunkshun
  1/15/16 11:31am
  I dare say you are tilting at the wrong windmill with Nolan, of all people.
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  Alectharphunkshun
  1/15/16 11:37am
  I mean, existence is purposeless, so it's not like it really fucking matters how we go about it.
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hellhogHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:32am
I only ever go to Walmart because I work shitty hours and it’s the only place that’s open if I need something (like, say, a portable car battery). I’ve also been resisting the urge to turn to Amazon for all of my shopping needs because I like walking into a store, paying for what I need, then walking out. I hate waiting for something I need right now.

Like yesterday. I needed new RAM for my old laptop. Used to be I could just walk into Best Buy or Office Depot or something and pick up a SoDIMM stick. No more!
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  Nicohellhog
  1/15/16 12:00pm
  It's generally not that hard to plan to buy things 2 days before you need them.
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  Stupid Flandershellhog
  1/15/16 12:07pm
  I hate waiting for something I need right now.
  
  No worries, Amazon’s working on that. In a lot of cities, you can get 1-hour delivery, and in even more areas, you can get same-day delivery. I’m sure that will become available for the majority of the U.S population within the next few years. The only reason left to go to a store is if you actually enjoy the experience, or if you want to see/try a product before you buy it.
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Rocket SurgeonHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:27am
Giant, empty husks of former big-box stores are endlessly depressing to me.
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  flamingolingoRocket Surgeon
  1/15/16 12:58pm
  It’s becoming a big problem in suburbs. Ditto suburban office parks. More people are moving to cities or wanting a more urban feel to their suburban neighborhoods.
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  Stef SchraderRocket Surgeon
  1/15/16 2:47pm
  Yeah—that’s what concerns me most. In small communities where most of the local vendors closed after Walmart came in, what’s left if Walmart goes away? Big box blight and another reason to move away, I guess. Increased travel costs to farther away stores hurts hard if you’re on a limited income.
  
  That’s not a good argument for keeping Walmart around—they’re notoriously crummy to their own employees and quite frankly, those small communities deserve better. Rather, “better” no longer existing and the giant, empty shells of stores seem to be unfortunate by-products of the whole hot mess. Ugh.
  
  tl;dr—shop local if you still can, *especially* if you’re in a small town.
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Carmellio SampersHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:55am
Walmart will be closing roughly 154 stores in the US mostly the smaller Walmart Express (I don’t know what that is I’ve never seen one), but they plan on opening at least 100 larger store this year 2016 in the US. Many of the 2,000 employees the retailer will try to “relocate” but in reality they just forget about them.

The real story here is for China. China’s economy (the second largest economy in the world!) is based on taking coal and petroleum and petroleum waste and combining that with metals, plastics and toxic paint and shaping these raw materials using slave labor and a disregard for the environment into useful, but very badly made, things of all shape and size. These things are then placed in shipping containers and sent to LA and NJ are then unloaded and sent by truck throughout US to retailers like Walmart for American consumption. Several months after purchase these things are usually placed into garbage trucks and sent to an American landfills all over the US. And the cycle begins anew.

In exchange for all this China receives US dollars and Americans gain unemployment and cut themselves trying to use these badly made Chinese things for their intended purpose and the American landfills fill up and up.

This cycle has slowed considerably here in the US and (with a bigger trading partner) Europe. In fact “Made In China” is now a way of insuring a retail product will not move off the shelf (other than Walmart as you really have no choice there but Walmart isn’t the margin it’s the base and that base is even contracting).

What did the Chinese do with their US dollars? They built (very badly) infrastructure a process that required an ungodly amount of raw materials like steel, copper, deadly chemicals stored in flimsy containers by the acre. They also bought real estate in New York, London (not so much but some) and San Francisco and LA. They also went to casinos and gambled it away. And the rest they invested (leveraged and then gambled away) in their own stock and bond and global stock and bond markets. That supply of dollars has slowed down considerably. The results of which we see today.
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  fnsfsnrCarmellio Sampers
  1/15/16 12:58pm
  Try doing some research and better understanding the world. China certainly has issues with fair treatment of their labor and with the environment, but their growing trade with the US has led to a burgeoning middle class and some new levels of openness in their government. In fact, labor costs in China have risen so much that many unskilled manufacturing jobs - for apparel, in particular - have left the country for cheaper places like Bangladesh.
  
  In terms of the quality of Chinese products, that of course runs the gamut but I don’t see people avoiding buying Apple products even though a huge share of them are made in China. In some businesses, the volume of work has enabled Chinese manufacturers to build state of the art facilities that absolutely deliver high-quality products that can’t be produced for anything close to the same cost anywhere else in the world.
  
  That being said, of course there is an argument to be made that China’s economy has prospered at the cost of our own, and that having the base of our manufacturing lie half a world away is taking a further toll on environment due to the transportation/shipping involved. But it’s completely incorrect to state that this is being accomplished by “slave labor.” I have a lot of family in China and visited them within the last 3 months; their lives are by far the best they’ve ever been since the Communists took power.
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  Carmellio Sampersfnsfsnr
  1/15/16 1:36pm
  If you define “far the best they’ve ever been since the Communists took power.” as an accelerated cultural revolution accomplished via totalitarian capitalism disguised as, well, totalitarian capitalism that produces pollution on a scale (including global warming, ocean acidification and poisoned air and water) never witnessed by mankind EVER then yes your relatives in China certainly are better off.
  
  As for Apple products standing as the Chinese gold standard for production workers in China the conditions within those factories are less than ideal for any civilized nation and, sadly, represent some of the best in China. That the Western consumer pretends ignorance to enjoy the consumer surplus buying what would otherwise be a several times more expensive smartphone if produced humanly (like meat or eggs) is another matter.
  
  As for quality issue of Chinese made goods, I wonder why California finds it necessary to force many Chinese made goods sold in this country to carry labels warning pregnant women, children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems “Should not touch this item as it has been found to contain unusually high levels of (insert the name a toxic substance here______)
  
  Based on these facts, not opinions, it is no wonder that global consumption choices are changing as regards to country of origin in manufacturing. That is also an undeniable trend not solely based on commoditized labor rates marginally increasing in China which STILL has a glut of surplus workers.
  
  Finally, I take exception to your notion that a “ burgeoning middle class” is a good thing given the strain placed upon the earth’s dwindling resources such a burgeoning would create. It would be entirely more beneficial to the Chinese to develop their own internal economic structure one that is not based on global environmental destruction and human rights violations. Or at the very least Western consumers not participate in this process.
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DyoNiceUsHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:58am
When I got married and started a family I begrudgingly started shopping at Walmart. George W had just started destroying the economy and my local Supermarket was bought by Ahold from Europe and turned Giant a D.C. icon into Shitty Stop and Shop with ridiculous prices to this day.

Over the years Walmart made their bones by being to go to store during the many GOP induced recessions over the last 30 years. This last time though they really changed. Of course the service is bad because they concentrated on making life hell for their employees for decades, but they also started raising prices. Pretty much the only reason to subject yourself to Walmarts shopping “experience” is the prices and they are pretty much a joke now. I’m guessing the Waltons are pretty much just greedy jerks who have lost interest in making money because they already have so damn much of it.
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  flamingolingoDyoNiceUs
  1/15/16 12:57pm
  Pretty much the only reason to subject yourself to Walmarts shopping “experience” is the prices and they are pretty much a joke now
  
  I’ve gone to Walmart a few times and have regretted it every time. The prices are not significantly lower on most items (sometimes they’re higher) and the store itself is a shopping nightmare—poorly stocked, messy shelves, zero employees, long lines, etc. etc. The 50 cents I save on razors is not worth all that.
  
  But I speak from a position of privilege since there are other stores near me that have competitive prices and equally good or better inventory. A lot of people just have to put up with it.
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  DyoNiceUsflamingolingo
  1/15/16 1:15pm
  The crazy thing is that Dollar Stores have been KILLING Walmart. I never used to even look at a Dollar Store until I had to actually do some large ordering of some items for a Federal grant a few years ago. Gradually the Dollar chains have started stocking major brands and frequently they located either near a Walmart or in local neighborhood strip malls. Granted you get the same messy shelves but from what I hear they have become the go to for folks who would go to 7-11 or Walmart for many items.
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Sid and FinancyHamilton Nolan
1/15/16 11:24am
The obvious answer is to open a Wal-Mart boutique in every Starbucks.
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