Do you shop at Wal-Mart?

Since consumerism and lack of has shown up in previous blogs of mine and a few people commented on it, I felt that Wal-Mart was a good topic to write on. I mean who has not been to a Wal-Mart right?

When we lived in Toronto there was a Wal-Mart that was less than 5 km away from us. We did go there sometimes for major things like dvd player and tv because the prices are so good. We also bought some clothes and food stuffs and even our beach towels came from there at a summer sale.

As most of you know from reading my previous blogs, Paul and I now live on an island off the coast of Belize. There is not much shopping here you can get groceries and anything you might want from souvenir shops and hardware stores but nothing even close to a Wal-Mart. To get to one of those we have to go to a different country, Mexico.

My Mom step dad and step brother were coming to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico in April as Norm won a trip with his company. Since they were so close we figured we should take the bus from Chetumal to Playa and meet them. I was searching on the internet to see what hotels and prices were like and I came across a picture and caption saying Playa del Carmen now has a Wal-Mart .

I have to admit that it got me excited as I knew we could be able to stock up on some things cheaper than we could get here and also find things we could not get at all.

After we had arrived and lucked into a hotel across from the bus station, we got a phone card and called their hotel. We arranged to meet in the Wal-Mart parking lot as it was convenient close to us and easy for a cab driver to find. Note the Wal-Mart ended up being a 5 minute walk from us lol. We saw it as we drove into town on our Big Bus.

We got there early and Paul wanted to get smokes so we went up the moving ramp to check it out. All I can say is wow. At the top of the ramp there were 2 guys with a big bbq grill cooking up some food and stepping inside was like culture shock. They had loud music playing and clown at the front making balloon animals. Off to the left were all kinds of beach toys higher up on the wall and underneath them were stacks of beer lol. It was like a big party.

Over the 4 days we were there we went to Wal-Mart a few times. (We also shopped at Mega and San Francisco Asis sp?) Here is a list of items we purchased at Wal-Mart … One digital watch so we had an alarm for our hotel room (originally in packing for Belize we did not bring a watch from Canada or a clock lol) Caned iced tea (hard to find here on the island until recently) A Lasko standing fan (½ the price of what we would pay here and very valuable item), 4 round cushions for our kitchen chairs (not seen any on the island and with sitting being on pc a lot butt padding a must) one fry pan, 3 pairs water shoes and a 3 pack of round neck t-shirts and pastries for our day trip to Tulum and Xel ha with my mom. We all needed protection from the sun at the water park. My mom was glad for the foot wear and tee’s as she had not thought of that. Fruit of the loom tank tops for Paul and a 3 pack of v-neck t-shirts. I got some cute girly boxer shorts a pair of underwear.

Well we did not go too crazy in what we bought and we did go for practical stuff. The 2 best things we brought back were the standing fan, and a free standing laundry rack (purchased at mega) I was hoping to find one of those expandable wood kind but I was happy to find one at all. Funny how on an island were 80% of people have laundry lines I cannot imagine why they do not sell laundry racks lol.

Below are some excerpts from a conversation I had with a friend in messenger who has worked for Walmart for 13 years. She has seen 7 Wal-Marts open, and that is within a little over 50 mile radius form her house. She is the one who sent me the statistics posted below. I asked her if she though they were accurate, and coming from someone who works there she thought they most likely were. Here is what she had to say on Wal-Mart .

Even in the movie sales, I have 4 stores and they all sell over a million in a yr, two close to 2 million.

Its remarkable, but now walmart are going thru some big changes. Downsizing on their management levels, trying to do away with paying insurance, you know everyone being part time. Seems funny, when they seem to being doing so well.

I don't know how they expect people to live. Walmart got where they want to be now they are back peddling to catch up as they have opened so many stores. They have been around so many years that they have so many people who have been with the company a long time. I think they will start weeding them out now.

Have you seen the new store they have built in either Dallas or Houston? Its a more upscale store. Name brand clothes , better house wares, sushi bar. I think they are trying to compete with target.

I mean they figure if you want a nicer wedding gift or xmas gift you go to a more expensive store you aren't going to buy a lot of clothes at walmart for xmas gifts. Electronics, yes some hardware. But you know the groceries will be bought. They used to have a clothing line by Kathie lee and it was a little better product.


Just how big is Wal-Mart?

90% of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

At Wal-Mart , Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day. This works out to $20,928 of profit every minute!!!

Wal-Mart will sell more by St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.

Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.

Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).

Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the United States of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store ( Earth's population is only 6.5 billion)

In regards to this blog and low paying jobs in America which so many are stuck working at, the book called nickel and dimed is a great read by Barbara Eherenreich Where a well established writer goes undercover taking low paying jobs all across America to document how people can live like that or not live as some barely managed. Her last job was walmart in women’s wear.

I also recommend catching the South Park cartoon episode where Wal-Mart comes to town, it was very well done.

Side note - reply to comments. Love all the comments. :)

Kudos to you Trudi . I think it is great that you made the conscious choice to show there. I have heard also  what you said about them forcing manufacturors to low ball on their prices and causing some to go out of business even as a result. Trudi your seccond point is a very valid one. In canada where Pauls parents live a walmart came in and litterally all the small town shops dried up, so it has made it very hard for people not to shop there. 

WH  That is very cool. I like how you put it making political choices with your money.

Why is it that sometimes it is hard to stay away from things we know are bad in so many ways?? 

Zoe I am checking out An Inconvenient Truth Website now thanks for posting it. Unfortunatly we do not have a movie  theater here, so If we are lucky we will be able to rent a copy at the local video store eventually.

Thanks for your comment  David I solved the walmart problem by moving there are none lol. Even on the mainland Belize so far there is only one subway fast food place. It is still relatively untouched.

Michael big business is so hard to get away from. It took moving to an island for us to do it lol. Seems a bit crazy when I think of it lol. Not that I was a shopaholic in canada but we did get stuff sometimes. My hardest to avoid store was old navy (bad I know)