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In this June 20, 2011 file photo, a Wal-Mart worker pulls carts at a Wal-Mart store in Pittsburg, Calif. A week before Halloween and two full months before Christmas, stores are desperately trying to outdo each other in hopes of drawing in customers worn down by the economy. Wal-Mart, the biggest store in the nation, joined the price wars Monday, Oct. 24, 2011, by announcing that it would give gift cards to shoppers if they buy something there and find it somewhere else cheaper. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
NEW YORK — In an Oct. 24 story about holiday price wars, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Sears will beat a competitor's price by 10 percent. Sears will match a competitor's price and give the customer an additional 10 percent off the difference.
It's all about Amazon. That's where the smart consumer shops. Go to the stores, try your stuff on, then go home and order it online if you really need to try something out before you buy it. Amazon reviews are generally quite helpful in this regard, however, so I don't bother wasting gas.
#1 - Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:48 PM EDTIt's also a bonus if you have Amazon Prime. Free 2 day shipping on almost everything.
But, in some people's minds buying cheap made chinese @!$%# at wal-mart is the "american" thing to do.
Yeah I have Amazon Prime and I am pre-ordering the Kindle Fire for my birthday. It's going to be fantastic.
Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year?
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-ceo-pay-hour-workers-year/story?id=11067470
By Ed Smith's math, the CEO of Walmart earns more in an hour than his employees will earn in a year.
Smith, an alderman in Chicago, presented posters at a city council meeting showing that Walmart CEO Michael Duke's $35 million salary, when converted to an hourly wage, worked out to $16,826.92. By comparison, at a Walmart store planned for the Windy City's Pullman neighborhood, new employees to be paid $8.75 an hour would gross $13,650 a year.
Smith's numbers could be a bit off. Equilar, an executive compensation research firm, calculates that Duke earned just south of $20 million in 2009 and $28 million in 2008, not counting millions of dollars in potential performance awards. But the alderman argued that there's still a "sad" contrast between Duke's compensation and the wages of his employees.
#2 - Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:54 PM EDTWont matter; 80 percent of Americans will still say' charge it.
#3 - Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:05 PM EDTNot in our family, cash only. We skipped birthdays this year because the electric bill went to a new tier billing system & despite raising the temp in the house over 80 degrees, it did little to cut back on that bill. Dec offers 3 paychecks instead of 2--so a little extra to pay down bills, get a nice Xmas dinner, and $400 to spread for 7 people for gifts. Low budget, but Xmas movies, music, and a nice dinner with a walk down the neighborhood that evening to see lights on the houses can make an Xmas.
Pash cash or skip it!
Here's a challenge.
Make the family commitment this shopping season cut your BIG box & mall shopping down by 25% and shop at your local community retailers, boutiques, etc.
I know. It's tough. It's a rethinking of everything. But, it's actually quite fun and you will be surprised at what you can find, how you get to see your community as more than just the place you live in.
Here is how we did it. We spent one weekend staying strictly within our general community. I live on an island so it was pretty easy. We left the car at home and walked, and walked, and walked from one end of the island to the other.
Visited all the shops we have driven by for 5 years and never stepped inside (except for Walgreen's and the supermarket). Ate at the restaurants that we've only seen the tourists pack into.
We had a blast. It was no pressure. Friendly. Relaxed. Uncrowded. Cheaper. Not bombarded by Happy HalloturkeyCmas projectile marketing.
Granted, you're probably not going to find the Ipads, Iphones, latest parental violence inducing must have Toys R Us toys.
But what you do get is a sense of stopping and thinking more locally, keeping things simple, refocusing on stuff that is a bit more meaningful than marketable and keeping up with the jones'
Try it. You'll be surprised.
#4 - Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:26 AM EDT"Forget style, quality and customer service".....by shopping at Wal-Mart.
#5 - Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:32 AM EDThave you all forgotten the junk stores of the 70s and 80s like zodys , walmart new motto buy cheap all of our pruduct are made in china, that won t put people back to work , get real walmart sucks!
#6 - Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:11 AM EDTWalmart price matches ONLY on products of the exact same sizes, quantities and types as what they sell in their store.
#7 - Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:16 AM EDTWalmart only price-matches with identical products of the same sizes, quantities and SKU as sold in their stores.
#8 - Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:38 AM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
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