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Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

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Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#51

Post by hollerith »

batch12 wrote: post #41
rubyn00bie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential: but I’d really like to call out what a life hack, lots of cheap socks are. I got the idea myself long ago, as a kid, from the South Park creators, as they demanded unlimited new socks while making the movie. Once a year I buy like a 50 pack on Amazon and it’s great. 10/10 would recommend.

My wife chuckles because I darn my socks a few times before throwing them out. I chuck them when they either aren't comfortable, look terrible, or are too damaged to fix.

I'm curious what tools and supplies you use to do it (besides the obvious needle and thread).

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#52

Post by gottorf »

no_wizard wrote: post #14
lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be surprised if most people under 60 or even 50 know what strolling down “Main Street” means. In my 30+ years, I have never once strolled down a Main Street. I have always gone to big stores and malls (and now online shopping).

I consider it the fact that Walmart for a long time had a mostly rural and suburban strategy that skews demographics to people 40+. It’s a Sam Walton hold over that I think is being slowly replaced. What WalMart hates the most is that they can’t get people of affluence who want to save money to shop at one though. When I worked there the complaint out of HQ I heard the most is that Michelle Obama and Oprah would shop…

> What WalMart hates the most is that they can’t get people of affluence who want to save money to shop at one though.

Inflation is doing the trick[0]. For several quarters, they've reported marked increases in the share of higher-income shoppers, especially for groceries.

[0]: https://www.axios.com/2023/05/18/inflation-walmart-prices-ea...

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#53

Post by pessimizer »

solarmist wrote: post #44
ThisIsMyAltFace wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's completely missing the point, but I suspect he knows that

From my understanding Sam Walton was a pretty quality leader, the company went to shit went he died and his kids took over.

Being good at making money with Walmart has nothing to do with whether Walmart destroys small towns. Number of small businesses destroyed is probably a positive metric for Walmart.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#54

Post by freeopinion »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #8
ilyt wrote: post #4

Author is delusional. A bunch of small stores close is nowhere near similar. I just want to go to one shop, get the stuff, and leave, not to go to 8 shops, pay 8 times, pack groceries 8 times and overall walk more edit: that is not to say opening big supermarkets is great, just that once they are there that's why people skip local stores and go to the big supermarket

Deal with 8 different potential return policies. Have 8 different conversations. Deal with whether all 8 take Amex or not.

Let different people shop at different stores depending on their preference for return policies or credit cards. Heh, let one store try to differentiate itself by accepting crypto payments. Or sell only products produced within 100 miles of the store. Or only employee people shorter than two meters.

Just because there are 8 stores doesn't mean that everyone has to use all 8 of them. It does mean that anyone could use any of them. Sounds like a win to me.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#55

Post by rblatz »

mrits wrote: post #20
lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be surprised if most people under 60 or even 50 know what strolling down “Main Street” means. In my 30+ years, I have never once strolled down a Main Street. I have always gone to big stores and malls (and now online shopping).

If you name a large city in the US I can probably tell you the name of the main street that is packed with locals

Dayton Ohio

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#56

Post by User23 »

notyourday wrote: post #45
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue is more about the systematic destroying of the small town. They open multiple Walmart's, the small town stores go out of business, then they can close some percentage of the Walmart's to consolidate into a few stores in central locations, now all of the small town people have to drive farther to get anything at all. And the small town dies.

There's nothing great about small towns. All of this is waxing of people who don't live in small towns that think it is oh so nice to be able to go to a cute little store on vacation at 11:30am to get a muffin on Saturday. Never mind that the store itself is closed Monday to Friday.

The DMV experience in a small town versus a big city is night and day in the small town’s favor. That’s true for pretty much all government services from the Post Office down to the County office.

The main benefit of small towns is that social capital matters and reputation matters. Of course those are disadvantages to misbehavers.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#58

Post by throwawaysleep »

batch12 wrote: post #33
throwawaysleep wrote: post #6

It’s price and the ease the price enables. Low price demonstratably rules in everything from plane tickets to groceries to basic services to clothing as it enables a life of abundance and mental ease. A friend loves Walmart as it means he no longer has to maintain his lawnmower. He just throws it away and buys a new one annually at the start of the season. He can still mow his lawn while abandoning the need to mainta…

> A friend loves Walmart as it means he no longer has to maintain his lawnmower. He just throws it away and buys a new one annually at the start of the season. He can still mow his lawn while abandoning the need to maintain mechanical knowledge. It's hard for me to respect this as a valid choice. Waste and consumption concerns aside, the justification of not knowing (or wanting to know) how to perform simple maintena…

> Why even own a lawnmower at this point-- just pay someone to mow your grass for you.

The lawnmower is so cheap that it is the same price as two mows.

It is indeed wasteful, but that isn't a problem you deal with directly.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#59

Post by SoftTalker »

scottLobster wrote: post #36
no_wizard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider it the fact that Walmart for a long time had a mostly rural and suburban strategy that skews demographics to people 40+. It’s a Sam Walton hold over that I think is being slowly replaced. What WalMart hates the most is that they can’t get people of affluence who want to save money to shop at one though. When I worked there the complaint out of HQ I heard the most is that Michelle Obama and Oprah would shop…

The harsh lighting and reflective white paint literally hurts my eyes in Walmart. Like there's a low-grade sting and I'm slightly squinting for the duration of my shopping trip. Target doesn't have this problem, and I'm willing to pay a slight premium if it's convenient. Maybe they can fix that first.

Yes, Target seems to explicitly use warmer lighting and earth tones. Walmart is flourescent light and shades of blue. It's awful.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#60

Post by no_wizard »

rblatz wrote: post #48
no_wizard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider it the fact that Walmart for a long time had a mostly rural and suburban strategy that skews demographics to people 40+. It’s a Sam Walton hold over that I think is being slowly replaced. What WalMart hates the most is that they can’t get people of affluence who want to save money to shop at one though. When I worked there the complaint out of HQ I heard the most is that Michelle Obama and Oprah would shop…

Maybe don't strew pallets of junk in the middle of aisles if you want to go upmarket?

Target does this too. It’s common in most supermarkets nowadays
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