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Comment by DiabloD3 | Hacker News Reader

My town has about 8k people, and the local Walmart services our tiny micro-metro of about 15k people.

If Walmart vanished, almost no one in town would miss it because everyone complains about how high the prices are compared to local stores, and how little there is on store shelves; and what local stores can't sell us, we'd just order online.

If someone showed up with a time machine, and told me Walmart went out of business 10-15 years from now, I'd believe it. If all Walmarts are mismanaged as badly as this one, how does that company even exist?

The only thing I go there now for is paper towels and toilet paper and cat litter. Everything else I use, they either don't carry, or I can get cheaper elsewhere.

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>If Walmart vanished, almost no one in town would miss it because everyone complains about how high the prices are compared to local stores, and how little there is on store shelves; and what local stores can't sell us, we'd just order online.

That might be the impression you get from your circles (and it's also unfashionable to be known to shop at Walmart at certain circles as well).

But it's not necessarily the actual dependency status of the whole 8/15K people on having that Walmart.

My town is an incredibly poor town. Quite a few people I know have worked there at one point or another, even though they pay effectively below minimum wage and constantly fuck with your hours.

I know what you mean about it being unfashionable to shop there, but the thing is, I'm usually the one saying that it's unfashionable, no one else I know agrees with me on that; I'm a citizen of the Internet, they are not. Most people I know don't care if it is Walmart, they just want to exchange currency for goods and services.

But like, most people in town just want to put food on the table and whatnot, and meat prices are, for example, about a buck higher per pound for beef (not that anyone in town can really afford beef at current pricing; all the stores around here have shrunk what beef occupies in the meat case due to that), they have a very poor selection of fruits and vegs, the bakery sells the absolute worst tasteless and sometimes stale products, and Walmart brand foods are absolutely disgusting sometimes and aren't even cheaper than other store's store brands.

Walmart just seems to do everything wrong. Everyone I've met around here seems to have some story of their own on why this is true, I've never met anyone who liked shopping there.

Around here, food stamps come I think twice a month (you're put into one cycle or the other), most of the town I swear qualifies for at least the minimum for it, and there's also social security and welfare. On those days, our two main local grocery stores are packed, Walmart doesn't really seem to have anyone. In fact, of all the years I have lived here, I have never seen Walmart packed.

Yeah, none of this is scientific, it's all anecdotal evidence. But I've lived here so long, I remember when we never had a Walmart, and there has never been a time I can remember when anyone has been excited about that.

You know what personally excites me? When Amazon has a product I buy become available for Subscribe and Save, so I can get it for 15% less, then another 5% less because of the Amazon store card, pay slightly less for it than anywhere else locally, and then not have to actually go to the store and buy it because an UPS guy drops it off for me.

And that entire model right there? Terrifies the shit out of Walmart.

> If Walmart vanished, almost no one in town would miss it because everyone complains about how high the prices are compared to local stores, and how little there is on store shelves; and what local stores can't sell us, we'd just order online.

I've read a lot of complaints about Walmart, but never once about how they are expensive. Fascinating.

Apparently it isn't unique, it is a product of Walmart corporate interference into how each store individually operates.

Basically, no one, not even the Store Manager, has much flexibility in store pricing. Walmart corporate punishes stores by taking unapproved differences in pricing out of the store budget, and stores are all generally severely under-budgeted to begin with, so no store, especially not ours, is going to do it.

In poor areas like mine, Walmart doesn't give the store the flexibility to compete. Not that I care about Walmart's bottom line, but that can't be very cost effective for those stores.

Almost nothing at my local Walmart is cheaper than it is on amazon prime. UPS and FedEx stop at my house more than the postman.

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