- The
Sinking Value of the Wal-Mart Experience
-
- by
Stephen Crockett
-
- OpEdNews.com
I
have been thinking about writing an editorial on Wal-Mart for several
months. Rarely does a personal experience as a consumer get me to write
so much as a complaint letter. This comentary is the exception. I just
tried to exchange a defective pair of black leather tennis shoes to my
local Wal-Mart and had the store manager (Mr. Patel at the Fayetteville,
Tennessee store) try to blame the defect on me. He refused to make the
exchange after telling me that they personally inspect every shoe.
Somebody obviously missed the pair I bought. I got angry over his
implication that I was conning Wal-Mart for a pair of shoes and the time
I wasted. It was not the lost money.
I
am only out about $30, tax and all, which is certainly no big deal. It
was the first time I had ever tried to exchange anything I ever bought.
Like most men, I have a garage full of purchases that should have been
exchanged. However, for most men, admitting to a store clerk that we
made a bad-purchasing decision is sort of like asking for directions
when lost driving. It just almost never happens. If the shoes had not
been blatantly defective, I would still own them. I bought 20 pairs of
the same type of shoe from Wal-Mart over the past 6 or 7 years. Men are
creatures of habit.
While
wasting around an hour at the customer service counter, I started
thinking about all those abused customers of Corporate chain stores all
over America that are stuck with bad purchases of largely imported, low
quality merchandise in dollar amount to low to take to court. Most do
not have talk radio shows or widely published newspaper columns to vent
their frustrations. All they can do is boycott the store like I am doing
to Wal-Mart from this day forward.
It
takes the collective action of hundreds of thousands of consumers to
really hurt Corporate giants like Wal-Mart. I never liked Wal-Mart’s
anti-union attitudes clear back to the good ole days of Sam Walton. Sam
was nice to his customers but really hated unions. I limited my
purchases somewhat as a result but still bought some things because of
convenience.
I,
also, limited my purchases there because Wal-Mart hurts many local
businesses when it moves into a community. You can almost see the slow
death of small town commercial centers, as one family-owned store after
another goes out of business once Wal-Mart moves into town. The boarded
up stores in small towns all over the South are testimony to the
commercial power of Wal-Mart. This experience is spreading nationally as
Wal-Mart expands geographically and into the grocery business.
In
the Sam Walton days, the damage of this retailing giant’s expansion
was lessened by some company policies. Wal-Mart hired many local people
and that partially offset the loss of jobs by local family-owned
retailers. The jobs did not pay well and did not have the best of
benefits, but they were still jobs. Now, Wal-Mart has started installing
self-checkout counters instead of hiring enough employees to provide
quick service. They are not alone in taking this approach to cost
cutting.
I
urge everyone to stop by the customer service of any giant Corporate
retailer from Wal-Mart to Home Depot to file complaints about them using
self-checkout counters instead of hiring enough workers. Threaten to
take your business elsewhere. Ask the employees for complaint forms.
We
have lost far to many jobs to Corporate purchasing decisions to stock
cheap, poor quality imported merchandise instead of buying American made
goods! Just in the less than 4 years of the George W. Bush’s
Administration, we have lost existing jobs and failed to create new jobs
(in order to keep up with natural population growth) to the tune of a 7
million job shortfall! While the rich get richer, the rest of us
struggle trying to get by. Millions of Americans have been forced out of
the job market entirely (living on family or welfare). Millions of
Americans are living at the very edges of our society and the number is
growing. This is the result of Corporate decisions and government policy
influenced or controlled by Corporate political and economic power.
The
advertising hook that first made me become a Wal-Mart customer was their
highly promoted “BUY AMERICAN” commitment. Finding American made
merchandise in Wal-Mart and other Corporate retail chains has become a
real challenge for customers.
I
remember when Wal-Mart had a policy of opening more checkout counters
when a certain specific number of customers were waiting in line. They
do not seem to care how long the customer waits now if they can hire
fewer workers based on my personal experience. Wal-Mart was once known
for treating their customers well (if not exactly doing the same with
their employees despite their advertising claims.)
In
my opinion, the customers and employees both need to stage a little
public revolt against the top Corporate management. The workers need to
unionize. The customers need to complain loudly and vote with their
wallets. There are other stores (especially locally owned, family
businesses) where you can get quality goods and personal service. I
intend on spending my money in those places.
If
getting burnt on a $30 pair of shoes finally gets me to do the right
thing as a customer and a writer, it was worth it. As I drop them in the
trash, I am smiling. See ya later, Wal-Mart!!!!
Written
by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com).
Mail: 7A
Planville Drive
,
Fayetteville
,
Tennessee
37334
. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Feel free to run as Letter to
Editor, Op Ed, Guest Editorial- or to post on your website or blog.
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