Comparison shopping at multiple Wal-Marts.

Wow. At least now I have some idea what I'll be doing when I die and go to hell.

One of the local news programs did a comparison of the local Wally Worlds here last year. The one by my house was the cheapest in town. Same groceries bought here were $50 cheaper than one on the other side of town. They also found that the prices were highest in the poorer neighborhoods.

What competitors? You mean they have not driven eveyone else out of business by dumping?

Mr. Coffee Nerves: Comparison shopping at multiple Wal-Marts.

Wow. At least now I have some idea what I'll be doing when I die and go to hell.

Awesome. You got me laughing like Snively Whiplash.

2xhelix: One of the local news programs did a comparison of the local Wally Worlds here last year. The one by my house was the cheapest in town. Same groceries bought here were $50 cheaper than one on the other side of town. They also found that the prices were highest in the poorer neighborhoods.

I'm a bit surprised that individual stores have that degree of latitude in their pricing.

I used to work at Home Depot (getting semi-kick out of replies, etc)...I remember having to constantly explain to people why a rural location 30 minutes away charged less for certain things. Well, the whole idea of cost structure, labor cost, taxes, and real estate prices were usually lost on them.

Just look at your weekly grocery circular. Two stores a mile apart will often have different specials, depending on strategic and tactical goals. It's called business.

Let me show you my zone pricing. My zone pricing, let me show you it.

NikolaiFarkoff: Let me show you my zone pricing. My zone pricing, let me show you it.

This needs to be done as a picture with cats and a clipboard.

orrinbloquy



/quick and stolen

If it's another local Wal-Mart, just go to that Wal-Mart, farktard.

I had this happen to me trying to buy a couple bags of top soil.

I just stopped going to Walmart altogether.

/not cause I think they are evil
//Target is just better

NikolaiFarkoff: I used to work at Home Depot (getting semi-kick out of replies, etc)...I remember having to constantly explain to people why a rural location 30 minutes away charged less for certain things. Well, the whole idea of cost structure, labor cost, taxes, and real estate prices were usually lost on them.

Just look at your weekly grocery circular. Two stores a mile apart will often have different specials, depending on strategic and tactical goals. It's called business.

Let me show you my zone pricing. My zone pricing, let me show you it.

Not every retailer does this. Some believe in serving the customer, honesty, and more streamlined management. After all, it's the company as a whole that makes a profit, not store-by-store. There are better ways to measure store productivity and value, considering their contribution to the overall brand and presence, than a straightforward P&L calculation.

TalkingBaseball: If it's another local Wal-Mart, just go to that Wal-Mart, farktard.

I thought the same thing.. if it's cheaper at another local Wal*Mart, just go to that one..

NikolaiFarkoff:
That is the best thing I've seen in weeks and you got it so quick!

Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

2xhelix: They also found that the prices were highest in the poorer neighborhoods.

That doesn't surprise me. The worse the area, the greater the shrinkage.

NikolaiFarkoff: I used to work at Home Depot (getting semi-kick out of replies, etc)...I remember having to constantly explain to people why a rural location 30 minutes away charged less for certain things. Well, the whole idea of cost structure, labor cost, taxes, and real estate prices were usually lost on them.

Not to mention the fact that in general, rural stores have less of a problem with loss (ie., shoplifting) than urban stores. Probably not as big a factor as some of the other things you mentioned, especially for a business like Home Depot, but stopping loss can be a considerable cost for a store like WalMart.

TalkingBaseball

How dare you suggest that people drive three miles (out of their way, mind you) to save three cents on shampoo!

NightOwl2255: Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

Nicolette: What competitors? You mean they have not driven eveyone else out of business by dumping?

I drove some people from doing their business by dumping once.

/Don't try the chili!

Mr. Coffee Nerves: Comparison shopping at multiple Wal-Marts.

Thus begins the implosion. It's like two massive black holes ripping each other apart.

2xhelix: They also found that the prices were highest in the poorer neighborhoods.

Probably to compensate for the shoplifters.

Cereal Fetish: TalkingBaseball

How dare you suggest that people drive three miles (out of their way, mind you) to save three cents on shampoo!

You'll save more at the dollar store, if you don't mind the lead.

dittybopper

There was an urban legend about a Walmart in Tuskegee, AL, which opened several years ago and closed down within 18 months or so, after reporting the highest theft rate of any location in the country. Then the city leaders tried to sue on the grounds of racism, but walmart won by holding up a mirror to the city and saying "suck it"

/never been able to verify, but heard it from a few different people

another Wal-Mart isn't a competitor though, more of a cohort

OT - I do not know if it is company policy but the Walmarts around here will discount an item by $3 if it rings up different than priced. If it costs less than $3 the item is free.

My Mom hates Walmart and makes it a practice to really nail them on this. She will pretty much walk out of a Walmart with a carload of stuff and pay almost nothing. The return desk people run when they see her coming. My wife and get a kick out of it and love taking her shopping with us.

NightOwl

You forgot this:

Bishniak: You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

I wish I had bought the ring I gave my ex at Wal-Mart.

Mr. Coffee Nerves: Comparison shopping at multiple Wal-Marts.

Wow. At least now I have some idea what I'll be doing when I die and go to hell.

reminds me of the first time i realized i was going to hell. i was eating at a mcdonalds inside of a walmart. game over.

dittybopper: NikolaiFarkoff: I used to work at Home Depot (getting semi-kick out of replies, etc)...I remember having to constantly explain to people why a rural location 30 minutes away charged less for certain things. Well, the whole idea of cost structure, labor cost, taxes, and real estate prices were usually lost on them.

Not to mention the fact that in general, rural stores have less of a problem with loss (ie., shoplifting) than urban stores. Probably not as big a factor as some of the other things you mentioned, especially for a business like Home Depot, but stopping loss can be a considerable cost for a store like WalMart.


Theft is huge at home stores - man, I worked at Menards in Receiving & you should've seen the shiat people tried to steal. Someone tried to steal one of those premade barns in the parking lot

I just stopped going to Walmart altogether.

/not cause I think they are evil
//Target is just better

Wally World is weird. One day I was looking for turpentine and I found a can with "turpatine" printed on it. At first I thought it was a hilarious misprint, but it turned out to be some kind of synthetic turpentine and "turpatine" was the product's name.

/didn't buy it

Meh. When I was in Maine for a project, one Walmart routinely got the dvd specials in on new release. All the fliers would come to my address "12.96 for !!!" However, I quickly found out that, no, it wasn't for Walmart. It was for some location of Walmart 30 miles away. I've started frequenting Target (now I'm back in a place where it's possible)

Different pricing is NOT necessarily poor customer service.

Sometimes if you allow it, you open up opportunities for customer aribitrage, which is very bad for business. Someone could basically make a living buying from one and returning to another.

/engages in walmart-lowe's arbitrage sometimes
//usually when i lose the receipt

diogenes:
2xhelix: One of the local news programs did a comparison of the local Wally Worlds here last year. The one by my house was the cheapest in town. Same groceries bought here were $50 cheaper than one on the other side of town. They also found that the prices were highest in the poorer neighborhoods.

I'm a bit surprised that individual stores have that degree of latitude in their pricing.

Actually that is a very common tactic (I've seen numerous news reports on the subject previously). The basic concept is if you have higher prices in poor areas most people are going to still shop at your store because many of them lack transportation to travel to a cheaper store's location.

Bishniak: NightOwl2255: Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

If you're a redneck it is.

I'm from a major NE City and once dated a guy from West "By God" Virginia. His mother once commented how she liked a necklace I was wearing and she asked where I got it. I told her it was from Tiffany's in NY and she said, "Huh?" I explained it was a fancy jewelry store...to which she replied, "Oh, so it's like a Wal-Mart." Sad, but true. She equated Wal-Mart with fine jewelry...

A lot of stores do this. Target has a firm policy of not price matching including to other Target stores and their website. Stores that do price match, typically don't price match their other locations for a variety of reasons (special promotions, differing regulations, return fraud, etc.)

2xhelix: One of the local news programs did a comparison of the local Wally Worlds here last year. The one by my house was the cheapest in town. Same groceries bought here were $50 cheaper than one on the other side of town. They also found that the prices were highest in the poorer neighborhoods.

+1

Years ago I went to the "poor" WalMart for something and noticed some knick-knack for ~$40. Went to the "rich" WalMart in another town a day later and saw the exact same thing for $20.

/Haven't been to a WalMart since
//Could be 'cause they sell crap
///Or that the dregs of society seem to shop there
//And they never have enough cashiers
/And the cashiers that are there all seem mildly retarded

NikolaiFarkoff: Sometimes if you allow it, you open up opportunities for customer aribitrage, which is very bad for business. Someone could basically make a living buying from one and returning to another.

Doesn't work. They refund based on what the price was on the receipt.

NikolaiFarkoff: Different pricing is NOT necessarily poor customer service.

Sometimes if you allow it, you open up opportunities for customer aribitrage, which is very bad for business. Someone could basically make a living buying from one and returning to another.

/engages in walmart-lowe's arbitrage sometimes
//usually when i lose the receipt

Haha. My dad works at one of those stores and complains about people like you all the time. Here's a tip though: the people who work the Customer Service counter are so rondo, nine times out of ten they will take shiat back they don't even sell. So next time you get a craptastic cheap-ass Craftsman drill, take it back to Lowe's and say, "Umm yeah I got this as a gift and lost the receipt" Odds are they will take you at your word for the price you paid and give you a refund. (They do it at his store all the time.)

Bishniak: NightOwl2255: Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

Wal-Mart is *the* jeweler. They sell more jewelry than anybody else. *Might* be all others combined; not sure.

haemaker: NikolaiFarkoff: Sometimes if you allow it, you open up opportunities for customer aribitrage, which is very bad for business. Someone could basically make a living buying from one and returning to another.

Doesn't work. They refund based on what the price was on the receipt.

Not to mention that they'll catch on and ban you from the store

haemaker: Doesn't work. They refund based on what the price was on the receipt.

Except at Walmart, if you don't have the receipt they'll give you store credit.

Although your plan wouldn't last long and would probably be negated by fuel prices.

Who the hell bothers with this price-matching horsesh*t? If someone is selling something for a lower price, BUY IT FROM THEM!

IamSoSmart_S_M_R_T:
//And they never have enough cashiers
/And the cashiers that are there all seem mildly retarded

You realize that most of those stores get kickbacks and such for hiring rondo people to work as cashiers etc. right? When I was in college, we had a ton of rondo people working as baggers at this place I worked. I asked about it once and was told that the rondo kids get "credits" towards school for working there and the store gets some sort of rebate or refund from the County for hiring them.

His mother once commented how she liked a necklace I was wearing and she asked where I got it. I told her it was from Tiffany's in NY

Just A SN00b

/kidding

Just A N00b: IamSoSmart_S_M_R_T:
//And they never have enough cashiers
/And the cashiers that are there all seem mildly retarded

When I was in college, we had a ton of rondo people working as baggers at this place I worked.

Publix?

ArkyBeagle: Bishniak: NightOwl2255: Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

Wal-Mart is *the* jeweler. They sell more jewelry than anybody else. *Might* be all others combined; not sure.

You might be true with this, but it sounds like McDonald's saying it has the best French Fries on the planet (based on Sales) and Burger King saying it has the best fries (based on taste tests).

There are many things I'll shop at Wal*Mart for, jewelry is not on that list. Blue Jeans is also there.. belts too.

You know what this says if you read between the lines, right?

"Because we're a huge multi-national corporation with billions in liquidity and assets, we can afford to match our competitors' prices until they go out of business. We don't have to match our own prices, just everyone else's; in the end, in your own quest to save a few dollars, you will eventually come to us anyway. We can wait.

"Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart"

Just A N00b: Bishniak: NightOwl2255: Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

If you're a redneck it is.

I'm from a major NE City and once dated a guy from West "By God" Virginia. His mother once commented how she liked a necklace I was wearing and she asked where I got it. I told her it was from Tiffany's in NY and she said, "Huh?" I explained it was a fancy jewelry store...to which she replied, "Oh, so it's like a Wal-Mart." Sad, but true. She equated Wal-Mart with fine jewelry...

Prior to the arrival of Wal-Mart, some people only had like little country stores around, and bought everything else through
the Sears or Monkey Wards catalog. So yeah - this is how things are in the flyover states.

My clothes came out of the Sears catalog *until* Wally World opened in my hometown. Well, suits and stuff we'd buy at JC Penneys...

// TOUGHSKINS!

Bishniak: ArkyBeagle: Bishniak: NightOwl2255: Okay, let's save about a hundred post. Wal-Mart sucks hard. They kill local small businesses. Fat, uneducated poor people shop at Wal-Mart. They sell crap.

\Anything new?

You made me remember about a commercial Wal*Mart had some odd years ago with a couple showing off their engagement ring saying "I got it at Wal*Mart"

Really, Wal*Mart is now a fine jeweler?

Wal-Mart is *the* jeweler. They sell more jewelry than anybody else. *Might* be all others combined; not sure.

You might be true with this, but it sounds like McDonald's saying it has the best French Fries on the planet (based on Sales) and Burger King saying it has the best fries (based on taste tests).

There are many things I'll shop at Wal*Mart for, jewelry is not on that list. Blue Jeans is also there.. belts too.

So you've actively compared the jewelry from both placing and have found one to be definitely inferior to the other? Or do you just like having a name brand item and think because it has a name brand on it that it is inherently better? Not that there's anything wrong with that as there's a certain social status people like to associate with name brand items, but you have to also be willing to admit that often you're paying more for an equal quality item.

Just A NOOb: Haha. My dad works at one of those stores and complains about people like you all the time. Here's a tip though: the people who work the Customer Service counter are so rondo, nine times out of ten they will take shiat back they don't even sell. So next time you get a craptastic cheap-ass Craftsman drill, take it back to Lowe's and say, "Umm yeah I got this as a gift and lost the receipt" Odds are they will take you at your word for the price you paid and give you a refund. (They do it at his store all the time.)

I used to get beer money back when I was a teenager that way (sort of). I'd go to a local Sears...grab a couple pairs of jeans off the racks and pretend to try them on. Then leave the fiting room area and go to customer service to return them. I'd claim to have forgotten the receipt so they'd 'only' give me the last sales price for a refund. Stopped working when they started giving out in-store credit vouchers (via the mail) for returns without receipts.

/Good old days