Why I am Boycotting Wal-Mart--A message to all artists

[~neko neko kitty~]

Socially Suicidal

I love Wal-Mart. If there was one just a bit closer to where I live, I would shop there everyday. It sates all of my needs, for an extremely low price.

I agree  

[PiercedPrincess]

Walmart is the devil. 3nodding

They force artists to change lyrics in cd's in order to be carried there, and then sell them almost-unmarked so customers don't realize they aren't getting the original product. Their merchandise has been steadily going downhill since Sam Walton died and his pack of vampire children took over the business, and now, quite honestly, you can get merchandise that is 100 times the quality for only a few dollars more (if that) at the mall. They also do quite a bit of price-jacking. They advertise that they are "constantly cutting prices", but that's a downright lie. It's a sale tactic. They lower one thing a few cents, and then raise toilet paper 32 cents (which was a 32% increase).

I shop at Target whenever possible. I buy my art supplies and fabric at Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann's (not like Walmart has anything worth looking at, anyway). I buy a few things at Walmart (mostly groceries), but there are a lot of things I simply won't buy there at all.  

[hikikomorihime]

prairieghost

Is this personal insult the only reason I'm boycotting Wal-Mart? No, of course not--it just happens to be the pile of bricks that broke my camel's back. I've been watching Wal-Mart screw people over for years. When my brother died, my aunt went to get prints done of a family photo that had had him in it. When the woman at the photo department asked if my aunt had permission from the photographer to use the photo, my aunt told the woman no, because the photographer had passed away some five years prior. The woman in the photo department tore the stack of prints in half, saying "Oh, then, I can't let you have these."

Walmart is just EVIL. They fired me after I developed Epilepsy, informing me that, "We just don't have a place for people like you." Now I've been having a hard time searching for a job. I end up having to disclose so people know WHY Walmart fired me, but then no potential employer wants to employ me because they assume Epilepsy = Mental Retardation/Mentally Ill/Incompetant. I've despised Walmart since. I was with that company for almost 7 years. What a waste of time. I could have been working for a company that really does value its employees...  

[Lychee Fruit]

goescrunch

Walmart is just EVIL. They fired me after I developed Epilepsy, informing me that, "We just don't have a place for people like you." Now I've been having a hard time searching for a job. I end up having to disclose so people know WHY Walmart fired me, but then no potential employer wants to employ me because they assume Epilepsy = Mental Retardation/Mentally Ill/Incompetant. I've despised Walmart since. I was with that company for almost 7 years. What a waste of time. I could have been working for a company that really does value its employees...

If you've got it in writing that they fired you as a direct result of your developing epilepsy, then you can try to sue them. Though being Wal-Mart, I hate to say you won't win.  

[Dracolich]

ScribblerChrislea

I had to explain to a potential employer yesterday that Wal-Mart people were flat-out lying when they "let me go" for giving somebody an illegal discount (as opposed to sweeping me under the rug). Now I'm beginning to see that their mistake is going to haunt me every time I try to get a normal job. >.<

Why don't you just not put them down as a reference? neutral What employees don't know doesn't hurt them.  

[Adain-chan]

goescrunch

prairieghost

Is this personal insult the only reason I'm boycotting Wal-Mart? No, of course not--it just happens to be the pile of bricks that broke my camel's back. I've been watching Wal-Mart screw people over for years. When my brother died, my aunt went to get prints done of a family photo that had had him in it. When the woman at the photo department asked if my aunt had permission from the photographer to use the photo, my aunt told the woman no, because the photographer had passed away some five years prior. The woman in the photo department tore the stack of prints in half, saying "Oh, then, I can't let you have these."

Walmart is just EVIL. They fired me after I developed Epilepsy, informing me that, "We just don't have a place for people like you." Now I've been having a hard time searching for a job. I end up having to disclose so people know WHY Walmart fired me, but then no potential employer wants to employ me because they assume Epilepsy = Mental Retardation/Mentally Ill/Incompetant. I've despised Walmart since. I was with that company for almost 7 years. What a waste of time. I could have been working for a company that really does value its employees...

"People like you"? Bastards. They should have their eyes gouged out with a spoon. *pulls out evil eye gouging spoon of doom*  

[Lychee Fruit]

Dracolich

Why don't you just not put them down as a reference? neutral What employees don't know doesn't hurt them.

They asked if I'd ever been fired. 9.9  

[Lisa in Wonderland]

I stopped shopping there a long time ago. I actually now forget why I stopped shopping there. One of the main things I hate about them is how they say "Better prices always" or something like that when I find most of there stuff cheaper at other places that specialize in those items. (Like fabric and patterns for example.) Lately, they've been emailing me arrg. I'm being stalked by two stores I've been boycotting.  

[QueenBea]

You know why their fabric is cheap? Cuz it's crappy. There are like three grades of fabric (called griege goods before it's dyed). The first run of a design is on cheap stuff - that goes to Wal-Mart. The next run goes on a little better grade of griege goods and that goes to JoAnn and Hancocks, etc. The last run is on the best grade and that goes to the quilt shops. That's why the fabric at quilt shops cost the most.

A new WalMart Superstore is supposed to open here and everyday there are letters in the paper opposing it. There is even a group formed to try to stop them. It probably won't work though.  

[Sakura Revolution]

Wal-mart is the only place anywhere near my house, i live out in the boondocks... 34 miles to civilization...

I have internet tho... and I get my dad to take me to micheals sometimes for more art supplies. (Mostly beads and caligraphy stuff... I buy my ink cartriges at staples.... cheaper.)

I ahte Wal-mart... but I love going, mostly because I am mostly locked int his hosue with my dying stepfather.  

[Bookwyrme]

~neko neko kitty~

I'm sorry to hear about your horrible experience. I personally wouldn't be able to survive without my walmart. I need the cheap prices since I can barely support myself as it is.

Yes--there is the dilemma. It's hard to boycott one of the few places you can afford.  

[enlith]

That's just awful! I shop their occasionally, but only for a hand full of things (oil and coolant for the car and some toiletries, and glasses since perscriptions are so expensive!). Recently they started carrying nexxus - one of my favorite brands for hair products. I was excited at first that they had these products - and so cheap too! - but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about how evil walmart is, not only with all the evil stuff about how they treat their employees, but how evil they are to their suppliers. They continually break labor laws and force other companies to sell at their demanded price. The only profit being made is by walmart itself, which isn't good for the economy or the communities destroyed by the changes in the labor.

What sickens me most is that so many people - myself included - practically have to shop there since its in our limited budget.

I like to think that if evil walmart wasn't driving so much business overseas and driving prices to rock bottom that there would be more jobs and more money for many many people, rather than just more for Wally World CEOs.  

[Catcheen]

I detest WalMart. I only go if it's absolutely needed and then I'm going kicking and screaming. Luckily I'm a military wife, so I don't have to depend on WalMart of cheap prices on everday things. I have the (insert heroic music) Exchange on base which is even cheaper than WalMart most of the time. Even when we move back to civilian-land once he's out, I'll go out of my way to shop anywhere but there. it saddens me that Target's headed that way too, though. *frown*  

[Peppermint Elf]

Unfortunately, the only big chain I've worked for is Best Buy and try as I might, I can't find anything truly bad to say about them (from an employee standpoint... as a customer, I've heard my share of horror stories). sweatdrop They always treated me pretty well, and were pretty flexible when it came to breaks and hours. The managers were always helpful and competant. I hated working at Best Buy, but it was never because how I was treated. I hated working only the register. If I were allowed to restock or help another department straighten their merchandise in the really slow hours.... I probably wouldn't have left.

As for Walmart, I'm afraid I don't buy anything there except coffee makers and space heaters (and lets face it.. how often do you need to buy those things?) I tend to shop at Wegmans (who is the #2 best company to work for in the US) for food, and I hit all the major craft chains for my art/craft fixes (Michaels, JoAnn, AC Moore). I've never really liked Walmart. The employees are..... sad... like they've sucked all the happiness out of them. They don't do anything to help you unless they have to and when they do, it's like "Yeah yeah, it's over there, now go away so I can watch my soul shrivel in peace." sweatdrop  

[Tes]

QueenBea

You know why their fabric is cheap? Cuz it's crappy. There are like three grades of fabric (called griege goods before it's dyed). The first run of a design is on cheap stuff - that goes to Wal-Mart. The next run goes on a little better grade of griege goods and that goes to JoAnn and Hancocks, etc. The last run is on the best grade and that goes to the quilt shops. That's why the fabric at quilt shops cost the most.

A new WalMart Superstore is supposed to open here and everyday there are letters in the paper opposing it. There is even a group formed to try to stop them. It probably won't work though.

~
I loathe walmart. I haven't been there in hella long time. The last thing I bought there was a little pack of fat quarters (they were flourescent flame print!), I noticed they weren't very good quality but I didn't have anything to directly compair it too, I thought I could pull something off with them anyway. I brought them home and the rest of my scraps and things that I was planning to use with it were twice as densely woven and much thicker than the walmart variety. I'll put them to use anyway because I hate waste, but never again....

The Walmart here, when it showed up at the mall it became attatched to the life was sucked out of the rest of the mall, and now that walmart is moving to a more prime location the mall will be torn down because there's no reason to keep it up anymore without walmart there, not even the grocery store.
Walmart is so sneaky too. To get a new store in one of the rural communities in my region that REALLY didn't want a walmart, they called around with a survey asking if the people of the area wanted new jobs in the area, of course everyone said yes, and then they were immediately routed through to another office that took that as a vote yes for walmart. It doesn't matter that they wanted jobs but not walmart jobs (and who could blame them) Walmart is going to build in a community only 15 mins away, and they know it will drain the life out of the community that rejected them.
Such a spiteful company. And a plague unleashed on us Canadians by Americans and American business practices. There is NOTHING in Canada, no company that can even mildly compete with walmart, we have nothing like target. Our big company, The Hudson Bay Company which has existed for 330 years, the oldest in north America and one of the oldest in the world... pales in comparison to walmart. (I am saddened and outraged that an American bought the HBC, it is the essence of Canada and even was a major force in the development and creation of my country. I don't hate Americans but it is shameful that one owns the HBC. But don't get me started on Americans buying Canadian institutions and heros.) Walmart is only one of many scourges the American corporate world has unleashed on Canada and the rest of the world.
I would just like to say, keep it in your pants ;p

I buy Canadian.
~