Robbed blind...

[jltrent]

They are following the Walmart business plan.
"Drive out the competition and we and our shareholders will be all that is left."

Profit, at all costs.


Ferengi, a most unsavory denizon.. Rules of Acquisition...that many businesses adhere to.

1. Once you have their money, never give it back

2. You can't cheat an honest customer, but it never hurts to try

3. Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to

4. Sex and profit are the two things that never last long enough

5. If you can't break a contract, bend it

6. Never let family or friends stand in the way of opportunity

7. Always keep you ears open

8. Keep count of your change

9. Instinct plus opportunity equals profit

10. A dead customer can't buy as much as a live one

11. Gold isn't the only thing that shines

12. Anything worth selling is worth selling twice

13. Anything worth doing is worth doing for a lot of money

14. Anything stolen is pure profit

15. Acting stupid is often smart

16. A deal is a deal ... until a better one comes along

17. A bargain usually isn't

18. A business without excessive profit is no business at all

19. Don't lie too soon after a promotion

20. When the customer is sweating, turn up the heat

21. Never place friend ship before profit

22. Wise men can hear profit in the wind

23. Never take the last coin, but be sure to get the rest

24. Never ask when you can take

25. Fear makes a good business partner

26. The vast majority of the rich in this country did not inherit their wealth; they stole it

27. The most beautiful thing about a tree is what you do with it after you cut it down

28. Morality is always defined by those in power

29. When someone says "It's not the money," they're lying

30. Talk is cheap; everything else costs money

31. Never make fun of a fellow employee's mother

32. Be careful what you sell. It may do exactly what the customer expects

33. It never hurts to suck up to the boss

34. War is good for business

35. Peace is good for business

36. Too many customers can't laugh at their disappointment anymore

37. You can always buy back a lost reputation

38. Free advertising is cheap

39. Praise is cheap. Heap it generously on all users but laugh privately

40. If you see profit on a journey, take it

41. Money talks, but having a lots of it gets more attention

42. Only negotiate when you are certain to profit

43. Caressing an ear is often more forceful than pointing a weapon

44. Never argue with a loaded calculator

45. Profit has limits. Loss has none

Exactly, and soon there will be a very small middle class.

 

[StrojanHerefords]

It is an easy narrative to say that the big money killed the little man, but the sad reality is that a lot of the destruction of local business is self inflicted. Take the institution in rural America that was Sears and Roebuck, all the had to do was put the catalog online and they would be what Amazon is today instead of bankrupt.

 

[greybeard]

It is an easy narrative to say that the big money killed the little man, but the sad reality is that a lot of the destruction of local business is self inflicted. Take the institution in rural America that was Sears and Roebuck, all the had to do was put the catalog online and they would be what Amazon is today instead of bankrupt.

I held Sears stock for along time and am somewhat familiar with what drug them down.
Perhaps you are too young to remember it, but they (Sears) were on-line before there was the 'on-line' that we are familiar with. It was called Prodigy and Sears (together with IBM and CBS) started it in 1984 on a private network. They've had their own conventional website for at least 24 years.

Sears problems didn't come from Amazon, (which was still just selling books) they came from a source we're all familiar with.

At the turn of the century, Sears turned to the web in earnest. A July 2000 press release boasted that sears.com sold home electronics, computers, office equipment, appliances, cookware, baby products, and school uniforms.24 Amazon, meanwhile, only just began branching out from books to offer software, video games, and home improvement products in Nov. 1999.

At that time, Sears' problem was not so much Amazon as it was Walmart, which became the nation's largest retailer in the 1990s.

Too much of the Sears catalog was targeted at rural America and after ww2/Korea, rural Americans started moving to cities in droves, and adopted different buying patterns. Rural America no longer had the buying power enough to support Sears and, Sears products were still bent toward the older generation. I can remember one Christmas going into Sears at a mall in the late 80s with my (then) wife and teenage daughter and both saying sears clothing was "all old folks stuff" and "can't we just go to Walmart?"

That prompted Sears to join forces with a competitor, and merged with K-Mart (actually, K-Mart bought Sears) with a NY City/Wall Street financial hotshot guy named Ed Lambert having majority ownership.

One of the biggest home health/beauty companies in the US (Proctor and Gamble) was told emphatically by Walmart, that if they wanted Walmart to push (they used the word 'feature') their products, P&G would have to get their manufacturing cost down by moving most of it overseas and use cheaper labor. P&G now has a huge footprint in China and Mexico and making $$$$ hand over fist, at the expense of jobs in the USA.

Make no mistake about it... Walmart is the debil and has taken down Sears, k-Mart, Montgomery Ward, Gibsons, a bunch of other regional big box stores and huge numbers of littler stores all across the USA, selling junk and imported food items.

 

[Travlr]

Make no mistake about it... Walmart is the debil and has taken down Sears, k-Mart, Montgomery Ward, Gibsons, a bunch of other regional big box stores and huge numbers of littler stores all across the USA, selling junk and imported food items.

That's truer than people might imagine. I worked for the "debil" in the early eighties and was hired to do some artwork for them as an independent artist, which got me into the general offices to overhear some very interesting conversations between WM executives. Some of the things I heard were way beyond what most people would believe in terms of manipulating customers and generating profits.

 

[Ky hills]

The big stores have sure changed the landscape so to speak. When I was a young child in the 70's early 80's, we had five regional chain groceries and two private owned mom and pop grocery stores still left. We had a Winn Dixie, Piggly Wiggly, Foodtown, A&P, and Krogers, today we have a Krogers, Walmart and a Save A Lot,
We also had a few department stores by the early eighties, Kmart, Roses, Watsons and Walmart came in last into one of the former grocery store buildings,
I can remember the locals saying Walmart won't last long. Fast forward to today they have been in 3 locations, two of those times building bigger stores, and the other stores are long gone. We now have a Rural King in the old Kmart building.
So many different types of local owned businesses have gone out by the end of the 90's, replaced by mainly chain box stores, and Dollar Generals every few miles.

 

[greybeard]

There are at least 3 Walmarts (maybe more) within 20 miles of me and 2 of those are supercenters. They quit going after the mall stores and are now after everyone else that sells anything they do.

For the most part, they're content (for now) to leave the Lowes/Home Despots alone, but I suspect their time is coming too.

 

[tex452]

I do shop tsc from time to time, the one closest to me has had horrible employees over the years, bad manager I suppose.
They would joke around with one another while some customers needed help looking for something or loading feed.
I have had emails asking for a review, and would write about my experience, the service would seem to get better.
Another problem is there would be more people lined up at the register than there would be shopping.

 

[Dave]

The nearest Walmart is 50 miles. I never go there. There is a Home Depot next door to that Walmart. I rarely go there. I shop at the local hardware and the two lumber yards first. Only if they don't have what I need do I go to Home Depot. There are two grocery stores in town. They are across the road from each other. Albertson's and Safeway. Both owned by the same outfit. I could drive 50 miles each way for another choice but the savings would have to be pretty good to pay for the fuel.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

We have one grocery store in town that is only used in case of emergency. Last week they had visibly moldy and half liquid cucumbers on special for $4.99 a piece, or 6 month outdated Kraft MacNCheese on special for 1cent less than current boxes, but still $2 more that the "big city". Needless to say 99% of our grocery shopping is done 60 miles from home and the savings is considerable.

We do have a small hardware, but lumber yard is 40 miles away.

I'd be tickled to have some of the amenities that you guys have.

 

[Travlr]

The nearest Walmart is 50 miles. I never go there. There is a Home Depot next door to that Walmart. I rarely go there. I shop at the local hardware and the two lumber yards first. Only if they don't have what I need do I go to Home Depot. There are two grocery stores in town. They are across the road from each other. Albertson's and Safeway. Both owned by the same outfit. I could drive 50 miles each way for another choice but the savings would have to be pretty good to pay for the fuel.

I've got a locally owned grocery store that has an actual meat counter with butchers behind it. It's an amazing little store. Competitive enough with the big stores that no one has to travel. Of course being small it doesn't have everything, but it does pretty good. The local hardware is full of stuff but they charge more. I don't know where they get some of their stuff because it looks good but is low quality. Screws that the head will snap off as they seat. They don't have a good reputation with the locals. More like a convenience store. Home Depot and a locally owned Ace are 20 miles away and they get most of my business.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

I held Sears stock for along time and am somewhat familiar with what drug them down.
Perhaps you are too young to remember it, but they (Sears) were on-line before there was the 'on-line' that we are familiar with. It was called Prodigy and Sears (together with IBM and CBS) started it in 1984 on a private network. They've had their own conventional website for at least 24 years.

Sears problems didn't come from Amazon, (which was still just selling books) they came from a source we're all familiar with.


Too much of the Sears catalog was targeted at rural America and after ww2/Korea, rural Americans started moving to cities in droves, and adopted different buying patterns. Rural America no longer had the buying power enough to support Sears and, Sears products were still bent toward the older generation. I can remember one Christmas going into Sears at a mall in the late 80s with my (then) wife and teenage daughter and both saying sears clothing was "all old folks stuff" and "can't we just go to Walmart?"

That prompted Sears to join forces with a competitor, and merged with K-Mart (actually, K-Mart bought Sears) with a NY City/Wall Street financial hotshot guy named Ed Lambert having majority ownership.

One of the biggest home health/beauty companies in the US (Proctor and Gamble) was told emphatically by Walmart, that if they wanted Walmart to push (they used the word 'feature') their products, P&G would have to get their manufacturing cost down by moving most of it overseas and use cheaper labor. P&G now has a huge footprint in China and Mexico and making $$$$ hand over fist, at the expense of jobs in the USA.

Make no mistake about it... Walmart is the debil and has taken down Sears, k-Mart, Montgomery Ward, Gibsons, a bunch of other regional big box stores and huge numbers of littler stores all across the USA, selling junk and imported food items.

people in our country want cheap prices and for everything to be made in America with it's ever increasing government and union made overhead. The 2 don't match. If you want cheap. it's going to be manufactured abroad for the biggest part, if you want domestic made, it's not going to be cheap most of the time.

 

[Little Joe]

I shop TSC for some stuff, buy my dog food there as well. I live between 2 towns, about 10 miles either way. The bigger one is a population of about 7,000, has a TSC, Wal-Mart, 2 local grocery chains and a Large locally owned Ace. The other town is where I work and do most of my business, population around 600, school I work at there has 750-800 kids from surrounding rural area. It has a locally owned and operated Bumper to Bumper auto parts store, I buy all my parts and fluids there, he still looks up part numbers in the books. Also has a hardware store that the most recent owner has done a phenomenal job with, I do a ton of business with them both myself and for the school, they try to match prices of the big stores and are sometimes cheaper. We also have a very small feed store, their prices will be a little higher than I could get in the bigger town but it's convenient. I'm real big on doing business with small locally owned businesses.

 

[elkwc]

We are fortunate to have several good feed stores and coops within 30 miles. One 2 miles from the house. They all carry vaccines, bolts, nuts, washers, fencing supplies, ect. Then have an Atwood's and a TSC about 34 miles away. Buy a lot at Atwood's. Very little at TSC.