I have quite a few Wal-Marts within 25 miles to choose from. However, I typically shop at one local Wal-Mart. I only go there approximately once a week to do some of my food shopping. I have done the homework and compared my local grocery stores to Wal-Mart and found that on average Wal-Mart can be anywhere from $0.25-1.00 cheaper per item. Multiply that by your whole shopping order, and you are saving quite a few pennies.
However, I limit my shopping at Wal-Mart to strictly food and household products. I feel the quality of many other items just isn’t up to par. In many cases, I don’t buy my produce there either, on far too many occasions the quality of the food has been wrong.
One of my huge issues with Wal-Mart, at every opportunity, is the lack of check out lines open. Typically, there are 3-4 lines open with at least ten people in each line. It is quite ridiculous. Fifteen years ago, my brother worked at Wal-Mart and made an amazingly low wage of $7.00 per hour; now, fifteen years later, according to him, Wal-Mart is paying their associates $8.23 per hour. That is not much of an increase over the course of fifteen years. A conglomerate as large as Wal-Mart could afford to pay the employees a higher wage. I mean fifteen year, come on. However, on the flip side, the fact that they pay their associates such a low rate allows Wal-Mart to be worth so much. But hey, it’s business, right?
