Walmart.com's New "Free" 2-Day Shipping Pilot Program.

[BearMountainBooks]

Was just at Wal-Mart and the paint guy mentioned he had been there years and years. He went through 3 cans of paint helping me get a match on my paint. Not every employee or every store will do that, but I'm very happy with the outcome.

Wal-Mart and ebay are pretty much my go-to shopping stops/places. I find the prices are generally better than anywhere else on the web or in-person shopping. I use the outlet stores on ebay quite a bit (you can get hanes t-shirts there for as low as 3.85 shipped!) and I buy parts, shoes, you name it. Now that Hancock Fabrics has closed/gone bankrupt, WalMart is getting back fabric in its stores. I'm really thrilled as it's hard to find fabric. They carry Waverly a supplier I happen to like and buy pretty often--and with no coupon, most of their patterns are 4 dollars a yard. This is about the same to a dollar less than I was paying with a coupon at Hancock's.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

<snip>
I use the outlet stores on ebay quite a bit (you can get hanes t-shirts there for as low as 3.85 shipped!) and I buy parts, shoes, you name it.
<snip>

Thanks for mentioning that. I wasn't aware of the outlet stores on eBay. I'll have to check into them. For some reason, I never have gotten "into" shopping at eBay. I think that I'm going to give them another try.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

<snip>
Now that Hancock Fabrics has closed/gone bankrupt, WalMart is getting back fabric in its stores. I'm really thrilled as it's hard to find fabric.
<snip>

Some departments at Walmart have "always" been included in a store on a store-by-store basis.

As far as the fabrics department is concerned, I noticed that the local store here where I live did a renovation about three years ago. When they did, they got rid of the fabrics department (despite the fact that there was no fabric store in the local area!). It wasn't too long, probably because of a flood of comments by customers who missed the department, that they put it back in.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Thanks for mentioning that. I wasn't aware of the outlet stores on eBay. I'll have to check into them. For some reason, I never have gotten "into" shopping at eBay. I think that I'm going to give them another try.



Some departments at Walmart have "always" been included in a store on a store-by-store basis.

As far as the fabrics department is concerned, I noticed that the local store here where I live did a renovation about three years ago. When they did, they got rid of the fabrics department (despite the fact that there was no fabric store in the local area!). It wasn't too long, probably because of a flood of comments by customers who missed the department, that they put it back in.

We have 4 Walmart Super Centers in our area. All 4 are different from each other. The west side Walmart is known as Hispanic Walmart, the east side (same town) has slightly higher end stuff. North side in the next town over is even more white collar. South side (same town as north side) is more a travelers paradise. Bigger automotive, more quick crafts, more groceries, bigger sporting goods. More toys. More movies. But a smaller housewares and health and beauty departments.

Note: The North side was one of the Walmarts that temporarily closed last year.
South side is on the interstate.

[BearMountainBooks]

The outlet stores are almost always "buy it now" so you don't have to fool with auctions. Some of the "retailers" are just dumping things like hanes or fruit of the loom, but others are actually the store. Jockey (t-shirts, unmentionables, clothing) is on there and bargains can be had. Target is also on there and I nabbed some king organic sheets there about a year ago for 28 dollars. TWENTY EIGHT! Just King sheets run 60 and organic is usually somewhere in the "Yeah, I'll call as soon as I win the lottery." I have those marked, but I know there are others because I run across them on searches.

The one thing I don't buy on ebay is fabric. I've tried, but the quality ranges from "good" to "THIS IS NOT COTTON, IS NOT RELATED TO COTTON AND HAS NEVER TOUCHED COTTON" despite labeling. One order was so far off (it was supposed to be hemp and was quite obviously bamboo or rayon) I actually sent it back even though my refund was around 5 dollars. Ebay has gotten MUCH better about returns. If you have to return something, many vendors now pay for return shipping (check policies before buying). There's some advantage or other for them within ebay to do so. I think I've only ever had to return 2 things there, but the last thing I returned for low quality/misrepresentation, the shipping was paid for both ways and the items was covered.

I like the walmart online shopping because you can return to store--even the mattresses we bought there. We asked about 5 different people to make certain, and the guy in the pickup area assured us we could because he had had the job of trying to repack one of the mattresses in those shrink wrapped bundles (which he said could NOT be done).

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

We have 4 Walmart Super Centers in our area. All 4 are different from each other. The west side Walmart is known as Hispanic Walmart, the east side (same town) has slightly higher end stuff. North side in the next town over is even more white collar. South side (same town as north side) is more a travelers paradise. Bigger automotive, more quick crafts, more groceries, bigger sporting goods. More toys. More movies. But a smaller housewares and health and beauty departments.

Note: The North side was one of the Walmarts that temporarily closed last year.
South side is on the interstate.

It is interesting how much Walmart stores differ from each other. I have been in several of them, and the store south of us is much nicer, better taken care of, easier to shop in, even though it is about the same size and not much newer than our store. We used to hate even going to our Walmart, ridiculously long checkout lines, you could hardly maneuver down the shopping lanes, but they finally renovated it, and improved it somewhere along the time they realized Amazon was cleaning their clock. That is also the time they improved their online shopping.
We shop online in this order:
Ebay: 50% of the time
Walmart: 35% of the time
Amazon: 10% of the time
Best Buy & Other: 5% of the time.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Conan46

It is interesting how much Walmart stores differ from each other. I have been in several of them, and the store south of us is much nicer, better taken care of, easier to shop in, even though it is about the same size and not much newer than our store. We used to hate even going to our Walmart, ridiculously long checkout lines, you could hardly maneuver down the shopping lanes, but they finally renovated it, and improved it somewhere along the time they realized Amazon was cleaning their clock. That is also the time they improved their online shopping.
We shop online in this order:
Ebay: 50% of the time
Walmart: 35% of the time
Amazon: 10% of the time
Best Buy & Other: 5% of the time.

Our west side one used to be horrid till they got a manager named Sal. It took him a couple of months but he got the store back in order.

Funny thing is our Big Lots has gone from good to bad to good again. The only difference is the management. Oh and once they got rid of kidney problem manager and health problem assistant manager the bathrooms were cleaned and all the toilets work now. The store is cleaner too.
Note I don't know if the health problems contributed to the lack of care in the store or not.
I just found it odd.

[GtrsRGr8]

Interesting about the differences people have noted between different stores. Again, it comes down to local management, mainly.

It shouldn't be that way. Differences like that, I mean. One advantage that chain stores (ex.: Walmart) and franchises (ex.: most, if not all, Subway restaurants) are supposed to have is consistency--a person should be able to walk into any two different stores anywhere and have basically the same experience.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Interesting about the differences people have noted between different stores. Again, it comes down to local management, mainly.

It shouldn't be that way. Differences like that, I mean. One advantage that chain stores (ex.: Walmart) and franchises (ex.: most, if not all, Subway restaurants) are supposed to have is consistency--a person should be able to walk into any two different stores anywhere and have basically the same experience.

Golden Corral is a good example of management differences. Ours varies from fabulous to let's not eat there for a while. We got to where we could tell which manager, kitchen manager and crew leader was working. This is a corporate store.
Now the one in San Angelo is a franchise and it is always great.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Interesting about the differences people have noted between different stores. Again, it comes down to local management, mainly.

It shouldn't be that way. Differences like that, I mean. One advantage that chain stores (ex.: Walmart) and franchises (ex.: most, if not all, Subway restaurants) are supposed to have is consistency--a person should be able to walk into any two different stores anywhere and have basically the same experience.

I don't know if that makes sense (all stores being the same because of the name). We have a local grocery store (local to Texas and mostly the Austin area) called HEB. They are quite large, but they cater to local communities. There's one that is about 40 minutes away where all the magazines in the checkout are in Spanish. The produce and other products cater to Hispanics (we went down there to get roasted green chile because our store was out. They carry it during the season, but not to the extent of that store. That store also has bulk pinto beans and a fruit that I forget the name of). You can't blame them for selling the populations what they want. There's an Asian community pretty close to that area and we've talked about going in the HEB store there to see if they have more Asian foods. I would expect them to because their regular stores don't have much, and I usually have to go to an Asian store to get nori and curries and the like.

Now as for cleanliness and clean bathrooms ALL stores, same name or not, should have that!!!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I don't know if that makes sense (all stores being the same because of the name). We have a local grocery store (local to Texas and mostly the Austin area) called HEB. They are quite large, but they cater to local communities. There's one that is about 40 minutes away where all the magazines in the checkout are in Spanish. The produce and other products cater to Hispanics (we went down there to get roasted green chile because our store was out. They carry it during the season, but not to the extent of that store. That store also has bulk pinto beans and a fruit that I forget the name of). You can't blame them for selling the populations what they want. There's an Asian community pretty close to that area and we've talked about going in the HEB store there to see if they have more Asian foods. I would expect them to because their regular stores don't have much, and I usually have to go to an Asian store to get nori and curries and the like.

Now as for cleanliness and clean bathrooms ALL stores, same name or not, should have that!!!

HEB told me that even their Plus stores carry different things. Oh Maria, HEB is based in San Antonio and has stores located in all of Texas and parts of New Mexico.
When I called to thank them for opening the second store here, the girl on the phone told me their sales had quadrupled if not more. That store catches all the small towns to the west of us.
Corpus Christi is the same way on the items. They literally cater to the neighborhood.

Though they put the bulk stuff in the new Midland store.
It isn't a Plus but it is huge.
They make breads, tortillas, juices, shred some cheeses on site and who knows what else.
Took us an hour just to walk that store.

[GtrsRGr8]

"Basically" is the operative word. Good chains & franchise stores will make adjustments to what they carry, etc. based upon the character of the area that they service. Aside from those kinds of things, however, good chains and franchises will try to be consistent.

The reason for it really comes down to sales and, therefore, profits. If I am visiting another town and come across a McDonald's restaurant, for example, I don't have to wonder, "Is the restaurant clean?," "what are their hamburgers like? will I like them?," "what are their prices like, can I afford them?" If I spot a local restaurant called "Hamburger Harold's," I might have little idea about the answer to those questions. I'll probably stop at the McDonald's.

[BearMountainBooks]

I didn't know they had expanded to NM! There are very few in Houston compared to Austin. Kroger was bigger down there. We didn't have any HEBs in Spring (north of Houston). I know Houston now has a couple of Central Markets (their high end stores). I like all of the HEBs except the new one closest to me. The fish counter guy there will not get me froze crab from the back of there is any in the case. Last time I was there he said I'd have to buy the whole box if he went and got me any frozen. He also refused to get me salmon from the freezer. The produce guy is a real piece of work too. I don't shop there unless I have to. The store is always clean, but whoever manages that store must be very curmudgeonly because the two employees I knew there (one is a neighbor) asked to be transferred.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

"Basically" is the operative word. Good chains & franchise stores will make adjustments to what they carry, etc. based upon the character of the area that they service. Aside from those kinds of things, however, good chains and franchises will try to be consistent.

The reason for it really comes down to sales and, therefore, profits. If I am visiting another town and come across a McDonald's restaurant, for example, I don't have to wonder, "Is the restaurant clean?," "what are their hamburgers like? will I like them?," "what are their prices like, can I afford them?" If I spot a local restaurant called "Hamburger Harold's," I might have little idea about the answer to those questions. I'll probably stop at the McDonald's.

On restaurants, the general rule of chains is the food and service supposed to be identical between stores. Any manager should be able to walk into any of the chain and know exactly where everything is.
Now sometimes if there are both corporate and franchises the menus may be slightly different.
Also on motels, at La Quinta, if they have a hot breakfast it is a franchise. If it is pastries and coffee, it is corporate.