I spoke to a friend who is the CEO of a bicycle manufacturer about his dealings with Wal-Mart. He said he's happy to sell to them, but only on condition that his company's name does not appear on the product, because of what he's forced to do in order to meet their pricing policies. Example: fewer spokes in the wheels, vinyl instead of leather saddles, plastic where metal should be used, unsmoothed welds, no primer, less paint, etc. You only get what you pay for. A great majority of Wal-Mart merchandise is built to a price point, rather than a quality/feature level.
Women LOVE WalMart, I know I cant say anything bad about WalMart around my wife. Women expect value and low prices and they get that from Wal Mart. Men on the other hand have the luxury to be idealistic, union loyal, anti-chinese activists, or whatever concept floats their political boat, etc. Whereas most women just want to make the family budget function properly, and Wal Mart lets them accomplish that. For most towns a Wal Mart is a boon to the local economy, because soon after they open, many other smaller retailers and restaurants will infill the area creating economic growth. Chicago union-strapped politicos have kept Wal Mart out of the poor black neighborhoods, against the will of the poor residents. Well those residents are still suffering with no place to buy fresh produce, or much of anything else for that matter, and a serious lack of local jobs.
It's interesting where there are, and are not, Walmart stores. New York City - 0 Boston - 0 Chicago - 0 San Francisco - 0 Philadelphia - 2 Washington, D.C. - 0 Los Angeles - 1 Minneapolis - 0 Albany - 1 Providence - 1 Pittsburgh - 2 Boulder - 0 Denver - 1 Seattle - 0
On Tue 19 Aug 2008 12:53:45a, Don Klipstein told us...
We're very careful shoppers, and not unaware of many of WM's practices. We got burned one time which was some time ago, and have been very aware of checking weight, count, ingredients, parts, etc. I'm not saying they couldn't slip something by us, but it would be unlikely.
Please be specific about WHICH taxes you are alleging that Walmart doesn't pay because of a large grocery store footprint. If you are talking about sales taxes, NO business pays sales taxes. It is only the CONSUMER who pays the tax on purchases made.
With many of those 0 cities, the Wal Marts are ringed just over the city limits in the adjacent suburbs. Drawing the shoppers out of the city, a real boon for adjacent suburbs that can land a Wal Mart.
We lived in NY (Long Island, not NYC) for several years and have no idea to what you are referring. Of the 8.5% ST, 4% went to the state and the rest to the county, but the taxes were not cumulative.
There's also an entertainment tax, but that's true in many states, and NY has a lot more entertainment.
There's also a hotel tax. Is that the same as the entertainment tax? Regardless, I think the hotel tax is everywhere, and NYS has more reasons to visit.
NYC has a local surcharge on the state income tax iirc, but that sort of thing is elsewhere too, I don't know how much.
The Maryland sales tax is up to 7%, having been raised 1 percent during a special sesssion last December which some said was illegal.
That would make sense if it were possible to do that. But you have yet to explain what you are referring to and it continues to seem impossible.
Don is right, that the sales tax on gasoline doesn't go to municipality or the county, unless there is a local surcharge and those surcharges are rare. So if you were talking about local taxes, my point about gas tax probably proved nothing. (Plus the sales tax is paid by the customer and collected for the state by the store.)
But if you are talking about local taxes, what local tax are you talking about that is not the same for groceries and everything else? Dave points out that the property tax, the only local tax that comes to mind, is the same for the part of the store selling groceries and the rest of the store. How do they save on taxes by selling groceries? Are the other grocery stores in the area not paying their share of taxes.
So far, your complaint against Walmart sounds like something you've heard but haven't really thought about, and is one of the nonsense complaints that people who don't like something concoct.
Again, I rarely go to Walmart, partly because I rarely buy anything at all, other than hardware and repair parts for things I already own, that WM doesn't sell. As to food I've never bought more than a candy bar or bag of cookies at walmart to be eaten right then.
Exceptions, and worth telling you all about: A) I didn't buy a digital camera until the middle of my last big vacation. From the 8 rolls of film I had shot, I had double prints made and a CD of each roll. I went several places, including a camera store and had one roll done at each place. Walmart was the only one that put mini-pictures, of every picture on the roll, on the CD, so I don't need to keep the CD in the same envelope with prints or negatives to know which CD is in my hand. If I find one next to the CD drive, I can tell what's on it without turning on the computer or starting the software. It turns out Costco does this too, although I know nothing else about Costco. I don't know why the others don't. This solves an annoyance that had bothered me for years.
B) Other than mail order, which I didn't want in case I had to exchange it, Walmart and Sams Club are the only places around here and maybe nationwide that sell the Phillips 7576H DVDR with Hard Drive. AFAIK this is the only digital dvdr with a harddrive available in the USA. I have no idea why other stores don't sell it, except maybe eveyone gets a dvr or dvdr from their cable or satellite company, or has TIVO. I don't want to spend that kind of money, and maybe a store that targets poor people is likely to have this thing, even though 250 or 300 dollars isn't so little I sneeze at it. But I like mine.
C) I can no longer find the little cubes with switches on them that plug into a receptacle and something else plugs into them. About 1x1x1 inch, with a switch, it's very convenient for lots of things, for things that don't have their own switches or for which I want the power to be totally removed (I have a tv that seems to need resetting once in a while. The bathroom outlet and the switch I put there is easy to reach). But Walmart usually has them, both 3-prong and
2-prong!!! Eventually I also found one at K-mart, but there the nearest k-mart is fairly far and only had ONE.
D) For a while they had a very good price on CF bulbs. But eventually home depot did too, and I won't need any more for years.
I think that's all I've bought from them in the last 3 years, and maybe nothing before that.
But I still don't want to see prevail what seems like a mistaken statement about the taxes they pay.
There are 4 WM stores within the Los Angeles city limits. Two are in areas that have been hit with retail blight (for which WM takes great pride). Admittedly, the penetration is low in comparison other metropolitan areas.
When Nabisco Chips Ahoy first came out, it had loads of chocolate chips. After months or a year or two it went down.
When Ragu speghetti sauce Many Mushroom or whatever came out 10 or 15 years, ago, many many mushrooms. Now it's hard to find any spaghetti sauce that even mentions mushrooms on the label. Are they more expensive now or just out of fashion with spaghetti eaters.?
Not the same thing, but the local chinese take out may have been sold
-- I no longer see anyone there that I recognize - but the mushroom egg foo yung had loads and loads of mushrooms. It used to have less than I thought maybe it should. I don't know if this is their Grand Opening special and I should eat more there now, or if it will be their new recipe. (The other dish I had was good but didn't seem any better than average. )
Well at least if it is embalmed well, it won't spoil.
Panorama City, Porter Ranch, and West Hills are politically within the city limits of Los Angeles and are subject to its zoning and taxation regulations.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.