This was the first time in a while where Wal-Mart had actually lost some money, or had a bad quarter. I'll talk from my experience of Wal-Mart. It seems ever since the bad economy has happened, Wal-Mart has been going downhill for me.

I just went to a Wal-Mart, and their poster board was .97 cents for all the colors, but at Target it was .69 cents for colors, and .39 cents for white. The thing I find with Wal-Mart is that they are "stationary" type of store. Some other store like Target will even have their prices cheaper when the ad comes out. To me, Target is cheap already, but than an ad comes out, and some things get cheaper. For Wal-Mart, if you see a price, and it's $10 for something, it's always going to be $10. Well, when the economy had been getting bad, Wal-Mart just went stale to me.

I think people expectED Wal-Mart to be the cheapo place all the time, but now these other stores are competing with Wal-Mart, and to me they are doing a better job now than what they were doing before. For instance a drink mix at Jewel was $2 on sale for like 2 or 3 weeks, but at Wal-Mart, they are $2.50. I don't expect Wal-Mart to ever go down from that amount.

The thing also to me with their downhill (Don't get me wrong. They are still a profitable company!) is that now they stopped putting things in the middle of the big aisles. This brings less business as those are impulse items. I would buy from those things because they looked good, and priced and good. Now, they don't exist anymore. I can just look with my eyes up the aisle, and not be tempted to buy more than what I came in. I guess better for me, worse for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is stupid getting rid of that stuff.

The walmart in Bolingbrook is being re-habbed at the moment. And while they are, their store layout is laughable. They have cosmetics next to groceries, next to video games, next to shoes...it's sad. Honestly I think I'm done shopping there, it kinda gives me the creeps knowing everything was made in China or overseas. Not to mention their push for reloadable debit cards, check cashing, etc. just so you can take your check and load it into a card and spend at walmart all in one day.

Unfortunately WalMart takes advantage of people in the lower income tier. At least that's my opinion.
A re-loadable debit card is a rip-off no matter how or where you get one. Check cashing is another "dirty" trick. It sounds as if it is a convenience when in fact it is a captive audience type ploy.
As for stuff in the aisles, you'll notice a lot of stores no longer do that because it has resulted in injuries and litigation. If you've ever stubbed your toe on the corner of a raggedy wooden pallet while trying to squeeze past another patron that's blocking the aisle you'll know what I mean.
They serve a purpose and a market, but they seem to have lost a great deal of their ethics since Sam Walton passed away.

Not to mention they're an absolute pain in the ass to use. At Macys the two forms of payment I hate trying to work with most are Visa Debit Cards and those Westfield AmEx Gift Cards. If you do not know exactly what's on the card, and the purchase is greater than what is actually on there, the system declines the card.

Walmart in Round Lake Beach just recently moved down 83 to a Supercenter location and I really don't like it. I loved the old one on 83 and Rollins because it was easy to get to and easy to find shit, but this Super Walmart is not only confusing to find things, but there are usually no employees to help you, and I still can't find what I want there. I usually end up going online or going to Kmart.

That part isn't exactly Wal-mart's doing. A lot of manufacturers have sent their production overseas and to China. That's not to say though that Walmart stocks their shelves with some off brands of clothes and other stuff that is crapily made in China with lead paint or some other hazardous material.

I can't say I've ever seen a wooden pallet in the middle of the aisle as a display or bin. The containers that I've usually seen are either cardboard boxes with some printing on the outside, or something comparable to a cage with large spacing between bars.

Sorry. I was speaking more about the big box home improvement stores when I said there were pallets on the floor.
But most of the lawsuits started with their patrons being injured and now the practice of leaving the aisles clear has filtered its way down to all other retailers.
I think a lot of it also has to do with ADA compliance (Americans with Disabilities Act) that mandates certain clearances in aisles, doorways, etc.

^Wal-Mart has said the reason for them to get rid of stuff in the aisles is was because of more walking room, but to me than they should just expand the aisles to make them bigger.

For the products from China thing, you can find all the normal stuff there you find at Walgreen's, or a food store. You can find Crest toothpaste, Life Cereal, Coca-Cola products, Kleenex, Renuzit (I hate these things.), Hasbro board games like Monopoly, Scrabble, Taylor Swift cd, Wii system, and so on. These are all products found at other stores. I would even imagine that every store has stuff made from China in them.

The store you should probably stop shopping from that has made from China a lot is probably Dollar Tree, or any other Dollar store.

As much as I don't like doing it, QFT on Jon's post about the WM in Round Lake Beach. I absolutely abhor going to Walmart because it contributes to the destruction of local economies, but I have to unfortunately.

As far as the local ecomony destruction theory - that's just big business. I don't blame Walmart for having more merchandise and thus can offer it cheaper. And it's not just Walmart, it's every big box store. It's the American consumer - bought by advertising, bought by theories over what products are cheaper, more efficient, etc. The other side of the aisle (no pun intended) does the same shit. Global Warming and the "Green" movement is aimed exclusively at selling "enviornmentally friendly" products. Mass-produced stuff that local businesses couldn't, wouldn't, and shouldn't stock their shelves with.

Well fortunately (and unfortunately) all things in life are cyclical. We had the mom and pop stores, now we have the big boxes but eventually we'll return to the mom and pop places.
I have learned over nearly 50 years on this spinning rock to watch men's ties and lapels. The narrower the ties and lapels, the better the economy, the wider they are the worse the economy is. I have been through all these business machinations before under Jimmy Carter, then Ronald Reagan and on and on and on.

The thing to me with theory of the mom and pop stores are being destroyed by bigger retail places just doesn't make sense. Why? It's because Wal-Mart WAS a mom and pop store, and one time, and it expanded to become what it is today. Mcdonald's beginning location is in Des Plaines IL (It's still there: just not operating, but a museum.), and it also expanded to become the giant corporation all over the world it is today. All these places you see WERE mom and pop stores / restaurants when they first started. They were so good that they have expanded and gone all over the country.

They too had the struggles and hardships of being a mom and pop shop. Maybe, there is a "not a big name" food store by you. That food store might become the next Safeway (Dominick's) if they are a great store that people like. I think a store that could really take off in national chain would be a hobby shop. Hobby shops have such a selection of stuff that no other store has. Maybe, there is a hobby shop chainwide place, but I'm kind of shocked if their isn't one.

I know that there is Hobby Lobby, but that is more a craft store than a train / airplane store. Heck, I think a board game / train / airplane / radio controlled cars / magazine store would do really good as a national chain of stores.

Any yes, it is hard to compete against Wal-Mart because they are very smart in how they operate except for the thing I was saying in this topic. They have figured out how to get prices cheap, and have a mega store to try and get people to stay longer in their store. The problem I have with a mega store is that sometimes I don't want to go into a gigantic store that I'm going to spend so much time in it, and sometimes it doesn't really help with the one stop shop because some other store (for the food) has a really good sale on something.

So, I'm going to go into a store that is 2 times the regular size, and than I'm going to go into another store because they aren't as cheap (Wal-Mart) than let's say Jewel for multiple items.

Meijer is a store that is the huge mega store too with the food, and to me that store isn't that great of a store. I go into the regular section, and I hardly find anything I want at that store. Also, their prices on food aren't that cheap unless they are on sale.

Is it just me, or are all Wal-Marts filled with Indians? I hate it. They don't speak English, and then they throw things at you. I asked him where the toilet paper was, he took me to the isle, and threw one at me. The commercials no way show what utter crap is sold at Wal-Marts.

"I asked him where the toilet paper was, he took me to the isle, and threw one at me" :rofl:

Well it all boils down to profitability. Some people who are newer residents in this country have a tradition (that we once had) of sharing a house, cars, babysitting etc. That means their cost of living is considerably lower and they can accept a lower wage.
Same with Wal-Mart starting as a mom and pop and then turning into a giant. The statement above was "because they were so good." Isn't entirely accurate. They expanded because they had a good business plan but eventually just their shear size and market share gave them access to deals that smaller stores couldn't get. That's what truly made them expand rapidly, more than just being "so good."