I HATE WALMART!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I REALLY TRULY DO!

 

When I was growing  up I started working in mom and pop root beer stands and drive-ins, small neighborhood groceries, and locally owned gas stations.  Every one held the notion that the customer came first and , while not always right, hey were always The Customer.  Customer service was the first law of public relations.

 

No one (or very few) employees can even find the term in a dictionary these days.

 

Sam Walton and Joe Albertson, two men that  I met, worked for, and admired greatly, would be shocked and embarrassed by what their enterprises have become.

 

Crowded, rude employees, unions in charge of almost everything, vendors controlling the products that are carried. filthy, busted up and poorly maintained parking lots, cluttered and crowded aisles, poorly stocked shelves, crowded stores, and the list goes on.........and ON!

 

If I cool down I'll tell y'all about my experience today.  I made no friends and embarrassed some sissy customers.

 

I don't care...and I won.

[Warden Callaway]

But it's a free freak show!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

4 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said:

But it's a free freak show!

It ain't free,. It cost me almost three hours and whole roll of TUMS!

[bgavin]

Joe Albertson was one of my Dad's patients.
Never met him myself, but Dad took a liking to him.

 

Forty:  Moonlight Ranch in NV is one of the few places that comes to mind for that particular notion of yours.

😁

Edited June 7 by bgavin

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

Wal-Mart just plain SUCKS!!  I won't set foot in one.

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

49 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

 

....If I cool down I'll tell y'all about my experience today.  I made no friends and embarrassed some sissy customers.

 

 

We'll be waiting, with bated breath....  

[Blackwater 53393]

I’m not fond of Wally World either!!  Sadly, there’s little else that competes with it in small towns. I dislike going into town even worse!!  
 

My local big W was just remodeled, with alterations completed two weeks ago.  It’s now more…   densely packed and nearly everything has been moved.  The aisles are narrowed and there is not enough room for shoppers to pass in opposite directions with a shopping cart in many sections. Other than having smoothed out the floors and a very thorough cleaning, it’s not really improved at all. There’s just more stuff.

 

They DID clean up the parking lot, paving portions that were bad, but they cut down some pretty nice trees that made the parking lot shady and cooler.

 

There’s a decent restaurant or two in that complex and a new Harbor Freight.  There’s a good little coffee shop across the street.  If we’re over in that area, we’ll grab a few things there, but otherwise, we only go there for our prescriptions.

[Calamity Kris]

I will not set foot in Wallyworld either.  Uno purchases some things there but even he thinks it's a "wretched hive of scum and villany".  Coudn't agree with him more.

[Sedalia Dave]

I avoid Wally world like the plague

[Subdeacon Joe]

I haven't been into a regular Walmart in a  couple of years.   I do use the Walmart Neighborhood Market.  Good grocery store. It's considerably less expensive than Safeway or Lucky, although I do check the weekly flyers on those,  especially Safeway.   

[watab kid]

well , we have two in this area , there are nultiple cities divided by innvissible lines known only to the city councils i guess - doesnt matter , we have two , one rea;l close to me that is great , the other is on a more remote side of town to me , full of Somalis and not a real safe are to venture to certain times - i dont go there , 

 

funny thing is , i grew up in the 50s and 60s in a community very similar to where i am - save south a few hundred miles , we had a separated  situation , black on the east side of the river and white on the west , thats how i grew up , it was never like what i find myself in now , 

of course that area is nothing like it once was either ,times change , things get altered , both where i left and where i am are college communities - that has not changed 

 

i dont g to walmart much

[Horace Patootie, SASS #35798]

Ours is very good here. I'm sure it depends on location. We have one closer to us but the neighborhood has gone downhill.

Horace

[Cypress Sun]

I rarely step foot in a regular or Super Walmart but do go to the Neighborhood Walmart about every 10 days or so. Their prices are at least 25 - 30% lower on name brand items. I won't buy their "store brand" food items. I do almost all of my meat, vegetable, toiletries and paper good purchasing at either Sam's or BJ's.

 

Around here we have Aldi's, Winn Dixie, Publix and a Save-A-Lot. I don't trust Aldi's. Winn Dixie and Save-A-Lot are ancient, dirty stores with high prices and 1/2 rotten food due to inadequate refrigeration. Publix stores are clean, their workers are friendly and helpful, but their prices are at least 25% higher than every place else and their sales are worthless. 

 

The people that work at all of the Walton brand stores are, for the most part, useless and lazy. I shop there anyway as money is tight but it doesn't mean that I don't tell them what's on my mind if need be.

[Nickle]

Our Walmarts have definitely changed for the worst in last few years.  New people working there and New customers to match.   Kind of dirty as well which is off putting when buying groceries.  My wife says we are done shopping there.

Costco is to crowded and to rush/race/race/push and shove. We don't shop at Costco anymore either. 

Ma and PA type grocery stores are long gone

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Not a fan of the store and I go there only if necessary (very, very rarely), but it’s better here.

[Whitey James]

Ditto,

Walmart is a microcosm of today's society. You see the worst representatives of our culture there.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I have absolutely no problem with the WalMart here. I don’t go there regularly but when I do it’s fine. I buy AA shotgun shells  and Federal .22’s  They’ve got a decent bakery section and their prices on other groceries can’t be beat. . 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

I avoid it when possible; there are some things, though, that warrant a trip in - motor oil and such is significantly less than at the local auto stores.  And I did buy a TV there about three weeks ago (TCL Roku).  Which is going back, maybe tomorrow.

 

I hope this doesn't read too terribly, but often I can go in, shop, wait in line and pay then leave without hearing a word of English.  I recently needed a staple gun - other stores were closed, I needed it pronto, so off to WW I went.  Not surprisingly, staple guns (AND staples!) are locked up.  It was a challenge finding someone with a key whom I could communicate with.  

 

But then... this is the middle of california.  

[Blackwater 53393]

We have a local grocery where the meat department is outstanding and prices are, for the most part, competitive with Wally World.  The folks are polite, knowledgeable, and helpful! They have the best damned bacon I’ve ever bought and they’ll slice up anything they have any way I want it!  They also have a great selection of locally sourced products.

 

In the opposite direction, there’s another small chain grocery with a fabulous deli where I buy sliced sandwich meats and cheeses as well as fine grated cheeses and a great selection of sauces and baked goods!  They’re also very helpful and polite and the manager is always willing to try products that customers request!

 

There’s a nice little confections shop close by and a prize winning barbecue guy who runs a small outfit two blocks from the house.

 

Unfortunately, there are some products that I like or need that are available conveniently only at the Walmart and their pharmacy is far more efficient, well stocked, and less expensive than the local CVS or Wallgreens.

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

part of my physical therapy is i need to walk more. When the weather is cold, it's a good place to get in a mile or two.

 

 

Edited June 8 by Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

[Buckshot Bear]

We don't have Walmarts in Oz.....but I'm very fond of watching WalMartian's clips! 

[Kid Rich]

In the past we have traveled a lot. Some of the Walmarts we go in are clean, the employees are polite and the stores are pretty decent. Others can be BAD. One of my pet peeves is the employees that are filling call in orders. Our local store they will push in front of you and not move out of the way or let you pass. Some of the better stores they are the opposite.

kR

[Chantry]

I usually hit Walmart maybe once a month or when I need to get things that are significantly cheaper at Walmart (laundry/dishwasher detergents and Fresh Pet for the dog).  I usually go about 3 pm, right after work.  Most of the retirees are done running errands and most of the kids are still in school.

 

Mine is clean, the meats, fruit and vegetable are at least as fresh and cheaper than Stop & Shop. On there rare times I ask for help, the employees try to help, even if they aren't always successful.  They also employee people who wouldn't get hired by most other retail stores due to issues that don't quite qualify them for government assistance.

 

 

[Warden Callaway]

There is two things I dislike about Wally-World is; one, you can never find things,  here one day, moved the next. The online search will give you the isle and number - if they have it. The online search brings up 59 choices but most are not stocked.  Two, the prices online are their price online only.  Store price is most often different. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

12 hours ago, bgavin said:

Joe Albertson was one of my Dad's patients.
Never met him myself, but Dad took a liking to him.

 

Forty:  Moonlight Ranch in NV is one of the few places that comes to mind for that particular notion of yours.

😁

What notion would that be?  I have had  lot of notions, but I've managed to suppress most of them for the safety of idiots.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 6/7/2025 at 9:31 PM, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

part of my physical therapy is i need to walk more. When the weather is cold, it's a good place to get in a mile or two.

 

 

The Chaplain of the local Marine Corps League goes to one almost in my back yard for his daily exercise.  I think he does eight laps to get five miles (?) in right after breakfast.

Edited June 14 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Okay, here goes.

 

First let me tell you that I will go to WalMart for one product only. They are the only place in the whole free world that carries the brand of duck jerky that my dog likes in the huge size.  I may see if Amazon carries it next time around.

 

Yesterday morning my DVD player froze up.  I bought it about three years ago for a song...at WalMart.

 

I don't like WalMart for many reasons but it's only three blocks away so I went there.  I couldn't find one like the old one so I went to the counter where three people were "working" but actually BSing.  I finally got one guy to ask "are you looking for something?"  I bit my tongue instead of telling him "No Jackass.  I'm waiting for a bus."  He didn't act like he would have cared unless I got physical.

 

I told him what I was looking for and he found a box and handed it to me.  I picked up some duck jerky on the way out and checked out.

 

I got home, unpacked the machine and followed the instructions.  I fired it up and put in a DVD.  It sucked it right up but it wouldn't play so I tried to eject the disc (which belongs to the local library) but it wouldn't open up.  I went back to the instructions and found that I had missed a word right under the super dooper Blue Ray label: ONLY in tiny letters.

 

I repacked it and went back to the store where only one kid was working at the service (totally mis-named) desk in a mid-afternoon Saturday.  I lucked out (I thought) because there was no one ahead of me but one girl.  The kid was BSing with her, obviously horny and hoping, for ten minutes.  A line was forming behind me and a man behind me finally hollered out "Hey, will you get going up there?"  The kid slowly walked over to a microphone and called for help.

 

Five more minutes before a girl showed up and at least was pleasant, but she had to ask her supervisor what to do about the disc still in the machine.  That took five or six more minutes because the supervisor couldn't be found.  She came back (I never laid eyes on the supervisor) and said I'd have to contact the manufacturer.  At that point I started to get nasty.  I demanded to talk to the supervisor...another five minutes and a supervisor showed up and started by telling me I was causing a problem by taking up so much time.  I told her to shut up and listen to me.  They finally opened up another register and the line began to move slowly.  I told her I wanted to talk to the store manager.  I was told he would meet me at the electronics desk.

 

Another ten minutes when a tiny little girl showed up, apologized, freed my disc, and took the machine and put it in a cart.  She went and got me a new machine.  Finally someone whose IQ was larger than their hat size.  She played her computer like a classic violinist and walked me and my new player back to the service desk, took me to the front at the next space, to the girl who ticked me off.  The girl gave me the difference in cost ($112.00) in cash (I had paid with a credit card), and said "Thank you for shopping at WalMart and please come again", but there was no sincerity in her voice of actions.

 

I muttered "That will be a long time coming" and as worked my way through the line to leave some snotty old woman said "Well I hope you're satisfied.  You sure....."  I got right in her face and said loudly enough so everyone could hear, "You don't really want to pi-- me off any further.  I'm NOT in the mood to take any more crap from anydamnone today, so just shut the hell up and get out of my way."

 

You know what?  I finally got to talk to a store manager.   He turned up as I crowded that old bat out of my way.  I told him that the little girl who finally sorted out my problem wasn't being paid enough.  He told me that "That is none of your affair and you'll have to leave or I'll call the police."

 

"Get the hell out of my way or I'll knock you on your ass" I told him as I shouldered him out of my way.

 

Elapsed time from when I went into the store the first time about three and a half or four hours.  It shouldn't have taken over  twenty five or thirty minutes even on a Saturday.   I'll deal with setting up the player after lunch.

 

I know the temper I have and generally keep it on a short leash.  I was very near to breaking things and hurting people.  By the time I got home I had calmed back to me wonderfully mild self.

 

The last time I lost it was 1982.  I put one guy in a hospital, hurt two others and broke my right ring finger and had my nose broken (That guy was FAST, but luckily not very strong) and added a couple of scars to my collection.

 

Looks like it's time for breakfast.

 

Deja Vu and Jittery Jim are coming by later for lunch.

Edited June 14 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Shotgun-Gibbs]

If I cannot buy what I'm looking for in any store, other than WalMart, I must not need it. I have never stepped foot in our WalMart, period. I will gladly pay more for any item at a locally owned store. No, I'm not made of money, but your locally owned stores are the businesses that support your local schools, charity's & civic groups, WalMart doesn't. They continue to kill small towns & close family owned businesses. It's only about them getting all of the business in an area, not caring about the community they suck the life out of.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I was in WalMart last week and I was at the Self Checkout ( yes I use them unlike most of you curmudgeons 😂) well I was having an issue with some fruit not ringing up. There’s always an attendant standing by. The nicest lady in the world came over and helped me. I have nothing bad to say about that store except it’s a little difficult to get someone to come over and get me some shotgun shells or .22’s. 

 

Edited June 8 by Rye Miles #13621

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

Forty, it's too bad that you had this problem. Here in Tucson, I've generally had just the opposite. 

The stores are for the most part clean, the employees usually happy to help. On many occasions, when I ask where something is, the employee will not only tell me, but lead me to the item I'm looking for. 

I'm sure that you also refuse to use the self checkout. I'm the same way. I don't work for Walmart, (or Fry's, or McDonalds, or anyplace else), and even at Walmarts that don't even HAVE an "Assisted Checkout", with the exception of one old biddy, I've always found that they've always been more that willing to run it for me, if they don't have one already open.

I'm at a Walmart several time a month, and I order stuff online from them too. Usually big stuff that I'm just too lazy to carry, but often stuff that I want/ need but I'm not going out that day, or that I can't get locally. They don't carry the Wrangler Jeans I wear in my size locally, but I can get them online for much less than anywhere else. And as long as you order more than $30 worth of products, delivery is free. AND if you order something online and need to return it, you can return it to a store that doesn't even carry it.  

Maybe I'm lucky, maybe it's the .45 on my hip, (I often get complimented on my carrying a gun, many times FROM Walmart employees), but Walmart has usually been good to me.

[Cypress Sun]

 

When I ask a Walmart "associate" where an item is located, they usually say "Isn't it on Aisle blah, blah?" 

My response is always "If I knew where it was, I wouldn't be asking you."

 

The last time I asked an "associate", that was blocking the isle while stocking, where something was...he couldn't speak English. just pointed while grunting like a caveman to the general location of the front of the store. 

 

I guess cheap prices come with the loss of customer service and appreciation. Just depends upon being able to put up with it to save money.

 

 

[Stump Water]

13 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

I don't trust Aldi's.

 

Why?

[bgavin]

My Walmart self-check operates in English, not in the Russian spoken by the employees at my local store.

Self-check also does not give me vacant looks or shoulder shrugs.

Edited June 8 by bgavin

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

15 hours ago, Calamity Kris said:

I will not set foot in Wallyworld either.  Uno purchases some things there but even he thinks it's a "wretched hive of scum and villany".  Coudn't agree with him more.

I knew it!

There's a Walmart at the Mos Eisley space port!

How much you want to bet they've got at least three Dollar Generals!

[Blackwater 53393]

56 minutes ago, Stump Water said:

 

Why?

I don’t trust Aldi’s either! The few times I’ve shopped there, some of the stuff I bought was past the use by date and their produce wasn’t really fresh.

 

I’m more conscious of those use by dates now, but back then I trusted the places I shopped a lot more.