New at Reason

David Weigel | August 1, 2006

Kerry Howley expresses disappointment that Wal-Mart isn't living up to its worst enemies' fears.

Comments

|8.1.06 @ 12:46PM|#

"...the aggressively effusive nature of the help..." ???

When I was younger and poorer (which is back when Wal-Mart espoused a 'buy American' marketing philosophy) I used to shop at Wal-Mart. One of the things about the place that drove me away, aside from my eventual disappointment with the quality of the merchandise, was the lack of help from the workers.
I wonder if the writer meant to say "...the aggressively elusive nature of the help..."

|8.1.06 @ 12:53PM|#

Every Wal-Mart I've ever been to has been a total dump, which is pretty much why I stopped shopping there altogether about five years ago.

|8.1.06 @ 1:03PM|#

I think Howley and Slainte are both correct. You walk into Walmart and you got some bozo greeting you (hence the effusiveness), then the aisles are patrolled by teenagers on endless cigarette breaks (aggressively elusive). This is must my experience in Walmart, I'm sure the company manual says this never happens. I also think that Walmart basically sells cheap Chinese crap to low income Americans who don't know the difference between cheap and inexpensive.

|8.1.06 @ 2:00PM|#

Heh. I go into WalMart for the same reason that I go to the State Fair... to see the "fair people."

You know the ones that I mean. The women who need to open both doors to get into the store. The men who can't remember where their teeth got knocked out, or when they last changed their drawers. The kids... ugh, the kids.

The fair people are also why so many activists oppose WalMarts in their communities - it's the NIMBY principle, applied in this case to a KMart-style retailer instead of a strip joint, but with many of the same underlying reasons, just unstated. Instead, they bleat about "sprawl" and the evils of competition.

Meh. Enjoy the show, I say. Just don't forget to pick up some cotton candy on the way in.

|8.1.06 @ 2:25PM|#

Heh. I go into WalMart for the same reason that I go to the State Fair... to see the "fair people."

hehe. and of course, that's why all of 'them' are there too ;-)

|8.1.06 @ 2:35PM|#

I think there was a good point in there somewhere, but I had a hard time finding it through all the elitist condescension.

|8.1.06 @ 2:38PM|#

Granted, in spades. I just went to WalMart the other night, and the experience is still seared in my brain. :-)

|8.1.06 @ 2:44PM|#

Seared, I tell you.

|8.1.06 @ 2:46PM|#

Yeah Kebko, 'Merka is the only country where one aspires to be far less than elite. We aspire to be downright idiotic. Damn those competent elites!!

|8.1.06 @ 2:48PM|#

Y'know, I didn't even know Wal-Mart was targeted at the "fair people" until I started reading about it at this web site. All I knew about Wal-Mart was that they only operate in suburbs and that was all I needed to know because it was enough to make sure I would likely never enter one (I don't drive). And, being a northeasterner and something of a German (well... I've lived there), I can totally sympathize with the distaste for all the patronizing, fake cheerfulness that's de rigeur in today's mega-stores, as well as the lack of any desire to haul out to the middle of nowhere to buy shit.

Instead, they bleat about "sprawl" and the evils of competition.

If Wal-Mart can build an "urban" store in NYC, I'll shop there. Hell, I'm cheap. KMart has stores in NYC -- they're horrible but I shop there occasionally. As for "competition", NYC has a five-and-dime on every other block, mostly small businesses run by immigrants -- and I bet not one of them receives the kind of tax breaks that Wal-Mart expects to receive as its putting them all out of business.

|8.1.06 @ 3:08PM|#

Ah, but Manhattan is only marginally connected to the rest of the USA. :)

As for WalMart, most of their stores I've been in come across as Target stores that haven't been sorted or cleaned for about five years. Here and there you'll find some nice ones, mostly in brand new suburbs.

|8.1.06 @ 3:19PM|#

My only problam with Walmart is that they never seem to have exactly what I want. They seem pretty standardized across the country, presumably to keep inventories efficient and lower cost. What I want is Walmart to be bigger so I have more selection to choose from.

|8.1.06 @ 3:55PM|#

Aren't we better off having just one chain of stores to despise rather than a bunch of localized chains like Ames, Zayre, Kresge, Woolworth's, Woolco, Venture, TurnStyle, Korvettes, Pamida, etc.? Wal-Mart has brought the country together and kept us from the tribalism of our former low-discount-store overlords.

|8.1.06 @ 6:06PM|#

Heh. I go into WalMart for the same reason that I go to the State Fair... to see the "fair people."

Fair people:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/01/photos_of_folks_at_t.html

|8.1.06 @ 7:11PM|#

Now, y'all just try and tell me that those folks aren't WallMart shoppers.

|8.1.06 @ 9:34PM|#

Great story, and timely! I have to give a presentation on the stupidity of Chicago's anti-Walmart Big Box ordinance for a class, and I will definitely incorporate your article as a reference.

I'm surprised, however, that a major corporation like Walmart could be so tone deaf when it comes to something as fundamental to doing business as knowing your potential customer base's cultural likes and dislikes. Guess someone in mangement missed the urban legend about Chevy Novas in Latin America during Marketing 101 class ....

|8.1.06 @ 10:32PM|#

"Those who fear Wal-Mart's coming global takeover would do well to follow the advice of Wal-Mart Watch: Just wait five years."

Umm, I could be wrong but I don't think a group sponsored by American unions (Wal-Mart Watch) could care less about Wal-Mart's global takeover.

Probably more worried about their local takeovers that are killing their jobs.

Good article about why Wal-Mart won't lose to foreign discount stores in the US though.

|8.2.06 @ 12:48AM|#

I go to Wal-Mart for the prices. That being said, I hate the atmosphere; it's like a goddam Fellini casting call, especially, but not exclusively, late at night.
If someone - anyone - would ever match the prices, I'd go there in the proverbial New York minute.