Stupid Wal-mart

[Amunet]

But from what I heard from a girl at the Superpets here....
To get rid of all of the fish, they just shut off everything and were just going to let them die. WTH!!
That's just coldblooded. She said she saved like a dozen (I think.. could've been more.. can't remember how many she said)...
I just hope more people saved as many as they could as well.

WTF do they think they are doing? When you say superpets, does there logo have a cat with a cape that has a "S" on it?

I actually have no idea if they have a logo.. Never really paid any attention.
We MIGHT be going back to it tomorrow though so if I remember I'll check then.

 

[Tessla]

So do you want there to be no chains at all? There's a reason why Walmart is rich, its because they are smart, they made it so that anybody could get anything at low prices. They are probably better then the mom and pop stores, and that is why they won out and became rich. Of course mom and pop stores still win out in animal caretaking though. If all chains were destroyed today, some mom and pop store will emerge and become the new walmart. Jeez, I get so sick with people who hate Walmart just because they are successful.

I think you missed the point here, it's not about avoiding chains because they're chains, it's avoiding certain chains because of their practices, in this case, keeping fish in awful conditions. I'd do the same for a mom and pop store as well if they treated their fish like that, it would just hurt them more than a chain that can easily make up the lost profit elsewhere. In that sense, the mom and pop store has more incentive to treat their fish well (or do whatever sort of business they do well) and actively respond to complaints, but I've also encountered some chain stores that do the same. So why is it not OK to boycott a chain with poor practices when I'm sure you'd avoid a filthy locally owned LFS with rude employees? The "New Walmart" you speak of may very well be better than the current Walmart, not all chains are the same.

Granted there are other reasons I don't shop at Walmart: never ever seen any semblance of customer service (a pain in a huge store when trying to find something quickly) products tend to be cheap because they are poorly made and don't last long, time spent driving there and finding the things I'm shopping for ends up costing me more, and of course they often don't have whatever it is I'm looking for (big store, lots of different things, but not a whole lot in any one category.) All perfectly valid reasons for not shopping at a local mom and pop as well, the fact that it's a chain just tells me that I'm likely to experience the same thing in multiple locations... which has been reinforced by the fact that I have experienced the same thing in multiple locations.

 

[Captain Retardo]

Oh yeah, I agree with you, Walmart is the worst place that had fish that I have ever seen. But that still wouldn't stop me from shopping there. Of course other people might not shop there for that reason. But overall Walmart is a good store, and that can be seen because of all the people that go there to buy things. I was replying to a person though who seemed like they hated walmart altogether, especially because it put other shops out of business.

I don't buy fish from chains, not becuase I boycott them or anything, but becuase their fish are usually in horrid conditions. I might make an exception for PetsMart once in a while though.

 

[Tessla]

Oh yeah, I agree with you, Walmart is the worst place that had fish that I have ever seen. But that still wouldn't stop me from shopping there. Of course other people might not shop there for that reason. But overall Walmart is a good store, and that can be seen because of all the people that go there to buy things. I was replying to a person though who seemed like they hated walmart altogether, especially because it put other shops out of business.

I don't buy fish from chains, not becuase I boycott them or anything, but becuase their fish are usually in horrid conditions. I might make an exception for PetsMart once in a while though.

Successful because it's cheap maybe, good is rather subjective, especially when we can agree that it's worst at some of the business it does. I shouldn't even go so far as to call it cheap, perceived as cheap by many people perhaps, but most won't bother to do the math involved to check. (The most expensive grocery stores in my area are perceived as the cheapest, the least expensive store looks more upscale and treats its customers well yet is perceived as more expensive. Result? Everyone with a lower income shops at the more expensive stores thinking that they're cheaper.)

Meg was a bit short in her reasons for hating Walmart (and so was I really) but hating Walmart for pushing out local business can be for all sorts of reasons. I'd be very angry with Walmart or any store I don't care for driving local shops I happen to like out of business, it may be good for them but it sure isn't good for me. It's a bit more complicated than Walmart makes lots of money therefore Walmart is good to a lot of people. Don't get me wrong, it's brilliant business for the business owners and higher ups but most people don't own Walmart. The economics of it get very complex when you take everything it affects into consideration. Business practices rank high on many peoples' lists of pet peeves and Walmart moving in, putting local businesses out of business (that's people out of jobs) and then giving their own employees the bare minimum they can get away with (people newly unemployed by Walmart now forced to work for Walmart) can really strike a nerve especially if you or someone you know is directly effected by it. That's only part of what can and does happen if a Walmart puts everyone else out of business in the area. But hey, some people can be forgiving of business practices, especially if money is tight and there are no other options. Just hoping you can see both sides of this here.

I've never once heard someone complain about a successful chain purely because it was a successful chain, and this is in extremely liberal rabidly pro-mom and pop shops small college town California (with hippies even!) If anyone were to do it, somebody in this town would have done so by now. Even the most half-baked arguments involve something about quality, jobs or the environment. Really you're just accusing someone of hating a successful chain for being a successful chain while approving of a successful chain just because it's a successful chain, it isn't very convincing.

 

[Fate2006]

wow this has become a walmart bashing section lol

 

[MojoDex]

i find it sad as ASDA who are owned by Wal Mart here in the UK are very likley to start selling fish

 

[FishRfine]

I h8 wal-mart, they r so cruel to fish, might as well dye them!!!!

 

[Rhiannon]

We have Kmart, they sell everything but fish and groceries (except chocolate, chips, soft drinks etc). They are low on prices too.

 

[- Jez -]

i find it sad as ASDA who are owned by Wal Mart here in the UK are very likley to start selling fish

Oooh, really? I remember about ten years ago our big local ASDA had a fish section and I recall it being really nice and well maintained (as far as my eleven-year-old brain could tell anyway!). I'm not sure if it was actually part of ASDA or whether they were just using the space but....I dunno, maybe if they do it again, they might not do a bad job. I'll keep an open mind.

(Not that I can see myself ringing my tetras through those godawful self service things...)

 

[modaz]

(Not that I can see myself ringing my tetras through those godawful self service things...)
[/quote]
i like you sense of humour....great
yeah i used to get my fish from adsa but not sure if they were actually part of them or not but their fish were great quality and they used to sell fish that were about 3months old, they were looked after very well and always correctly labelled tanks and fantastic advise given. so they might have been an independant company. sure do miss them.....since i live just over the road

 

[-Nemo-]

my local walmarts always had fish in pretty good condition (i know... surprising, but great) Everytime i went to pick something up, the people running the section always knew what they were doing, and owned tanks of their own (which was great). About 2 weeks ago though, they stopped carrying live fish (I don't wanna know what they did with all the fish ).
Though now that they've stopped selling the fish, that whole section now holds supplies (Getting an awesome inexpensive tank there soon ). Its horrible to hear about the bad conditions in other places though (Ignorance it a bad thing ).

 

[t1tanrush]

Well, I honestly only have a problem with walmart in once sense, when there is an obvious problem, it takes them forever to fix. They had 2 oscars today, one with a big gash in its side, almost complained.. Other tank that sucked was the Green Spotted Puffer tank, all had whitespot, 4 dead, most missing fins, snail pieces all over, covered in algae... Petsmart/petco are great, all well maintained tanks that look great with nearly all healthy fish. My petco takes any tank that has unhealthy fish and won't sell from them and puts a sticker " fish under observation ". I think some places are bad, some are good, all comes down to employees imo.

 

[Bozza]

Ive been to 3 wal-marts only in the LA area. They had pretty good fish selection. But i suppose its still up to the management to maintain the certain areas. Also went to a few pet marts, them seem more like what we have here in australia. We have nothing that comes close to wal-marts in Australia. Australia sucks. America is awesome in so many ways i cant begin to explain. Sorry started to go into a rant.

 

[FinnMacCumhail]

I live in New England and back when I was a kid (30 years ago) there were no Wal-Marts (well not here anyway), just small fish stores. They were great but they never seemed to last very long, the first one we patronized regularly was set up by a very nice couple for their daughter as her first business (the parents bankrolled it and even with that, she couldn't make it ). Then about 20 years ago when I got married, we set up a 30 gallong tank and I looked in the yellow pages for fish stores around me. Also at that time, there were no Wal-Marts or any of the national chains like Petsmart or whatever they are, just some local fish stores in the local strip malls.

Now that I'm thinking about getting back into the hobby, ALL of my favorite fish stores from way back when are all out of business. I've got to track some new ones down......

As I mentioned about my local Wal-Mart, their prices are pretty good BUT their selection and quality is very limited. I guess we can debate big box stores vs. the mom and pop operations but my feeling is that's better left for a political debate forum or something like that.

Bottom line for me is I've got to find some small, local stores with knowledable people (as an earlier poster pointed out!)

 

[PufferFishRule]

walmart sucks with fish..they are held captive in small fricken cubes i mean fish like pacus and large ones like silver dollars and angels are being held hostage in..lil bitty cubes i wouldnt dream of using for anything...walmart SUCKS end of story....when i go by the fish section i feel like putting a few rounds into the manager