Viva la Walmart!!!! Makes my chest swell with pride!

I think your weekly Walmart column on Friday made some important points that should be taken into account anytime you are talking about implicit and explicit costs on customers. On paper it may be $2,500/year, but what about doing some of the math behind the costs of recalls on customers -- for example -- that aren't accounted for in a simple analysis.

http://wmt.bloggingstocks.com/2007/11/12/does-wal-mart-really-save-families-2-500-each-year/#comments

We all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch... there also seems to be no such thing as a safe, cheap product when you are pushing employees and suppliers beyond reasonable limits.

How can we work that into the "cost saving" equation?

Not to sound like my grandpa and ramble off sayings here, but another one comes to mind: FAST, CHEAP, QUALITY -- pick two.

Wal-mart = Cheap, fast.

I live in a rural area and haven't done a study, but for what my anecdotal evidence is worth, the savings to a retiree by shopping at a Wal-Mart supercenter are enourmous compared to driving to a Safeway for food and then to a hardware store and then to a drug store, etc...for the necessities. It might be different in "fashionable" suburbs, but our in the boonies, Wal-Mart makes life able to be lived.

I will never shop at Walmart...Zero service, too big of a store, cheap, cheap items, and I do not mean the prices..Good for the folks that have a small income? Target is so much nicer, much better items, great prices, less crappy items. Why shop at Walmart, I do not get it!!! Unless you believe all of their ads..UGH....Brainwashing ads...

I agree with comment #3. Why don't some of you blog people do a study on this and see. Your report would end this argument but then this would take to much of your valuable time I assume. I will come and buy you dinner if I'm wrong.

I really hate Walmart. Not just because of their business practices but the overall shopping experience. While there are some occasional good deals to be had, they can be had elsewhere --they also carry a lot of junk that you'd find in a $5.00 store. (The store where you buy clothes to paint the house in.) Now that Black Friday is almost upon us I wonder how many people will get trampled trying to grab that $30.00 tv because it is on sale- the same damn tv that'll be useless in two years when the broadcast system no longer supports analog tv.

The Walmart Neighborhood Market saves me about $100 a month for a family of two - about $1200 a year, and when the other grocery stores have sales Walmart ad matches them.

At one time I did shop at wal-mart for my candles, made in the USA, 97 cents, when I went back for more they were $1.14 and made in Mexico and smaller, have not been back since.

I know that it save us a ton of money. One stop shopping alone is well worth it for me and my family. A regular box of cereal at my local supermarket is $4 at the supercenter it is $2.50 for the big size. They accept coupons and match prices which to me is a double savings. While I am there I can have an oil change or tire rotation talk about saving time and money. My wife anf I have found that for the most part you can't beat the prices and if you think that target (expect less, pay more) didn't have to take stuff off the shelf during the recalls you are sadly mistaking. Everyone uses China to get there goods including target & k-mart. So keep spending your money in places that don't save you or match prices (target & kmart) as for me I work to hard to give mine away.

I do not believe Walmart saves us money.....I have deliberately stayed out of wallmart for a month and watched my bank account to see how much I have saved staying out. Tons!!! I go to Belks when they have great sales, Goody's etc.and I shop at a little IGA in my country town....no fluff just the food you need!! Try it for a month and watch the money stay in your bank account!

Wal-Mart sucks. I drive right by them to go to Target. They should call Wal-Mart China Mart. Cheap garbage. Wouldn't buy a thing there. Target rocks.

The PR propaganda that walmart saves every family $2500 is absurd. Local shops show walmart cheaper only 30% of the time on food and drugs so the odds are stacked against you. Prices on lawn fertlizer, toliet repair etc. are as low or lower at our local Ace hardware without the shopping hassle of a walmart. Does this figure include the BILLIONS in annual subsidies that walmart receives at the expense of the taxpayers? The Feds peg it at OVER $421,000 PER YEAR PER STORE! Tax breaks that homeowwners have to make up in their property taxes, Police Expense, medical assistance, food stamps, housing assistance and healthcare for their employees...the list goes on and on. In reality some may be saving a few pennies since they are sponging off the rest of us who are subsidizing their uneducated purchases. There is also a quality issue.Tyson as just one example cites the fact that they add TWICE the amount of water to chickens shippied to walmart. So their shoppers are buying water by the pound while they pay extra taxes to support them? Some savings!

Target is the same ugly Wal-Mart whore with slightly better make up on.

They save us cash at the expense of our country.we lost the war of jobs.

I noticed they marked things up in the last 2 weeks. The lil mommy real baby went for 49 to 59 dollarsa and the parrot went from 39 to 49 dollars. Walmart sucks.

Wal Mart may in fact 'save' its customers money, I can't really speak to this claim. Personally, where I think Wal Mart totally misses the mark is in the area of customer service. Their employees are often times rude and the lines in the store are WAY too long. Time is the new money. I value convenience as much as I value saving a dollar on a roll of toilet paper. I'm too busy to wait ten extra minutes at the checkout while the non-English speaking cashier attempts a price check becuase something rang up $.10 more than it should have.

I shop at walmart...if I don't have time I go to other grocery stores...w/m is closer. When I'm out of certain things I can't go to w/m!
Our w/m ran our Harris Teeter out of business but w/m doesn't carry everthing a grocery store should. I have even spoke to them about this...they said bring a box top of the items you want us to carry. I did and they still haven't picked these items up. And it's not strange items...every grocery store carries these.
I also have a problem with them going away from USA made products...I would pay more for better quality, made in US products! That was their big draw when they 1st came to our community...but you never here them boast of that now!!
They could do better! If Sam Walton was still living they would!!

Ya know - I used to be too proud to shop these places, but husband's income has either remained level or gone down in the last seven years - and with everything else - especially all fuel going up - if you want to have a little left over you need to shop more competively. Don't buy the cheap junk - but check out their prices on the regular stuff - I'm not cutting off my nose to spite my face anymore!

Most people do not understand how bad Wal Mart is for the economy. Many times Wal Mart forces companies that do business with them to find ways to make their products at lower costs. This leads to both inferior goods and factories moving to other countries. Wal Mart is BAD for America. Wake Up!!!!!

If I'm not mistaken doesn't Walmart own Target too?