What would it take for you to shop at Wal-Mart?

A need.

A zombie attack. Wal-Mart sells shotguns.

Nothing there is of interest to me.

For all others stores to have closed permanently and that to be the ONLY place within a 40 miles radius to shop. Then I MIGHT go there for groceries…

One that would be easy to get to and have an 80% off sale.

Dire necessity and it being the only store around for miles. Which is the case a lot of times in the area I live in.

Am I the only one who does? The prices are affordable. I buy most of my food, dog food, personal hygiene products, pretty much everything but clothing there.

I agree with the masses here – dire necessity would be it.

…something like my kid needs medicine immediately, and they’re the only suppliers in the whole state.

…or I was handcuffed to Rush Limbaugh and they were the only one with hacksaws or dynamite.

Apocalypse looming.

@bananafish
LOL DITTO

Wal Mart is the largest employer in the state I live, if I boycott it, is that more harm than when I buy an occasional set of bath towels, a lipgloss or tampon? I don’t have this answer and I don’t purposefully shop there but I do think about the impact the store has, the influence.

Well it was foretold in the scrolls of old that Wallyworld would out last the human race…what does that tell you about where we should shop? LMaO

@jonsblond – I don’t speak for everybody, but my problems are as follows:

1. Horrifying labor practices – they treat employees like dirt

2. Censorship – they censor music, reading materials, and more (not always making it clear they’ve done so), they’re like BIG BROTHER.

3. Personal Terrible Experience – their customer service is garbage, and they have terrible policies in place that show they don’t value their customers.

I would shop at Wal-Mart more if the Dollar General burnt down. They got all the necessities minus walking 1.5 miles to find toilet paper.

@VzzBzz – I understand being afraid of not supporting such a large employer…but if you supported another store instead (hopefully with better/fairer labor practices), then perhaps that store would be able to expand and hire more people.

Walmart should be sunk.

I shop there weekly, theres little other choice here unless I want to drive all over town and go to five different places to get my weekly needs. I think that amount of driving is worse than the evils of wal-mart not to mention a huge waste of time.

@bananafish I agree with you on your first two points. Not so much on your third. The employees of the Wal-Mart that I shop at are very friendly. Many of them recognize me and my daughter and go out of their way to say hello to us. They have watched my daughter grow up. I have noticed that they all treat each other as family, as well as the customers that they get to know.

My husband supports our family of five with little money. If we could afford to shop somewhere else, we would.

I shop there all the time (once every week or two) because I’m attending college in a small town. The prices here are crazy since there are so few stores in town, so I drive to the Wal-Mart in the next town over. The choice is between Wal-Mart or getting price-gouged.

I am going to be 26 next month, have been supporting myself since I was 18, and I have never made more than $15 an hour. I pay rent, a car payment, and ridiculous NJ car insurance premiums. I feed myself and my cats, I put gas in my vehicle, and I splurge $30 a month on entertainment.

I do not make enough money to be morally choosy where I shop. I shop where I can afford to. And that, my friends, is WalMart.

Money and/or credit card. Wait, do they take checks? I can write checks, too.

We go to Wal-Mart about once a week. There really is no other option for us here, as it’s the only place within 30 miles (other than the grocery store) where we can buy necessities. Cleaning products, pet supplies, toiletries, etc. I refuse to buy clothes or shoes there, because in my experience they wear out too fast to make the savings worthwhile.

I do agree that Wal-Mart has horrible business practices. If it were feasible for me to drive long distances to shop with children, and if money weren’t an issue, I’d shop at Wal-Mart a lot less. If I can get something at a local store, I’ll happily do that. Unfortunately, the local stores here sell jewelry, expensive clothes, and touristy knick-knacks. Nary a roll of toilet paper in sight. :(

I dunno. They’d have to build some here to begin with.

Well I’d have to move to the US for a start…

Being a grad student and making much less than minimum wage. Also, living in a town where it is the only option.

Oh. Wait. That’s what my life is like right now. If I could, I wouldn’t shop there. But seriously, with the economy the way it is and the way these small towns work, Wal Mart is the best option. Sorry to say. There sure are a lot of ugly people in that store, though..

Not much at all. I do feel guilty about it though.

I shop there at least once a week. It’s my 3rd home. I have home, work & Wal-Mart. Until another store has what I want, when I want it for the price they sell things at, I’ll stay there. Target has cuter kids’ clothes, but for everything else, it’s WM for me. 9 times out of 10, Target doesn’t have what I want. I like WM’s store brand, Equate. I have no reason to not go there.

apparently not much. I am there almost every week. But I still prefer Target over Walmart.

It would take their grand announcement that everything in the store was American made.
If you see my car in their parking lot, please call the cops. Clearly, someone has stolen it.

I, like others above, am in no position (location-wise, or financially) to shop anywhere BUT Walmart. Of course, I buy my clothes elsewhere, but as far as a quick run for school supplies, groceries, over-the-counter medicine, cards, a forgotten birthday gift, or toiletries, Wallyworld is my one-stop-shop. I really wish that I had other options, but, this all-inclusive supercenter really is the most economical choice for myself and others like me.

Nothing wrong with Wal-Mart

When I want to buy useless crap, I go to Wal-Mart. I love it

Actually having a Walmart on the continent would help.

a need for $5 vnecks, or on holidays when every other store is closed and night and i have nothing to do.

i won’t pretend that all of the other stores i go to are morally pure. wal mart is a shitty corporation, but so is just about every other chain store. i feel more guilty when i go to walmart, but i go on occasion.

I don’t go to Wal-Mart because I live in a dense urban area, and it is not part of Wal-Mart’s business plan to open up stores convenient to me. So it would take a Wal-Mart opening somewhere on the MBTA Red Line north of Park Street.

Which they won’t do, because the area is too dense for them to buy a large tract of land for a store and a parking lot, and there’s too much local competition for them to be successful with their predatory pricing techniques.

I had to shop at Wal-Mart today. I really needed some cheap eyeliner and toiletries and I didn’t want to make the 30 minute trip into the bigger town near me, so I caved. I really have developed an aversion to that place and the fact that this one is in a town of about 3,000 people in the backwoods of east Texas makes it, well… just use your imagination.

I am a single mother (I am employed and my daughter’s father is deceased, just FYI) and I shop at Walmart about once a week. It’s a “one stop” shopping expedition, except the one i like does not have many groceries. The prices can’t be beat. I understand they undercut other stores’ prices and they don’t allow unions (and where I work i am big on the union and am a union activist), but for me, personally, i need the low prices more than i am in a position to make a moral and ethical stand at the expense of going elsewhere and paying more. I also utilize Costco and Sam’s Club – I have to do what’s best for me personally and leave the “stand-taking” to others who may be able to better afford it.

@Bananafish: I don’t agree that they don’t have good customer service. I can return almost anything without a receipt, no questions asked. I buy a lot there and therefore I return a lot there, and never a hard time.

@jca I just went to Wal-Mart last night with my 5 year old daughter, she’s a big talker. She started to tell the cashier a long story about how her daddy let her play Rock Band, and the cashier struggled to understand what my daughter was talking about (she talks very fast when excited), but the cashier gave all of her attention to my daughter. Even with a long line forming, she made sure that she understood what my daughter was telling her and she let my daughter finish her story. Now that’s customer service!

Here ya go: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

@jonsblond well it’s nice for you but it’s not good customer service for the people in the queue behind you.

@Lightlyseared I got the evil stares, I understand. My daughter was happy, that’s all that matters to me. So it took an extra minute. It’s not like I was in the fast lane.