Walmart - Good or Bad? (Chicago, Humboldt: pharmacies, minimum wage, tax)

[lakecountylifer]

Wal-Mart brings items traditionally out of reach to lower income people and makes these items more affordable. Think name brand laundry detergent, think healthy food available at the Super-Centers. Wal-Marts go to market strategy is low pricing ....and if you deal with Wal-Mart buyers at the home office in Bentonville---they walk the walk. Manufacturers want to talk advertising, couponing, freebies....Wal-mart buyers just want you to give them the lowest price. Wal-Marts size and efficiencies benefit consumers with best in class distribution and the ability to challenge larger CPG and food companies on price. Wal-Mart, like Jewel and Dominicks sell direct to retail---but many smaller grocery stores have a distributor (Central Grocer, Certified, etc. etc) that adds costs that are passed on to consumers.

As I said before, Wal-Mart pushes for low prices, but its project impact (reduce inventory, declutter action alley and improve site lines in the store) make Wal-Mart look more like Target as new stores go up or after project impact remodels.

Super Centers on the south side will make more products and fresh food available to people who don't have access to Jewel and Dominick's or other Groceryless oasis areas on the south and west sides.

Also, whats good for consumers overall is that Safeway (Dominick's) and SuperValu (Jewel) are bogged down with sagging overall sales and a higher cost of doing business with burdensome organized labor contracts dragging down sales and driving up costs and retails you see on the shelf. Wal-Mart is good for the consumer from an affordability stand point and keeping costs in check.

[Drover]

It's infuriating that the people and politicians of these communities have to beg their so-called "betters" to let them have more shopping and retail options in their neighborhoods -- both of which rate near zero at this point. The idea of Joe Moore way the hell up in his yuppie North side ward telling poor South Side residents they can't have a Walmart makes me want to punch him in the crotch.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by lakecountylifer

Also, whats good for consumers overall is that Safeway (Dominick's) and SuperValu (Jewel) are bogged down with sagging overall sales and a higher cost of doing business with burdensome organized labor contracts dragging down sales and driving up costs and retails you see on the shelf. Wal-Mart is good for the consumer from an affordability stand point and keeping costs in check.

What generally happens when Walmart comes into a neighborhood is that the prices at Jewel and Dominick's decrease. Eggs in the local Jewel were $2.00 per dozen for Grade A Large. Now, with Walmart in town, Jewel generally charges $1.09.

[Pretzelogik]

Chicago is............SPECIAL..........different from the rest of the nation

[nature's message]

Walmart Defeats Chicago, Plans To Open Up To 21 Stores - The Consumerist

Like a big city pimp waiting to pick you up off the ground when times get tough, Walmart was able to establish its first stores in Chicago through guile, perseverance, and a few meaningless reassurances. Smaller stores! $0.50 pay raise! Union-built! These are the meager concessions that led Chicago to sell-out their local retailers.

“
To fit into cities, Wal-Mart is proposing to make itself more trial-size. It would shrink its stores to as small as 8,000 square feet, about 4 percent of the size of an average supercenter. It is considering formats that are primarily groceries, stores where customers can order something online and pick it up, stores where local business owners can lease space, and even formats like bodegas.
In meetings with Wal-Mart, Chicago politicians won some concessions. For example, the Chicago stores will all be union-built, and Wal-Mart agreed to donate $20 million to neighborhood charities. Most significantly for a company that has been loath to strike deals on wages, Wal-Mart had agreed to an entry-level wage of $8.75 an hour, 50 cents higher than Chicago’s minimum wage as of July 1, Mr. Daley said.

”
Squeezed for cash and desperate for jobs, Chicago took whatever it could get. One labor leader hailed the wage deal as a "Chicago-only concession," saying it was the "deal-clincher." Walmart quickly put him in his place, explaining that the raise is "nothing new," and that the "same is offered elsewhere around the country."
Watch out New York, you could be next.

[mag48]

It's sad really. Moving here from a small town I have seen what Walmart can do. Probably wont be as drastic here in Chicago, I hope. The one store that we already have here is filthy and disgusting. I read online that it never has reported its profits due to the amount of shoplifting. If someone really had to go to Wal-Mart they could go to one right outside the city limits. The one near 110th? is a nice store.

[lakecountylifer]

Please, enough with the Wal-Mart bashing. Where is your outrage with Taco Bell and Target paying minimum wage? What about all the local taco restaurants suffering due to Taco Bell?..... Outrage at Wal-Mart is ridiculous!

Further, "I read online that it never has reported its profits due to the amount of shoplifting" ----Wal-Mart is a publicly held company and reports its numbers per the SEC just like every other publicly held company.

Wal-Mart is good for the competitive landscape. If other retailers and the unions weren't gouging consumers, they wouldn't have to worry about Wal-Mart undercutting them. Personally, I don't want to shop at a grocery store that has a union demanding the check-out clerk is paid $20 an hour and I have to pay $16 for two cases of pop!

[Humboldt1]

I do not believe the Austin Wal-Mart makes money due to anecdotal evidence. I would be happy to introduce you to some of the employees of this location so that you can get past the public numbers Wal-Mart posts and see what really goes on at that store.

No way they can ever admit it a failure due to political pressures. They did take out Uncle Remis bbq finally as no one was buying. It was never busy. Because I used to live in this area, I have been to that location more than 2 dozen times. I know the store well.

If Wal-Mart wants to post that this is a profitable store, fine, but I know otherwise from personal experience. You need to get to know the location and the people who work there before making an assumption that it is profitable simply because Wal-Mart says so or keeps it open.

[cap1717]

Anybody know where these stores will be located? As much as I hate Walmart, it might be an improvement in Englewood, for instance. . . .

[lenniel]

Can someone enlighten me on the Walmart bashing? Is it because they refuse to become unionized?

I mean, I don't see the harm in providing the consumer the lowest possible price, providing good jobs in areas where jobs are non-existent, not to mention all the ancillary jobs it's growing to create indirectly.