jor

I saw a two hour presentation about Wal-Mart on CNBC tonight. They are the world's largest corporation and dominating economies in many parts of the world. Will your next destination be a place where you can not avoid Wal-Mart's world vision?

dln

jor, are they in France and Italy already?

LoveItaly

Well jor, right across the street from me is a Wal-Mart. In 4 years I have been in their store probaly a total of 4 times. I hate Wal-Mart. And "no" I am not a snob. But everything about Wal-Mart turns me off.

So here in my city, I avoid Wal-Mart. I would not be surprised to see Wal-Mart all over Europe at some point. But they will not see me. LOL.

indytravel

If you want a hilarious spoof of Wal-Mart with a great message rent the Veggie Tales' "Madame Blueberry" based on "Madame Bovary."

I think the creators actually toured a Super Wal-Mart for inspiration for their cartoon store.

crefloors

I don't do Wal-Mart either. Do not like the way they do business. Now the confession...I usually take a run down to Wal-Mart for stocking stuffers..that's it for me.

StCirq

I've never set foot in a Walmart in the USA and I certainly won't set foot in one in Europe. Seeing as their strategy is to move into cities/towns and undercut the local businesses until they drive the locals out of business and then raise their prices, I won't have anything to do with them. Plus, that kind of shopping just makes my blood pressure soar.

PalQ

Wal-Mart doesn't dare put their name on stores in Europe they have bought, like ASDA, one of the UK's top retailers or the chain of stores they bought in Germany. Rumor has Wal-Mart casting eyes on Carrefour, the world's 2nd largest retailer who runs hypermarches all over Europe and dominated the French market. I boycott Wal-marts here for their labor practices and donations to right-wing causes and things like buckling under to the religious right and banning some products that were controversial.

LoveItaly

Thanks everyone! I sort of feel like a "loner" here in Vacaville because I don't shop at Wal-Mart. And I know I pay more for the same items at other stores. I think (no I don't think, I am sure) that my neighbors think I am nuts because I "don't do Wal-Mart".

I am not going to express my political believes because I do not think in a travel forum that is appropriate.

And I did have someone tell me last week if "we don't support Wal-Mart that a lot of low income people will be out of work".

So sigh, whatever one thinks there is a positive and a negative. But I don't do Wal-Mart.

Flyboy

Wal-Mart is the complete antithesis of what I travel to see and experience.

dln

Well put, Flyboy.

Giselle

Maybe some of you wouldn't step in one, but Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the US. Many, many of your fellow citizens work there. Ha, ha, ha, you might all say, but this is reality among the not-so-wealthy.

Neil_Oz

A few weeks ago I was in Dalian, North China, and found myself in a Wal-Mart Center (they had Carrefours, too). Didn't look a lot like an American Wal-Mart, though, more a not-so-large supermarket.

I can't follow the the employment argument. Surely if Wal-Mart wasn't doing the business someone else would be, and they'd have to employ staff too.

Scarlett

I've been to WALgreens, does that count

SeaUrchin

In the areas around LA the Walmarts are frequented by lower income population and usually minorty shoppers. I have tried the one near me and I was about the only English speaking person in there.

It was really hectic and I could feel my tension levels rising, but I did get some bargains on dog toys and Mighty Dog! I probably will return when the dogs need new supplies, my other option is another chain such as Petco.

TripleSecDelay

Maybe not my next destination on purpose...

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...yramids02.html

http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/20/news...t_mexico.reut/

...if you're planning on visiting the pyramids in Mexico, you can step on over to Sam Walton's posthumous faux pas.

(Keep an eye on Bentonville, Arkansas real estate.)

flanneruk

Can jor give me one - just one - example of an economy (apart from the US market for toothpaste), anywhere in the world that Wal-Mart "dominates"?

Or explain to me why Carrefour - far more successful outside its home territory than Wal-Mart, and running stores in far more countries - doesn't arouse jor's ire in quite the same way?

Methinks I smell snobbery (and an ability to be roused to ire by a documentary on junk TV) here.

Neil_Oz

Scarlett, I became an instant convert to Walgreens when I visited their emporium in Canal Street, New Orleans, and discovered for the first time a pharmacy that would sell me booze and smokes. My puritanical better half didn't approve, but I was in Hog Heaven (as I believe you Southerners say). When I suggested it to my local pharmacist I had to administer a dose of her own smelling salts.

And an all-night Wal-Mart in Asheville, NC, saved me in the small hours of the morning when I was in desperate need of a heartburn remedy after foolishly straying into an Olive Garden outlet under the impression that it was an Italian restaurant. So I'm not complaining, really.

GSteed

The success of Wal-Mart is based on their adaptation of B-school precepts or their originating them. A typical 'shelf product' may have as much as a 30% 'air' cost in its final price. The major tourist activity is shopping. Example - Outlet malls in Orlando, FL. Wal-Mart is a stand alone mall. As populations increase more and more customers will shop at Wal-Mart refusing to pay higher prices at less efficient businesses. Wal-Mart and other such groups also offer consumers opportunities to buy items that they couldn't afford at independent sources.

SiobhanP

This is fascinating to me as I never experienced the whole Wall Mart thing when I was in NJ (I am sure its there now). Is it a glorified K-mart? I do recall reading about how they were opening hige stores and putting small places out of business. It until now has been illigal to open a hiuge premises aover a certain footage as they are trying to avoid this type of business upsurping the small local places. Ikea will be the first to get permission to build a premises so large in Ireland.

TripleSecDelay

Maybe a "glorified K-Mart".
The Wal-Marts I've seen offer oil changes, have fast-food inside, groceries on the shelves, electronics, toys, cosmetics, holiday decorations, clothes, housewares - all on the lower end. Possibly everything a person would need for a home - on the cheap. Certainly, a good place for the common items like soap, sodas, household cleansers, things that you can comparison price-shop by brand name.

I read somewhere that Wal-Mart does $18 Billion business with China/Taiwan. Now, I need to research if that was monthly or annually???