I think everyone should take a week off of blaming Obama for our economy and blame Walmart instead

Holy crap!  That sounds like THE GREATEST IDEA EVER!!!

Read this article (I wasn't shocked once, but I was angered the entire time I read it).   
More then ever, I am glad I banned Walmart years ago.  

Project Impact: Good bye Specialty Products

I shared my thought's on Walmart's Project Impact on facebook some weeks ago and want to share the same thoughts here too. I will be doing a series once in a while on here about this topic and focus on one main reason I hate this store. This post will be an introduction, plus some thoughts on some specialty products I've had to say bye bye to in the name of big business. Walmart has decided to take advantage of the economy right now by instigating a new plan called "project impact", the lighter side of project impact is a reface of their stores such as product placement, wider aisles, switching around the pharmacy, new happy clerks, etc. Sounds innocent enough. The darker side is their push in doing this to wipe out the stores that they haven't managed to wipe out yet. They are not hiding this fact and have their sights on the struggling K Mart and the craft store Micheal's. Apparently they are selling scrapbook stuff etc and displaying prominently many of the exact items Micheal's sells (for a lower price). Essentially, they are selling about 80% of the TYPE of products Micheal's sells (some the exact same stuff, but mostly cheaper and tackier knock offs). There is an article here where you can read about a lot of this stuff.
I have a lot of issues with this, my main ones being: I like going to an entire store that is devoted to arts and crafts, I like Micheal's products better, plus- I just plain freaking hate Walmart and their politics. My biggest issue on my mind concerning this, is the 20% of merchandise that Walmart doesn't carry that when Micheal's goes under will be lost forever. A good example of such an effect in my own life would be what happened in Utah Valley with cake supplies. I make cakes, and I now live in Utah Valley. Once upon a time there was a store called, "Shepard's Cake and Candy Supply". The store had an entire wall of cake pans, every color of food coloring in many different forms, cake boxes, cardboard cake rounds, a million cake fillings and flavorings, essentially everything a cake maker needs or wants. (Same too if you make candy (which I don't, but same deal for that). Anyway, many of the big box stores now have one aisle devoted to cake decorating. You can get many of the things you could buy at Shepard's, but not nearly all. As you may have guessed, because of these stores offering this stuff, Shepards was forced to close (one of the stores doing this is Micheal's so yes, there is a little of what comes around goes around). But, the stuff these stores such as Walmart don't sell, throw a major kink in my life. Like cake boxes and cake rounds. Orson Gygi in downtown Salt Lake sells most of this stuff, but not all, plus it is very far away.
So thanks to such shenanigans as these, there are many products devoted to cake decorating you absolutely cannot get in Utah Valley. That sucks.
Everyone has hobbies. Think of your favorite: scrapbooking perhaps? Photography? Painting? Cooking? Well, insert your favorite store to buy these supplies and if it isn't Walmart, it could possibly become a casualty of the evil empire and you will be in the same boat as me.
(Cooking is another favorite hobby of mine and if Spoons and Spice goes under because of this, there will be hell to pay. Walmart will never sell half of the interesting kitchen gadgets one can find there. I don't know about you, but I love living in a world where you can buy a gadget with it's only function being to slice avocados into neat perfect rows. Or a hand held cherry pitter. I only own one of these items, but it is nice to know they exist and I could if I wanted to.)

Emily's Wal-Mart Gripe

I recently made a deceleration that I was never going to Wal-Mart again, and there was some interest as to why. Well, there are several reasons, and this is also a deceleration I have made in the past, but one I would love to finally keep (although I already have plans to go back, but you'll see why below).
So, it really wasn't a big deal, but this was the experience or "straw that was the camel's spinal demise" (or something). So, I looked online for the cheapest way to get my ipod shuffle going again, and Wal-Mart sells a product that was a little shuffle dock for $17 (replacement docks are $30 WHY is that?? You can buy Shuffles now for like 45 bucks. You might as well buy a new one. Rotten Apple people, sorry, didn't have a good ipod week). This product is a little speaker system that also can be plugged into the computer for syncing. I assumed it was available in store since it didn't say otherwise, so Scout and I went and picked up some groceries while we were at it. They didn't have it. They did have a product for "$19" that was a wall charger for assorted electronics including the shuffle. It can be unattached to the wall and plugged into the computer, but I asked the electronics dude if it can sync it too. He looked at it and said that since it has a USB port, that would be possible. So I bought it, and then shopped for some groceries. I went to the self check out line, which I am a pro at. The weights however, wouldn't accommodate my "green bags" (that has never been an issue before) so the lady had to fix that, but it took her forever. Then, when I got to the ipod product, it rung up as $23 dollars, so I went up to her and told her that the shelf said it was 19. I explained it very clearly, but she misunderstood me about 10 times and then when she finally understood what I was saying, blew out this huge sigh and said, "well I can check for you, but it is going to take a long time." I offered to look for myself, but she shooed that suggestion. So she called over another worker who went to check. Scout is getting impatient at this time so, it was getting fairly lame. The girl comes back and says, yeah, these are 23 dollars, she said they were all on the wrong rack. Whatever, I bought it anyway and paid for everything and then we went to the little rides to give Scout her promised car ride. The machine ate the 2 quarters I gave Scout, I put one more in and nothing. So there was a attendant standing behind this desk that looked like the cashier center, it was all official with clip boards and what not. I stood behind this old guy who bought 80 dollars worth of cat food. (I can only imagine why), and I told the girl (who had a tag that said "Manager") and before I even finished my sentence, she shook her head and told me I needed to go to customer service. So I scooped Scout up and went there. I would have just left, but the bean was promised a ride and they had several other machines, and I had no more quarters, so I waited. When it was my turn, they did refund me my 3 quarters. We rode the horsey this time and then went home.
That thing does not sync with itunes, it only charges.

Now I have to go back and exchange it. I called the manufacturer, since I have a new library, so I wasn't sure if I downloaded it right. I will suppress another gripe of mine about how all companies have moved their customer service out of the country and now when you call a company you have to talk to someone with an accent so thick you can't understand each other (not to mention this guy had no idea about what I was talking about, he didn't know the product at all that he was supposed to be "technical support" for and couldn't answer my one simple question). I normally don't have a problem with trying to communicate with someone that speaks a different language from me, I am usually very tolerant, but this situation bugs me that it just reminds me about how jobs are fleeing this country and going over seas in the name of cost. Yes, I do realize that I went looking for a product that was the cheapest I can find. So that is why I am not griping about it (too much). Yes, I am a hypocrite, and I realize it.

So besides the events of this week, I have always hated Wal-Mart and avoid it most of the time.
My reasons are two fold:
1) There is the issue of the fact that I simply always have an unpleasant time there. The times that I have been hit or run down by another shopper and their cart, have ALWAYS occurred there. No one ever apologizes. No one seems happy at Wal-Mart. Everyone is crabby and rude. It's just a bad place.

2) The second reason, (and I like to think this one is the most important reason to me) I don't like how it moves into a town and business that have been around for years, find the competition too fierce and shut down. Many simply can't compete, it's a monster. I happen to like the little shops. I like having a choice as to where to shop. If everyone only shops there, then that is going to be our only choice when we go shopping. They are popping up EVERYWHERE, like 5 blocks from another one. The one that appeared in Sandy, a few years ago, was a giant scandal. No one thought there needed to be another one around there. There were even protests surrounding it's opening. I was very close to joining in on the picketing, but didn't.
I should have, but didn't because of this reason: the demands of my pocketbook and it's convenience win sometimes and I break down and go, abandoning my principles.
They really sell plastic baggies cheaper then anyone else on the planet. And sometimes it is dinnertime and Scout is crabby and I need tortillas and I don't know -thread, and it's either two stops or one stop to the old Wal-Mart, and the pull of that one stop is enough to make me choose that hell-hole. I'm so weak!!
Rob refuses to shop there, but for my first reason, not my second. He says, and I quote "everyone that shops there wears over sized Tasmanian Devil shirts". In fact, he thinks it is a good company to work for and provides it's employees with good benefits and provides people with jobs that otherwise may not get a job elsewhere. That is fine and good, but I don't think the benefits out weigh the crap. They talk about how they "give back to the community" but I heard the statistics once and it was a pittance.
There. That is the majority of my gripe. I could go on, but I am kind of sick of thinking about Wal-Mart.