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Comment by aeturnum | Hacker News Reader

I've been trying to use Walmart for most of my household internet shopping needs because I dislike a lot of Amazon's practices[1].

In general Walmart is...ok. Their shipping times are pretty accurate, though they will sometimes split up shipments and don't clearly inform you. It also seems like their shipping pipeline is a lot rougher on boxes than Amazon. I ordered a window-mounted AC unit and the box showed up wrecked - the unit was badly dented and never worked.

Like Amazon, they have the problem of "seamlessly" integrating 3rd party sellers into their store which means you need to look closely or 4/5 things in your order will arrive day after tomorrow and 1/5 will arrive in 2-3 weeks.

[1] Walmart is no picnic either, but only so many companies can ship me the random products I've gotten used to.

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I tried ordering a flat screen TV from Walmart. My logic was that it'd be a lot easier to return to a physical store then mail back.

I'm not sure if it was the overall trip or the final delivery but I found the package with the "This side up" upside down. Opened the box and the screen was totally shattered.

Their return process was nice though!

Wal Mart's practices have certainly been much worse than Amazon's in aggregate.

How so? As a consumer, I personally have a lot less trust in Amazon. At least with Walmart I know I'll get what I ordered instead of some cheap Chinese knockoff.

Walmart's bad practices by far predate the founding of Amazon and have been well-documented. Walmart moves into towns and undercuts prices on locally-owned stores, putting them out of business and destroying Main Street America. They demand products sold on their shelves reduce the quality enough to make the items disposable, which forces the manufacturing offshore to China or Mexico, further destroying American towns.

As a consumer, Walmart is better than Amazon in the very short term. Long term, both Amazon and Walmart are causing serious damage to the economy of America.

https://www.fastcompany.com/54763/man-who-said-no-wal-mart

Good riddance to those "main street" stores and their overpriced business model.

Yup. Good riddance to downtowns, to store owners who put their customer and employee needs before pure profit. Good riddance to community, to knowing your neighbor, to walking. Good riddance to sustainable pricing and sustainable wages.

Much better that we drive out of town to Walmart, pick up dinner at the drive-through, drive home, and never have to talk to anyone or walk on a sidewalk. Much better that the profits leave the town, the county, the state, and move to a corporate headquarters. Much better than the main economic center for a town is outside city limits so the city gets no tax revenue to maintain roads, schools, and water/sewer service. Much better that the taxpayers subsidize those rollback prices that force their employees onto food stamps and welfare checks. Much better that you can buy something so cheaply that when it breaks you just throw it in the ocean and buy another one.

Good riddance to America. The United States of Amazon is just so much more convenient.

Is that true though? I just cancelled an order with Walmart after I noticed it was a 3rd party seller; I have no idea if I would have received a knockoff or not.

I suppose I shop at Walmart in a digital context, but avoid them in a physical one. Obviously their competitive practices are pretty harmful.

There just aren't good alternatives to Amazon in general. Do you have another recommendation? I've tried to use Target but have found their selection to be quite bad.

Every corporation does some sketchy thing or another so I just use Amazon because it's the most convenient.

You could go out and shop locally at small stores when possible if you want. Some argue it's still better to go to a Wal Mart than order from Amazon because it keeps local jobs. I've heard Amazon warehouse work has bad conditions but pays decently and consistently if you're willing to put up with it, while Wal Mart pays less and switches your shifts around but is obviously less labor intensive - various points for each but I have gotten the impression Wal Mart is worse on society overall. I think it's generally a moot point because the influence of the few people who are both motivated to take these stances on where to shop and can afford to is too small to make a difference - legislation and unionization are the most practical avenues.

One part of local shopping I highly recommend is farmers' markets - not just in the sense of not supporting Tyson et al, fresh eggs are great and you can even get different kinds like duck eggs (bigger and taste better), you can get fresh grass fed beef and other meats if you're lucky, and obviously the vegetables/fruits are good too.

Yah - it's easy to find alternatives offline. The problem (and the context of the discussion as I understood it) was online shopping.

Online shopping isn't a necessity for the most part.

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