Friday, November 29, 2024

Company Man explains 'Walmart - Why They're Hated' for Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day

I promised a tale of the Retail Apocalypse for Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day and I'm sort of delivering by sharing Company Man explaining Walmart - Why They're Hated.

Walmart has received a lot of criticism and hatred over the years. This video attempts to explain some of the biggest reasons behind it.
Here's Company Man Mike's list.


Walmart was the subject of the first and second Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day posts on this blog as well as probably the first Earth Day post here, so it was about time I return to this old but evergreen topic.

While Company Man Mike didn't include low customer satisfaction in his list, he certainly did mention it, implicating unhappy employees as the cause. He also showed the following graph, which ranked Walmart last.



Costco treats its employees well while offering a great shopping experience, so I'm not surprised it's in first. My wife and I would shop there more often if it had a closer location and we ever needed to buy in bulk. On the other hand, the last time I shopped at a Walmart was with my ex-girlfriend in Canada and that was because Target hadn't expanded north of the border yet.* Before that, I shopped at a U.S. Walmart once and didn't like it. I returned to Target.
I'm one of those who call Target "Tar-zhay" and shop there regularly, helping contribute the demise of both Sears and KMart. As I wrote once on my Facebook page, "between Walmart and KMart, I shop at Target."
Too bad my informal boycott hasn't hurt Walmart.

Finally, I'm planning on addressing Walmart's effect on small businesses indirectly tomorrow, when I celebrate Small Business Saturday tomorrow to continue the long holiday weekend. Stay tuned.

*When it did, it failed. That's a story for another Retail Apocalypse post and I have a Bright Sun Films video about it for a Wayback Wednesday/Throwback Thursday/Flashback Friday post next year.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting that they're commiting to buying more made-in-USA products to keep jobs here. That's better than a lot of companies do. Treating their own workers like crap doesn't fit with that, though. $17.50 an hour is below the minimum wage in some countries.

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    1. It's certainly better than a couple of dollar store chains, which are heavily dependent on Chinese imports. That will get them in trouble if tariffs get imposed on or after January 20th.

      True, but $17.50 is still more than $10 more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour. That needs to increase.

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    2. Thanks for linking to this entry at your blog and welcome to all of your readers who came here from your link! Also welcome to all the people who came her from the Citizen Connect/Coffee Party USA Facebook page! I appreciate all of you!

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