Why Walmart Actually Doesn't Suck

I am sick and tired of everyone talking trash on Walmart. Now, don't get me wrong, compared to other stores in every other area besides price, shopping at Walmart sucks. From the time I walk into the store until the time I walk out of the store, every second is overwhelmingly filled with my desire to get out of the store, but once you are outside and the ordeal is done, the amount of money you have just saved is worth while.

Add that savings up over the course of the year, and it is even more worthwhile. See, Walmart and I have an agreement. They are going to suck, but I am going to save a lot of money. The stores are dirty, Lord help you if you need help and have to ask an Associate to help you find something, and the people who shop there (besides us, of course) are a monument to humanity and its constant struggle against itself, but if you can get your head around the fact that this is just how it is inside the walls of Walmart, and you can stomach it, you are going to reap the rewards.

Now, maybe you are principled and say that Walmart doesn't provide the best employment opportunity for its Associates and team members. Well, I have two things to say to you.

The first is...really? If as a shopper I know the bottom line is to save me money, not provide me good service, then every single employee at Walmart must know the same to be the truth. And that drive for the bottom line is why Walmart employees get a paycheck, but not much more. Just how I know what I am getting when I shop there, people who take a job at Walmart also know what they are getting.

The second is...really? How is it that if Walmart is the worst employer in the world, they manage to employ such a large army of people? How is it that a great deal of their senior leadership started decades earlier as Associates on the floor? If it was really, truly, that bad, do you think that would be the case? 

Again, compare Walmart to other employers, and they will probably be found lacking, but it's not like Walmart is telling people they are going to get a full package of benefits during their interview, then telling them on their first day, "Ha ha, you fell for it".

So here is a company that employs a large mass of Americans (and let's face it, a lot of people who would not be able to find work at other places, especially in today's economy); provides the same exact products as all of the other stores out there, yet does it at a discount; continually still manages to churn out a profit, resulting in growth; and is one of the largest companies in America that has not needed the taxpayer to bail them out.

Yet, somehow, in the midst of this, people in this country still find a need to vilify Walmart as bad for America and bad for Americans. I beg to differ.

What would be far worse for America would be for Walmart to close up shop tomorrow, eliminating thousands upon thousands of jobs, and eliminating vital competition in the market place to keep prices low for American families.