Target vs. WalMart

For what I buy, which is primarily history books, sports books, magazines and music, Borders beats the ever-living shit out of Barnes & Noble.

Especially when it comes to history books. Borders has at least three times as many history books stocked as B&N does.

Not that I won't go in a B&N, I just prefer Borders.

 

Damn. It's like y'all are eavesdropping on my conversations.

I was at breakfast this morning with my mom and my wife and my wife was telling me I should bite the bullet and get my oil changed at the local Holy Shit It's Wal-Mart that just opened a mile from our house. I prefer to drive half an hour to the place at which I got it changed prior to our move last fall. This turned into a whole conversation on Target vs. WalMart, as my folks have a Target opening right near WalMart in their town and my mom asked us where we prefer to shop. I said I have a hard time shopping at a store that is the world's biggest retailer yet consistently goes out of its way not to give employees benefits.

Plus, you know, the store sucks and the people there are scary. I go to Target for one thing and end up browsing the store for a while. I go to WalMart in an emergency and I can't get in and get out fast enough. People there are freaky-deeky. There's something about the whole store that is just not right.

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, meat flavoring

 

Borders was taken over by the same clods who ran Waldenbooks into the ground.

 

Wal-Mart is definitely cheaper, but I *really* don't like shopping there. For me, I usually stop at a grocery store two or three nights a week on the way home from work, which is always late at night. So I have two choices... the 24-hour WM Marketplace grocery store, or the Safeway I have to tear ass through deserted streets to get there before it closes. I usually end up at WM. Plus, the Safeway has its preferred customer card, and I won't take off my tin foil hat long enought to get one. Without one, almost everything in the store is ridiculously expensive.

For general shopping purposes, I'll buy name-brand stuff at WM (laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, pet supplies, etc.) because it's generally cheaper. But I wouldn't buy clothes or furniture there. That's clearly what Target is for.

Every late-night WM experience is interesting, at least. You wouldn't believe how many people are pushing strollers or hauling kids around at that hour.

 

My wife and I actually discovered that Target has better prices on grocery items. And that was based on a comparison of prices at a non-Super Targer store and the local Publix. It's the sale items that catch my eye most, and Walmart doesn't have sales on grocery items. They might be cheaper than Publix on a gallon of milk, but I can get five 12 packs of Coca Cola for $11 this week at Publix and Target had four for $10 last week. At Walmart, they're almost never on sale. Once in a blue moon, the vendor will discount them, but Walmart discourages it.

A local TV station and a local newspaper did stories where they shopped for identical items at five different stores, and Target beat Walmart both times. Plus, their household goods are superior, and don't forget that they have an upscale store brand for some grocery items. I think it's called something Farms.

Target also has better customer service.

But I have had some disappointments. I bought a children's bike that had a flat tire and some missing parts. It was hell to deal with customer service on that one. There have been a few other small issues, but I much prefer Target.

By the way, I prefer shopping at Home Depot to Lowe's. But I prefer the customer service at Lowe's. The Home Depot customer service is horrid.

 

Definitely Target ... if there was a Super Target (or is it Target Greatland?), I might never shop Wal-Mart. But we don't, so I shop Wal-Mart.
And I'll echo IJAG's midnight Wal-Mart shopping idea. I rarely go during daylight hours.

Side story on one of the local Wal-Marts: I went one day to get propane and some odds and ends. Get in a line that looks relatively short. The woman at the register could not move slower. Stood in line for 15 minutes. Then a supervisor walks by and she asks if she can take a bathroom break. Supervisor OKs it, cashier clicks off her light but finishes ringing up the customer. Two minutes later she looks at me, "I'm sorry, my line is closed." I said, "I've been in line for 20 minutes." "I don't remember you being there, but OK."

30 seconds later ... "I really don't remember you being there." I'm still two away from getting ringed up, with a mom and two daughters ahead of me with a cart full.
"Fine, I'll go to another line. I made the mistake of standing in your line for 20 minutes and not changing anyways."

Go to another line. Get through it in no time.

Walk by her register, where she's still scanning items of the mother and two daugthers. "How was that bathroom break?"
She flew off the handle while I kept on walking.

Definitely my mistake for staying in that line as long as I did, but every register was backed up. It was one of the few day trips I make. But I was going to get the last word in on that lazy bitch.

 

I'm not a Borders fan either.

A Super Walmart is about to open about a mile from my house.

Wish, sigh, it were a Target.

 

My parents came to town at Thanksgiving and got to experience Walmart for the first time. She still talks about it. It's still the last time...

 

I would rather have both of my testicles removed than darken the doors of Wal-Mart ever again.

"M & M Saturdays" have always been a running joke around here......out of every 2000 people in the store, 1900 are either Mexicans or Mennonites.

 

Are we in a hyperbolic mood today, Chef?

(See: Chef and snow cones.)

 

Target is a place you want to shop. Wal-Mart is a place you have to. Even in the poshest suburban locations, Wal-Mart shoppers enter the store as if "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" is posted above the entrance.

That said, I'll theorize that a reason some people don't like to shop at Wal-Mart is because they don't like being in such close proximity to honest-to-goodness poor people.