Checked out the new neighborhood Walmart grocery store, today.

[Fridays Child]

I boycott Walmart and, with extremely few exceptions, I have done so for decades. But, out of curiosity, I decided to check out their new local grocery store just to see what they offer and how the prices compare to where I usually shop.

The prices weren't any lower, really. Selection was okay. They do offer certified humane, free-range (not just "un-cooped&quot eggs but they run $3.89 for 10--not even a full dozen!

The big "take-away," though, came from my chat with the cashier who told me that her Walmart paycheck qualifies her for WIC assistance. In fact, she wouldn't be able to adequately feed her children without WIC.

So, nothing has changed: Walmart under-pays their workers and we make up the difference. I don't have a problem with helping poor women and their children. I do have a problem with a multi-national behemoth like Walmart not paying their employees a living wage.

So, free-range eggs be damned, I will continue to refuse to enable those fuckers.

[daleanime]

1. Amen....

[PrestonLocke]

2. Screw wally world!

Wal-mart mexico paid their employees in wal-mart vouchers until 2008. That's completely fucked!!

[Fridays Child]

8. Un-effing-real!

Words fail. This is economic slavery. If (actually, "when," not "if&quot they believe that the American political climate supports it, they will do the same here. Count on it.

[Leith]

3. Around Here (Las Vegas) The Prices Are a Little Higher

than the big Wally World store and stores like WinCo and Smith's. Nondairy coffee creamer that goes for $1.68 in the big store was selling for $2.29 in the "neighborhood grocery." Other prices compared unfavorably to Smith's, my usual grocery store. So much for stopping in on my way home from work. I didn't buy it and I just left. Haven't been back.

[ailsagirl]

4. Walmart is disgusting and I boycott them regularly

UGH

[Heather MC]

5. Fortunately

For me Walmart is easy to Avoid not in my Area of NOVA. but before I found out what they were about I use to make midnight runs to a 24 hr Walmart 15 miles away with a GF.

I stopped that when Keith Olbermann ran that report about the Walmart Employee who was in a horrible Accident. And Walmart took her Settlement Money, because they put a claus in their insurance stating they were allowed to do that. This woman was perminately mentally disabled and they took her 400k right out of her bank account.

I have not given Wally world one red cent this that report.

[dem in texas]

6. Yes, It is sickening

Americans should boycott until the minimum wage is raised to at least $12.00. The large retail companies, fast food included are leaching off the taxpayer by paying such low wages that the employees qualify for WIC, food stamps and other public assistance.

[Fridays Child]

9. +1000

[Iwillnevergiveup]

7. I'd love to see

a rash of companies begin to hire desperate unemployed/under-employed workers so that WalMart couldn't even attract prospective employees. They'd be better paid anywhere else. Meanwhile, never, never set foot in the place. Someone might photograph me as a "WalMartian."

[Norrin Radd]

10. kr

[intheflow]

11. I admit we do shop at WalMart for a few groceries.

Things I have not been able to find in other area grocery stores including Kroger's, Safeway and Albertsons. But we only shop for those items. The OP is right that their prices aren't lower than the union grocery stores, and can be much higher for fresh produce. I've had that conversation with many people at WalMart, who've told me they shop at WalMart for the lower prices. I can usually give them concrete examples of how that isn't true within a 3-foot radius of where we're standing.

[hatrack]

12. Ten eggs? You've got to be kidding!

Just like when a pound of coffee became 14 ounces, then 12, then 11.5. Same great high price, though!

[Fridays Child]

18. I know!

10 eggs.

[CrispyQ]

13. "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price"

An excellent documentary about all aspects of Walmart, from the way they destroy mom-and-pop stores, to how they won't let their employees unionize, to the factory floors in China. It's an eye-opening movie & Netflix has it. Everyone should watch this movie.

[bvar22]

14. When we lived in the Big City, we had that luxury too,

....and we were proud to boast about never going in a WalMart.

Since we moved to rural America, the choices are:
*Super WalMart,

*a 170 mile round trip drive to a city,

*nothing.

We choose "nothing" as much as possible,
but sometimes it is unavoidable.

WalMart has destroyed small town America.
The only businesses that are still open on Small Town Mainstreet are:

*Rent to Own

*Pawn Shops

*"Antique" "Boutiques" (Junk Stores)

*Beauty Salons

Very sad.

A dollar spent at WalMart (minus the very small percentage paid out in slave wages) leaves town immediately, and goes into the pockets of out-of-town owners & investors.

A Dollar spent at a locally owned business gets spent in town over and over again,
until it hits a WalMart.

[Fridays Child]

19. I saw how Walmart was beginning to destroy...

...the small town I used to live in, more than 20 years ago. I wonder if the local grocer is still there. At the time, Walmart had not yet branched out to groceries. I think that was also when they still bragged that their merchandise was made in the USA? Remember that? Hah!

[indepat]

15. The Congress ain't gonna help fix this sub-human wage scale by raising the minimum wage to

a living wage. Ain't no way the Congress is gonna address this societal scourge, a government-manufactured class of poor people, many of whom resort to crime to feed their families, and thus, become fodder for the private prison industry. Now ain't we got some swell people running our country or what?

[adavid]

16. If the US still had...

its manufacturing base all over the country that supplied millions of living-wage paying jobs with a pension and other benefits (I just described the American dream, BTW), then these low paying service sector and retail jobs would never be an issue.

[RobertEarl]

17. $20 minimum wage

Would fix that for a few years. And it would cost only a few pennies from each of us po' folk. But it would cost the millionaires about $20 each week.

[IronLionZion]

20. Do you have co-ops and farmers markets?

That's probably the most direct way to support the workers while getting nutritious food. My co-op that I belong to has always paid health insurance and decent wages while locally sourcing the produce, milk, and eggs.

[Fridays Child]

21. Yes to both.

I shop at both, from time to time, but they are so expensive. Mostly, I shop at a local market that's owned by a Democrat. And I think the employees are union members but I'm not 100% sure of that.

I also go to Costco, every once in awhile--mostly for things like paper towels, vitamins, soap, and so on. We can't buy too many perishables there because we don't have a large freezer and we can never consume most of the large quantity food products before they start to go bad.