Stores Commiting Suicide

[Signe]

Wasn't yesterday the final day for any CC anywhere ever?  Or did the news lie to me again?

[sigil]

yes it was, judging by the  folks hauling furniture away from the local store.

[CharlieMopps]

Circuit City had some poor bastards dressed up like cartoon characters holding "Going out of Business" signs over the weekend. It was a combination of Sleet, Snow, and about 30 degree temperatures with wind gusts...

[Signe]

I wonder what chain is next?  I wonder if a chain store dead pool wouldn't be more fun than the people sort?  Maybe we could work out the numbers for adding in human casualties for a financial institution dead pool?  In this economy there are tons of dead pool possibilities.  Someone please make a dead pool browser game for this?  I would play it.

Am I babbling?   

[Cyrrex]

Only just the usual amount.  I find it endearing.

[CharlieMopps]

I'm sorry, but this whole financial crisis seems like a boondoggle to me.
I have yet to see a single store go out of business that I hadn't already thought should have gone out of business years ago. Circuit City's parking lot is always a Ghost town. Same with CompUSA. High prices + Small selection = Profit?
Next the news will be lamenting the failure of the consumer electronics giant: Radio Shack
Oh the humanity, how could the American icon Radio Shack ever fail?
More like, how the hell have they stayed in business so long? They should have been bankrupt in what? 1985?

Same with people losing their houses. Yea I know people that are losing their houses... but every single one of them was someone that, when they bought their house, they said things like "Well it was appraised for $210k, but that's an old appraisal, the markets booming, so the $250k we paid makes sense. What? Oh no, we couldn't afford to have it inspected, that's like $500! We got an awesome interest rate... 6.5% Well yea, it's an ARM... so what?"

We also had a GM plant shut down here... EVERYONE saw it coming about 20 years ago. (besides the people that worked there) I knew, personally, people who's only Job was to sit in a cafeteria like room with several dozen other people and wait for someone to go home sick. They got paid $25/hr to do this, and if they actually had to fill in, their rate shot up to whatever the rate was for the job they had to do. The 2 people I knew that did this "Job" spent most of their day reading books, and rarely ever got called out to the line. Both were shocked that the plant was shut down. lol

[Merusk]

I'd guess Radio Shack stays in business because they're a hell of a place to find little electronic do-dads like splitters, antennae and switches.  Where else are you going to get that stuff when you need it RIGHT NOW and don't want to pay out the nose for Best Buy or have to deal with the small selection of ridiculously low-quality shit at Wal*Mart?

[Signe]

I won't go to Walmart.  My main reason is not because it's a horrible place, treats it's employees like shit and has literally ruined local small businesses - although those things are all true.  It's because they always stick their stores in really strange lonely areas with huge parking lots that go on forever.  Those sorts of places are notorious for being full of scary serial killers and I have a fear of being serial killed. 

[Sky]

Just stay away from the serial isle.

We only go to walmart for a handful of things nobody else stocks. And fucking hate it. It's like a circus freakshow (or the TLC network, for a modern reference) of shitty genetics. The sheer amount of retardation and low class is almost enough to make me a republican.

[Broughden]

Just stay away from the serial isle.

We only go to walmart for a handful of things nobody else stocks. And fucking hate it. It's like a circus freakshow (or the TLC network, for a modern reference) of shitty genetics. The sheer amount of retardation and low class is almost enough to make me a republican.

Yep. I think the GOP is using Walmart as a recruitment tool.
"You already have to shop with those people. Do you want them in your schools or country clubs too!?!?!"

[CharlieMopps]

I won't go to Walmart.  My main reason is not because it's a horrible place, treats it's employees like shit and has literally ruined local small businesses - although those things are all true.  It's because they always stick their stores in really strange lonely areas with huge parking lots that go on forever.  Those sorts of places are notorious for being full of scary serial killers and I have a fear of being serial killed. 

I know everyone hates Walmart and thinks they treat their employees terribly, but really, my experience has been entirely different. My aunt work as a checker for Walmart until retirement about 5 years ago. She supported her entire family on her wage (4 kids and a deadbeat jobless husband she recently divorced) She owns her own home, that's rather nice... Walmart even provided a full scholarship to one of her daughters. Paid for her college in full.

[Signe]

I don't know.  Maybe it's all those wage and hour, employee abuse and discrimination violations and lawsuits that I keep hearing about?  Of course, the news has lied to me before.

[Righ]

Well, the TV news is always shilling for some company or another, so I suppose an anti-corporate piece could simply be the product of a competitor. It's probably those evil mudslingers at K-Mart or Target who are impugning Walmart's noble reputation. 

[Stormwaltz]

I've boycotted Wal-mart since 1996, when they tried to build a store on George Washington's birthplace. That motion was defeated by public protest.

Sadly, their disrespectful behavior continues. Now they're trying to build a store on the site of the Civil War Battle of the Wilderness.

[ClydeJr]

I try to avoid going to WM when I can. Everytime I do, Obi-Wan's words always come to me: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

[Rasix]

I've only been in a Wal-Mart a handful of times ever since a trip, where I spent 20-30 minutes in line due to the lady a few spots ahead of me getting her credit card declined, wailing uncontrollably while her husband threatened the cashier, and then both were dragged off the premises by security.  On the same trip I saw a mom threaten her kid with a beating, and a wife-beater wearing dad smack his young son upside the head for picking up something off an endcap.

But on a few occasions, I've had to go there for cat litter or contact solution. I make it a short trip.

[CharlieMopps]

I don't know.  Maybe it's all those wage and hour, employee abuse and discrimination violations and lawsuits that I keep hearing about?  Of course, the news has lied to me before.

Seriously, I think it's a volume thing. They just have so many employees that it's bound to happen. I'm sure if you searched for it, you'd find a walmart store manager that killed someone or something to. There's just so many employees it's inevitable. What store or similar size is their to compare them to? Most of the cases I've heard of revolve around some idiot Store manager that they promptly fired.

As far as the wage issues, they mostly related to cashiers being stuck in line because of a rule Walmart had that you couldn't leave your post while a customer was there. Well, when your line doesn't empty for 8hrs strait that's a problem. And then your jerk boss says "NO OVERTIME!" but you've been there 20min past the end of your shift. Since all that hub-bub walmarts changed their cash registers. The cashiers log in, when it's time for break, the damned thing will not allow the employee to continue. It's really annoying, I've been in line when it's happened and had to wait 5min for someone else to show up because the checker literally couldn't finish checking me out.

Now, the whole china import thing... that's another story. But that's a USA problem, not a walmart problem.

[Oban]

But on a few occasions, I've had to go there for cat litter or contact solution. I make it a short trip.

You know, Amazon sells cat litter and contact lens solution.