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What Irked You Today?


LokisTyro

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The sad thing is that the Walmart business model becomes the blueprint for other businesses. Other businesses have to follow to stay competitive. There is very little manufactured in the USA there is almost nothing made here. All to save a few pennies without taking into consideration of the true cost of those actions.

The "capitalists" will say this is what our market wants, and that if enough people refused to work under these conditions, then the companies would have to change it. Well, when every employer offers the same deal, a lot of folks don't have any choice.

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The above discussion reminds me of past history. For all of the bad things one can say about unions, there is a reason they came about. Someday the public will get tired of the way things are going, and turn to things like unions to fight to get back their rights. But, with unions and "union wages" being looked at as villains now days (and some cases rightfull so). It will not be happening in the near future.

My Dad was with the Teamsters for thirty years. He never got rich, but provided us with a nice middle class living. And he had good health and retirement benefits right up until the day he died. I wish I had what he had back then, now. But are unions or my elected officials looking out for me today? I think not.

Scott

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The above discussion reminds me of past history. For all of the bad things one can say about unions, there is a reason they came about. Someday the public will get tired of the way things are going, and turn to things like unions to fight to get back their rights. But, with unions and "union wages" being looked at as villains now days (and some cases rightfull so). It will not be happening in the near future.

My Dad was with the Teamsters for thirty years. He never got rich, but provided us with a nice middle class living. And he had good health and retirement benefits right up until the day he died. I wish I had what he had back then, now. But are unions or my elected officials looking out for me today? I think not.

Scott

Also unionizing Walmart has been attempted but Walmart will fight them tooth and nail. Also you can count on big companies like Walmart to buy the politicians to write the rules in their favor to make it very difficult for the unions to get in.

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if it's any consolation, "thank you".

new business: all those who do not shop at Walmart please raise their hand.

I bought a pair of cheapo Chinese work shoes there last time I was broke. Total Crapp, disintegrated in 6 months. Gee...what a deal.

That's all I ever bought there, and it's all I ever will.

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would the same brand bought somewhere else wear better?

Walmart gets my pennies for everything i would pay more anywhere else i go.

Friends and acquaintences have bought shirts and other clothing that the seams pulled out of almost immediately. A very good friend bought a pair of hiking boots that looked great for a couple of months, but the cheap fabric-backed vinyl uppers split the first time they went in the woods. Another friend bought me a "Mexican-blanket"-look seat cover for my old truck. Didn't last 5000 miles before it shredded.

They sell shitt. Made offshore as cheaply as possible. I will not support cheap just for the sake of cheap.

Those $25 hiking boots that seemed to be such a good deal? My friend finally sprung for an $80 pair made of leather (not at Walmart), and they've been going for several years. MUCH better deal to buy ONE pair for $80 than keep buying $25 boots that fall apart in a few months.

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would the same brand bought somewhere else wear better?

I will buy that companies supplying to Walmart cut quality down to make the price Wally dictates to them. Not only is Walmart taking advantage of workers, but they do the same with all their suppliers. They dictate price and terms. Take it or leave it. In fact part of their model is that the suppliers 'own' the merchandise in the stores, absorb all the returns and theft and are paid net 60 or 90 for what's actually sold. It's cheap for them to open new stores because they don't pay for any merchandise. They effectively pay the suppliers long after they have sold the goods.

My wife bought me a pair of black sneakers a while back. The soles cracked in half and the rubber peeled back from the toe in a few months. She said she was taking them back for a refund. They wouldn't refund but they'd give her a new pair. So I got to repeat the whole disappointing affair over.

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I will buy that companies supplying to Walmart cut quality down to make the price Wally dictates to them. Not only is Walmart taking advantage of workers, but they do the same with all their suppliers. They dictate price and terms. Take it or leave it. In fact part of their model is that the suppliers 'own' the merchandise in the stores, absorb all the returns and theft and are paid net 60 or 90 for what's actually sold. It's cheap for them to open new stores because they don't pay for any merchandise. They effectively pay the suppliers long after they have sold the goods.

My wife bought me a pair of black sneakers a while back. The soles cracked in half and the rubber peeled back from the toe in a few months. She said she was taking them back for a refund. They wouldn't refund but they'd give her a new pair. So I got to repeat the whole disappointing affair over.

I used to work at a True Value right after I finished college, while looking for the truly good job that never showed up. Some days, I wish I had stayed, but I digress...

The old grouch that managed the store gave me a very interesting piece of information.

Want to see if you're getting apples to apples or apples to oranges? Look at the bar-code at items in two different stores.

If the barcode is the same, generally, you're getting the same product. A lot of the big stores, like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sears, and so forth, will have companies make things to their specifications, and even if it's the same make and model of a product, it might be very different where it counts.

Charlie Larkin

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Temp employees and folks working on 1099s are a way of life in the tech field as well as engineering. The latest trend is to bring in Indian nationals on work visas to take those folks jobs. The work permits are supposed to be to import expertise we don't have, but companies are using this loophole to bring in cheaper workers and lay off the Americans. And they make the American workers train the replacements before they lay them off!

actually, using Indian (or other countries) nationals is not a new trend...I experienced this in the 1990's at I company I worked ten years at. If you see your company going for "H1B" visa workers, that means you may be training your foreign born replacement.

cultural issues tend to pop up when companies do this because some cultures still treat females as second class workers and some cultures have a stigma about pointing out work/product errors to the point that they will let bad work/product go on by so they won't get blamed for it or have to fix the problem. I have experienced both of these issues first hand, the first issue got an upper level manager fired for harassment.

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Not important in the grand scheme, but a irk none the less,forum members who have been here for years and still will not put their real names and locations on their posts.

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you've never read anything about using the internet safely?

It is a requirement in the rules here, and believe me, my name and city I live in being posted would be the least of my worries. It just seems to me some people here are immune to the rules everyone else has to abide by.

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It is a requirement in the rules here, and believe me, my name and city I live in being posted would be the least of my worries. It just seems to me some people here are immune to the rules everyone else has to abide by.

Agreed. The guys who post under screen names, first names, and that includes some who post with a full name, but no doubt a fake one, are a problem on this board. They have nothing invested, and it's very easy to be rude, insult people and cause havoc when nobody knows who you are. These guys contribute little, provide no proof that they actually build models... in short, contribute nothing. And the scary part for me is that some of them are knowledgeable about kits and hobby history which means they are people we may know in real life and are snickering at us when they see us at shows.

And then there are a few who post under their real names and still are a nuisance.

There are a ton of folks, many valuable hobby guy and industry insiders who don't post on this board and have expressed that its because they don't want to deal with a certain element posting here. I get PMs on a regular basis from guys who write to support something I've said, but don't feel comfortable posting because they don't wish to be attacked.

And I had several very prominent people in the hobby approach me at NNL East and GSL to say thanks for defending the hobby on this board. Which tells me that there are very knowledgeable people reading this board but not making themselves visible.

And that's a crying shame. This board could be so much more!

Edited by Tom Geiger
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Bill, don't think I don't notice that you stalk me on this board, and make snide comments after my posts. I choose to ignore your baiting, you will not get a rise out of me. There's no profit to spar with you. <ignore>

Edited by Tom Geiger
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Bill, don't think I don't notice that you stalk me on this board, and make snide comments after my posts. I choose to ignore your baiting, you will not get a rise out of me. There's no profit to spar with you. <ignore>

Stalk you Tom? Really? You might want to talk to someone about that perception.

I did indeed post a "pot stirring" quote on another thread after your post, because by your own admission, you'd missed the remarks earlier in the thread (which were tame as tame can be...unless you consider sarcastic banter to be "fireworks"), didn't have any idea what the exchange was or what it was about, but you just HAD to say something negative to try to get something going again. My "pot stirring" post was entirely relevant, and appropriate.

And I've questioned your pontificating on subjects I happen to know something about...like your statement that the cost of interpreting kit instructions into various languages was "very expensive". I just happen to know the actual cost per page ($50 to $80...chicken feed pocket change for just about any real business) because I use a service that does it...and called you on it. Not the first time I've called you on something factual...and you've failed to defend or explain your seemingly erroneous statements.

So rather than answering a challenge about facts, or answer my perfectly civil question about how this board "could be so much more" posted above, you accuse me of stalking you.

It must be wonderful to be you,Tom. Apparently you know everything about models and international business, you know everyone in the model business, they all come quietly to you praising you for being such a hero defending the hobby but they aren't comfortable posting here, you are always right, and if you're not, it's because somebody is stalking you.

Have a nice day.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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if it's any consolation, "thank you".

new business: all those who do not shop at Walmart please raise their hand.

I don't shop at Walmart, but possibly for different reasons than others have stated.

The parking lots give me heart palpitations every time I would enter one! You never know if you'll be able to get in or out unscathed.

Once inside the fun really begins!

The service just royally sucks!! You can't find anyone to help you, & when you do, they can't!

I remember asking an employee in the dairy department where the energy bars were. He had no idea! I'm sorry, but unless you've been working there for less than an hour, you should know where the different departments are.

Then there's the 25 check out lanes manned by 2 people, followed by bagging my own groceries.

Customer service is virtually non-existent.

I have worked for a fairly large mid-western grocery store chain for the past 8 years, & say what you will about some chains, their customer service is the best that I have ever seen.

There is someone around every corner asking if they can help you find something, When the check out lanes begin to fill up, the front end managers will not hesitate to call any & all employees up front to check & bag, including the store director himself. Not a day passes when I do not see all 12 lanes & 6 express lanes all going at the same time. We even have a designated job title called a "greeter" who's lone job it is to walk around & look for people who need help finding things.

Personally I work as a delivery driver for the "home shopping" department where you can place your order on-line & either pick it up, or have it delivered, free of charge!

Our prices may not match what Walmart can do, but to our customers, the service is much more important than price.

Anyway, I guess we're competing well with Wally World. There are 2 Walmarts in town, & we'll be opening our 4th store in the city sometime within the next year.

We have customers that have shopped at our location for over 35 years & employees that have been there for even longer. Walmart could learn a thing or two about retaining customers & employees.

Steve

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