Walmart

[suzy_99]

I am starting to have a small problem with people on here always saying that we should be buying from places like Walmart. Many people on this forum always say that you should never buy anything from a store that sells animals, well Walmart sells fish, are they not animals too. I personally do not take offence to any of this, but to the people out there who truly don't want to buy from these places, this advice seems plain out wrong. Even though some Walmart's do not sell fish, others do. So by looking at everyones posts here, this would mean that anyone who buys pet supplies at Walmart is supporting an industry which sells live animals, right??
I am not trying to start a fight or anything with this, but I just thought that I would point this out since it appears in numerous posts and I personally consider fish to be living animals with a consciousness.

[pigsandrats]

I agree with you, but for more reasons than just the 'pet' issue.

I HATE Walmart. I go there once in a while. Not all the time! Heck no!

They drive everyone around them out of business. Yeah, competition is a good thing, but when there are nothing left but Walmart's on every corner, see what good prices you'll get then.

Besides, they pay their employee's a lousy wage- and they buy cheap foreign products.

So I say it's good to diversify. Don't spend all your money in one place. Spread it around a little. Pay a little extra for that laundry soap at the corner drugstore or local grocery store. You won't notice the difference and Walmart sure as hell doesn't need all of your money.

[hydes_girl]

I hate wal-mart.

Ours sell fish. I haven't been to wal-mart in like a year.

I bought some piggy supplies at K-mart today, but they didn't have the right food. I wen't to my local grocery store for the food.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

I buy at feed stores or order online, or get stuff from local rabbit or gp rescues.

[Katie]

Until I see fish being euthanized each and everyday in shelters, I will still buy from a store that sells them. If stores didn't sell them, where would we get them? Seriously, it's not like I can look on Petfinder and find a thousand fish in shelters, let alone 1 in my area.

Personally, I love Walmart. It's the only store I can buy clothes at for a decent price, that and Target. I don't care what they pay their employees, as it's the employees choice to work there. No one that works at a grocery store gets paid good.

[pigsandrats]

'No one that works at a grocery store gets paid good.'


Not true- alot of grocery stores pay their employee's very well.

[Sparky]

i never go to walmart, they're workers are not unionized

[critterlover]

Personally I love Walmart. Tons of people get paid minimum wage and are not unionized, why pick on Walmart? Restaurant workers, for instance, have dangerous jobs, are often not unionized, and are paid pitifully. Why not boycot restaurants?

I've tried to shop around in order, but the bottom line is very few stores can really make me a satisifed customer.

#1 Walmart will take back anything at any time without a receipt without any hassle.

My husband once returned a pair of pants that he had worn for 2 years and they gave him his money back because he was not satisfied.

I remember pre-Walmart trying to return something. I had to fill out a huge form and give detailed reasons why I wanted to return a simple thing. Even the other day, I went to return something to a store (not Walmart) and they would give me $10 less back if I didn't have a receipt. They didn't seem to care whether I shopped there or not, there were more associates than customers in the store.

#2 Walmart employess care more about your satisfaction than selling you something.

The other day, I had a Walmart employee suggest reasons why I not buy a wheelbarrow from Walmart and told me where to get a better one. Also I had another Walmart employee suggest where I could buy a 2nd hand lawnmower instead of convincing me to spend $100s I didn't want to. What other store will do that??

#3 In Walmart, prices are labeled. If they aren't, a price checker or associate is readily available.

In other stores, I've walked around and around trying to find someone to help me to get a price and have left in exhaustion, having bought nothing.

[Access]

People flush fish, keep them in poor conditions, etc. When I was in College one guy had fish and one of the big attractions was the live feeding of a carnivorous fish. The spectacle would last a few days as the carnivorous fish took a bite out of the feeder whenever he was hungry -- after a few days the feeder would die and the carnivorous fish would lose interest. Eventually the carnivorous fish ate a neon and died. A neon's defense is that it is quite toxic to another fish that eats it.

People that own snakes or other carnivorous animals will often times use rats or mice as 'feeders'. Depending on the size of the snake, larger 'feeder' animals are used, from rabbits up to small dogs. I don't know how often guinea pigs are used, but it is not a good practice.

It is an unnatural setup, it does not mirror nature since there is no way for the prey animal to escape as in the wild. If attacked in the wild, most prey animals have defenses -- guinea pigs for instance will know the surrounding terrain and have good pathing ability -- so they at least have a chance of survival. If you toss a prey animal in a cage with a snake, unless the snake becomes uninterested there is no way the prey animal is going to survive the ordeal.

Personally I have never been that interested in wall-mart. They seem to have a lot of things, but they never have much that I want. Even if they do have what I want, I have trouble finding anything specific in the store. I shop at Costco and some of the other warehouse type stores (Fry's, Factory Direct Furniture, etc.) I believe wall-mart uses a computer program to layout the store in a 'strategic' fashion (make items harder to find, place certain items close together, etc.) I don't have time for that.

Union workers at the local supermarkets can make 20-30USD/hr depending on what they do (ie. grocery baggers make less than meat packers). What people don't realise is that not anybody can just walk into a supermarket like this and get hired. Obviously a job that requires no skills and pays 20-30USD is quite sought after. A common person can't get this type of job, short of knowing someone in the union or having a parent/friend in some important government position.

[Katie]

Union workers at the local supermarkets can make 20-30USD/hr depending on what they do (ie. grocery baggers make less than meat packers). What people don't realise is that not anybody can just walk into a supermarket like this and get hired. Obviously a job that requires no skills and pays 20-30USD is quite sought after.

Please name one store that starts you out at $20/hr. Yes, there are some grocery store employees that get paid that much, but that comes after many years of working there. My cousin for example works at Giant Eagle. She's worked there for 13 years and is now in an office. She gets about $20/hr, but most employees don't unless they've been there over 10 years.

I do not care what they get paid, it's their choice where they work and if they are still there, obviously they are happy with something. I find it a great store, they are very helpful. I guess, just like every Petsmart, every Wal-mart is different.

[suzy_99]

Just to let everyone know, I do shop at walmart. I just brought this up because the people who are always saying to shop at Walmart are the people who are against buying in any store with animals.

Katie: There was probably a point when guinea pigs were not being euthanized everyday because there was not yet a big overpopulation problem. You should not base you feelings towards certain animals on wether or not the are being kept in shelters. That is just waiting for the inevitable thing to happen and then say "ok, I think i'll care now. I have no guinea pigs in shelters around here, so does that mean that I can go shop somewheres that sells hundreds of them just to make a profit...I don't think so.

Anyway, we just have to realize that fish are animals too and they of course have feelings just the same as any other animal. As Access just said, some fish are eaten alive, yes this is the natural way of things, but it is not natural for a human hand to grab one fish and feed it to another one...alive. For those who are really concious of were they shop...Walmart is probably not a good choice.

[Katie]

Katie: There was probably a point when guinea pigs were not being euthanized everyday because there was not yet a big overpopulation problem. You should not base you feelings towards certain animals on wether or not the are being kept in shelters. That is just waiting for the inevitable thing to happen and then say "ok, I think i'll care now. I

Please, if you can tell me where I can buy some fish without supporting a pet store, breeder, or Walmart , I would gladley get them else where. Until then, where should I get them? We have a pond, we need more goldifsh this year.

[suzy_99]

Katie: My comment was not based solely on fish. You response made it sound like if you do not see an animal in a shelter then it is alright to support a store that sells them. Not many birds, reptiles, gerbils, and even mice are in shelters. The main populations, at least that I have heard a lot about are cats, dogs, ferrets, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, and the odd time they will have other animals. There are fish sacntuaries just as there are bird sanctuaries. Just to let you know that this is how shelters get filled up. If we treated every animals as if it were overpopulated and constantly mistreated then there would be far less animals being euthanized everyday.

My biggest point about this is that, yes, fish have to be sold, but I highly doubt that there are people at Walmart that are trained well enough to actually take care of them the way they are suppose to be. I would much rather that they be sold in a store with a limited number of staff, who all have knowledge on their needs and can educate customers on the products that they will need to ensure that they have proper care.

[Access]

Originally Posted by Katie

Please name one store that starts you out at $20/hr. Yes, there are some grocery store employees that get paid that much, but that comes after many years of working there. My cousin for example works at Giant Eagle. She's worked there for 13 years and is now in an office. She gets about $20/hr, but most employees don't unless they've been there over 10 years.

Albertsons, Vons, Ralphs, all supermarket chains that work with the union (united food workers or somesuch). A while ago there was a union strike and even the temporary (non-union) workers got 14USD/hr or more. There was a documentary done on how much the union workers get paid. As part of the strike settlement, entry pay was raised 20USD to 22USD but the supermarkets got to use new technologies like self-checkout and other types of automation.

A local wall-mart pays their employees between 7-9USD/hr. Wall-mart has positions that ordinary supermarkets don't, ie. greeters.

[Slap Maxwell]

I don't support WalMart. But they do hire mentally/physically challenged.

[Katie]

Originally Posted by Access

Albertsons, Vons, Ralphs, all supermarket chains that work with the union (united food workers or somesuch). A while ago there was a union strike and even the temporary (non-union) workers got 14USD/hr or more. There was a documentary done on how much the union workers get paid. As part of the strike settlement, entry pay was raised 20USD to 22USD but the supermarkets got to use new technologies like self-checkout and other types of automation.

A local wall-mart pays their employees between 7-9USD/hr. Wall-mart has positions that ordinary supermarkets don't, ie. greeters.

None of which are in NE Ohio. The stores we have here, Acme, Kmart, Walmart, Tops, Giant Eagle, Sears, Target, Khols etc.. all start out at minimum wage and work their way up. Giant Eagle is with the Union, everyone starts out at $6-$7/hr. The longer they're there, the more it goes up. All of our stores that had self checkouts (Target, Walmart, Tops, Kmart) have already pulled them out. If they paid their workers more, their prices would go up and they would lose business.

[bunnyluv17]

Places like Walmart generally don't carry quality food for pets like you can find in a pet store or online. I have to shop at a pet store to get the food and supplies that my pets need; and unfortunately there is not a single pet store around here that does not sell animals. I choose to shop at a store rather than online because of high shipping charges and the wait; but for those who shop online or at stores that do not sell animals, that is great that you don't have to support the animal-selling stores.