551 replies to this topic

[martini]

Save-Ons is also getting expensive and their selection for many items is lacking.

Red Barn Markets are still the best place in the CRD to shop for vegetables, fruits and locally-sourced meats. Where Red Barn can't keep up is the big name brand items that are always sold cheaper at the big brand stores. For that though the Wholesale Club in Esquimalt blows EVERYONE out of the water. You'll easily save $0.20 to $0.50 on most items which can save you $20 on a weeks worth of groceries.

I tried shopping at that place in Esquimalt. It actually made feel depressed and I had to get out.
Yes you certainly can get items cheaper. Maybe it's by generation showing, but I want service. That's a big factor in where I spent money.

[Bingo]

For good fruit and vegetables the Root Cellar at McKenzie and Blenkinsop.

[Mr_E_Squirrel]

I find Oxford foods unbeatable for produce

[Holden West]

Word is that the Langford Walmart pulled aside the middle managers as they arrived to work and handed them their walking papers along with an escort out the door. Some other full-time employees were told they will have their hours cut back to part time. All in the name of saving money. Meanwhile, the Walton family net worth is around $150 billion.

Edited by Holden West, 21 May 2014 - 03:34 PM.

[bluefox]

Word is that the Langford Walmart pulled aside the middle managers as they arrived to work and handed them their walking papers along with an escort out the door. Some other full-time employees were told they will have their hours cut back to part time. All in the name of saving money. Meanwhile, the Walton family net worth is around $150 billion.

 

And here we all thought rollbacks they advertised were just on prices.

 

In all seriousness, if you won't pay more than minimum wage to 90% of your workers to begin with, you don't deserve to be in business or stay in business. I can't see any scenario in which that store is struggling to make sales or meet expectations. Langford is the perfect market for Walmart. If anyone can confirm this information is, in fact, true, how absolutely ludicrous and disgusting.

[LJ]

Word is that the Langford Walmart pulled aside the middle managers as they arrived to work and handed them their walking papers along with an escort out the door. Some other full-time employees were told they will have their hours cut back to part time. All in the name of saving money. Meanwhile, the Walton family net worth is around $150 billion.

How do you think the Walton family got that net worth? They didn't do it by being altruistic. If you don't like their business practice or their merchandise/service, don't shop there. Back in the day you could go to Eaton's and have a full service shopping experience, how did that work out for them? Where did that "word" come from?

[Mike K.]

Wal-Mart pays above minimum wage from what I understand. It's not a bad gig for someone who wants work that only requires their time and barebones past experience.

McDonald's relieves managers all the time as well. They want fresh blood from time to time and managers are let go or realize they're no longer eligible for raises. Next time you're at a McDonald's take note of the manager. Chances are six months later you won't see him/her around.

[dasmo]

Eatons didn't really offer much better... Plus, they deserved to die for gutting our downtown core and putting a vacuum formed mall in it's place  ... Good stores thrive. Think how Munro's survived the arrival of Chapters. It's even survived the arrival of Amazon. You don't need altruism as a shopper or a retailer.... 

 

http://upstreamcomme...-retail-success

[sebberry]

Wal-Mart pays above minimum wage from what I understand. It's not a bad gig for someone who wants work that only requires their time and barebones past experience.

McDonald's relieves managers all the time as well. They want fresh blood from time to time and managers are let go or realize they're no longer eligible for raises. Next time you're at a McDonald's take note of the manager. Chances are six months later you won't see him/her around.

 

To be marched out for no reason other than "we want fresh blood" after years of dedication is poor form.  Even though some fresh blood might be badly needed in some cases there'd be riots if we did that with teachers...

 

I never could stand Zellers - it was a dump with inventory all over the place and falling from the shelves onto the floor and in the wrong place.  You think workers are going to take pride in their work when they see managers being marched out for no good reason?  A Walmart department manager might not be a prestigious position, but it is someone's livelihood.  Many of these people are a paycheque or two away from not making bill payments. 

[Holden West]

You read it here on VV first:

 

Wal-Mart Canada has confirmed it laid off hundreds of employees across the country earlier this month in a move to rework its management structure.

The Arkansas-based retailer said it eliminated 750 jobs — which is says represented less than one per cent of staff — after testing a new management structure in select stores.

As part of the changes, Wal-Mart Canada says 1,300 associates were promoted to more senior roles and about 200 store managers were added.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...yoffs-1.2654753

 

Further reporting is needed here, specifically, how many full-time employees were forced to be part-timers. That stat rarely makes the news yet it can be as devastating as a layoff.

[Bingo]

You read it here on VV first:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...yoffs-1.2654753

 

Further reporting is needed here, specifically, how many full-time employees were forced to be part-timers. That stat rarely makes the news yet it can be as devastating as a layoff.

And hiring part-timers can be a way of avoiding paying benefits.

[VicHockeyFan]

You read it here on VV first:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...yoffs-1.2654753

 

Further reporting is needed here, specifically, how many full-time employees were forced to be part-timers. That stat rarely makes the news yet it can be as devastating as a layoff.

 

"The new management structure makes more of our associates available during peak shopping periods when our customers need us the most," Walmart spokesman Alex Roberton said in an emailed statement on Monday.

He added that the change "gives our associates greater access to their managers for their ongoing career development."

 

 

 

Sounds like they just decided some department managers would no longer work M-F 9 to 5.  

 

There is a bit more here:     http://globalnews.ca...store-managers/

[sebberry]

Walmart spokesman Alex Roberton said in an emailed statement on Monday.

 

It's always the spokesman (or spokeswoman, spokesperson) that announces all the layoffs and restructuring. 

 

I wonder, is the spokesperson's job maybe not the most secure around? 

[concorde]

The nature of retail is low wages and has always been that way.  The only company that I know that pays decent wages in retail is Costco, but stores like Canadian Tire, Wal Mart, Target, the Bay, etc will all pay minimum wage or slightly above.

 

Its sad to see that people who have been there for awhile just walked out the door when they have given so much to the company.

[Nparker]

The nature of retail is low wages and has always been that way...

So maybe it's time for a change.

[Mike K.]

We can instigate that change with our wallets starting now.

Government and corporations need us more than we need them, but they have done an exemplary job of making us believe otherwise and we pay dearly, collectively, for our desire for cheap goods and government oversight.

[concorde]

So maybe it's time for a change.

Easier said than done.  Retail traditionally has a very low margain and retailers can't afford to pay more.  Now if customers wanted to pay an extra 25% on their purchases to cover the higher wage, but we all know thats not going to happen.

 

So how do you propose to initiate the change?

[pherthyl]

Easier said than done. Retail traditionally has a very low margain and retailers can't afford to pay more. Now if customers wanted to pay an extra 25% on their purchases to cover the higher wage, but we all know thats not going to happen.

So how do you propose to initiate the change?

Costco already pays a decent wage. So step 1, shop at Costco instead of Walmart.

The idea that products would be 25% more expensive if people were paid more is total nonsense of course

[sebberry]

Not everything is cheaper at Costco, and when you forget to renew your membership and the case of toilet paper is $58, it can hurt. 

 

But I know what you're saying.  Costco seems to treat its employees fairly well.  I see many of the same faces at Costco that I did 5, 6 years ago.  I guess they like the reasonable hours and stat holidays off (unlike Walmart's 24 hours on the run up to Christmas...)

[VicHockeyFan]

This is a good article here and sums it up:

 

I wrote about this last spring in regard to Wal-Mart and Costco. Upper-middle-class people who live in urban areas -- which is to say, the sort of people who tend to write about the wage differential between the two stores -- tend to think of them as close substitutes, because they’re both giant stores where you occasionally go to buy something more cheaply than you can in a neighborhood grocery or hardware store. However, for most of Wal-Mart’s customer base, that’s where the resemblance ends. Costco really is a store where affluent, high-socioeconomic status households occasionally buy huge quantities of goods on the cheap: That’s Costco's business strategy (which is why its stores are pretty much found in affluent near-in suburbs). Wal-Mart, however, is mostly a store where low-income people do their everyday shopping.

 

 

 

http://www.bloomberg...pay-like-costco