Wal-Mart vs Whole Foods - Page 3

I only put the milage one and then thought the second one could be applicable and is good to know so included it too

We used to have an Odd Lots here. It changed hands and now I think it's called Wheeler Dealer. Odd Lots was great though. I used to handcover switch plates and sell them. One day I went in Odd Lots and they had a box that maybe a stove or something could have come in heaping with switchplates for .05 or .10 each. I was probably crawling around inside that thing for a couple hours picking out the ones I wanted.

Wheeler Dealer is not bad either though. I've found 25 lb boxes of deck screws for less than a 5 lb box would cost you at Home Depot or Lowes. If I ever get my cat deck thread up I'll have to give them credit for saving me lot's of money.

I haven't purchased anything at a Walmart in close to a decade. They will never see a dime of my money.
For my food shopping I either grow it or buy local at the bakery, cheese shop, butcher shop, farmers market in summer/fall. I usually shop at a Wisconsin/IL store called Woodmans. Its employee owned and some the the faces I see there have been there a long,long time. Selection is huge I say if you can't find the food product there you aren't goingto find it at other stores in the area either. Their prices for shampoo/beauty aid/paper goods are competitive with the big box stores. Their pay is much above what a walmart would pay-when they advertise for help they post signs on the entrance doors with the starting wages/benefits.

We do not have a Whole Foods/Trader Joe's nearby-about 100 miles away but I love going to them if I'm in a city that they are located. I usually buy items I canot find locally.

There are many other Wisconsin owned stores like Fleet Farm which sells automotive/homebuilding/housekeeping items that have much more going for them than Walmart.

Frankly I don't see the attraction to Walmart.

We don't have a lot of choices around here. For grocery chains we have Wal-Mart and Martins. For produce and fresh food I usually shop at Martins because it is fresher (although only local stuff is sold during the summer). For canned and boxed goods I usually go to More-for-Less or Payless (NOT the shoe store) because they have great deals and to me, canned green beans are all the same.

I hate our local Wal-Mart and try to avoid it as much as possible. Not because of prices or policies...I just can't stand the idiots that shop there! Just once I would like to go shopping without running into at least 3 family or class reunions being held in the middle of the aisle that I need in to. And the parking lot is a nightmare. I'm very much of the mind frame of "get your sh*t and get out" and can't stand how Wally world becomes a social outing for some people. (rant over!).

Side note about fresh produce. When I worked at Pizza Hut many years ago our manager wanted to get a program going with local farmers to get fresh produce from them in the summer. It would have been cheaper, made the customers (and staff) MUCH happier and helped the local economy. The corporate offices said no because it violated PH's contract with their suppliers. So we were stuck receiving vegetables once a week that ended up slimy and rotten before the next truck came in so we had to buy extra from the grocery stores anyway (and got in trouble from corporate for that!). Go figure.....

Many are reconsidering their stand against Wal-Mart. Here's a discussion of it on NPR's "Talk of the Nation."

It's getting harder and harder to hate Wal-Mart

I love going to Whole Foods for samples!
When I was visiting my brother in Madison, they had a really nice tasting day at a place called Metcalfe's, of products produced locally.