Comments on: NetFlix and…Wal-Mart?

By: walt

walt — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 00:35:34 +0000

A comment nearly two years later strikes me as odd, but I’ll leave it, particularly since Phyllis is partly right. WalMart does have some unsavory practices (how it gets its way in townships, employee “benefits,” etc.) but it’s true that people buying the cheapest no matter what are core to WalMart’s success. And local businesses who don’t want customers soon lose them. No doubt there. Situations are rarely black-and-white.

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:39:45 +0000

Don’t blame Wal-Mart for everything. If the people in America weren’t so greedy for the Almighty Dollar, thinking that makes the person, then they would have boycotted Wal-Mart. To this day, I still see only a handful of people boycott them. I think it is our our darn fault when Wal-Mart “ruins” a town. It’s time to put on our creative thinking capr, and come up with new ways to use our vacant downtown buildings. And remember, what goes up, must come down. Costco and Target are actually gaining, and Target it making more profit than Wal-Mart. Also, I have been treated nice by Wal-Mart managers in recent years, than I have by local-owned business managers who don’t have a clue about customer service. Mostly I buy “thrift store and yard sale” so neither one is all that important to me anymore. But let’s assume responsibility for our own behaviors……

By: Alice Sneary

Alice Sneary — Thu, 26 May 2005 18:24:11 +0000

Right on! Walt, I grew up in a Wal-Martized small town. And I think there IS a lesson here for libraries: Wal-Mart drove most of the small, local shops in Alva, Oklahoma out of business.

These small, local shops had WAY better customer service, knowledge of their products, advice for selection…it wasn’t that these local shops weren’t smart or dedicated to serving their customers effectively.

And it wasn’t that customers didn’t like the shopkeepers.

But Wal-Mart changed the shopping measuring stick. It kept telling customers that they were saving money when they shopped there–and that they gained convenience by having everything under one roof. So saving money and gaining convenience were the only things that mattered. It was no longer about customer service or knowledge of the product–it was about “rolling back prices.”

Eventually, customers believed it. And the local shops had to close. Even our grocery store had to close, in favor of the Super Wal-Mart.

Does this sound like a cautionary tale for libraries to anyone else?