Jump to content

IN PROGRESS: Centre of New England


MapmanNo1

Recommended Posts

Well I suppose it's a bit rash of me to comment so strongly based on one piece but I should also mention that any self respecting writer should either be aware of any statements that are absolutely incapable of holding up to scrutiny or be ashamed of himself if he wittingly does so in a manner that disarms the reader right off the bat with subtle "sense" tactics and uses the opportunity to force a few biases in.

You should be just as wary of half-story facts and other deceptive writing tactics regardless of what point on the irrelevant political spectrum the author comes from.

Winning by what rules? Intimidating suppliers to provide absolutely unrivaled price reductions with the sheer prospect of the sort of "stability" that the graces of an economic juggernaut will provide? Only to have those suppliers redirect thier focus to serve their needs (at times, losing or ignoring other customers) so as to not lose their business and end up a shell of it's former self? Then further cut costs by paying their employees a lower average pay (but a store discount, so they're almost sure to absorb a good amount of the money back into their budget) and offering very few benefits? Oh! Using their stability to plant these gigantic, suburban retail monoliths wherever they feel (usually where competitors don't have the money to risk following), draining the life from every type of local retail (grocery, pharmacy, clothing, etc.) and essentially siphoning money out of the community in return for property taxes that may disappear in five to ten years if when they abandon the initial location (which we know they tend to do), they build a new monolith on the other side of the town line, leaving an empty monstrosity in their wake? All so you can supply your novelty-obsessed (remember that the woman in the article pointed to dvds, not food, not an appliance, not a source of knowledge or personal betterment. Nope, entertainment. And that's almost every single one of us.), predominantly American customers with inexpensive, foreign-made, (often low quality) goods at prices that your competition could never touch?

Ha! Rules and morals are for losers!

The nonsense he spouts about Wal-Mart stifling inflation in the nineties shows that he doesn't realize that inflation can be a strong indicator that your economy is succumbing to a terrible imbalance. Creating countless retail jobs that pushed foreign made products as American manufacturers lost the support of their nations pockets didn't correct the situation, it numbed the pain. Wal-mart (though not them alone) perpetuates an economically cannibalistic consumer culture that trades off financial stability for what is a essentially a whole lot of well advertised, "must-have", cheap crap.

But I digress on this last point because it goes well beyond the scope of this discussion and I'm merely using your attention to insert my own unsolicited convictions (that I beg to be proven false for sake of my own personal hope). See how easilly you can slip such things in when you toss it in with the momentum of the writing?

I won't even begin to go into how that is merely a left-wing concern (or portrayed as such for the sake of pacifying right-wingers) but you make an excellent argument.

By this point I'm sure I've come off as one of those very liberals that are soooooo full of themselves that they miss Wal-Mart's "public service", but honestly, the political spectrum serves as nothing but a polarizer and a tool to harness opinions into "teams". There are only right or wrong conclusions and decisions. All people of all parties are capable of their share of both. Often times, power of influence supersedes the honest contemplation of being wrong when your speaking about politicians AND business entities (money is power too, and it buys a lot of influence). So don't let others make you choose sides, make yourself choose objective solutions. I'm going to bed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 110
  • Created
  • Last Reply

you missed that one completely, lol

i was joking that they sound like they sound like they would benefit from walmart's demise, such as if they worked at their biggest competitor, target

target is ok, but if you REALLY knew them, their business model is based soley on that of walmart's. success was attained by walmart and target only augmented some things that they felt walmart did poorly to differentiate themselves in the market. one the things target did was strive to be cleaner and more accessible than walmart. they felt that walmart was seen as dirty and cumbersome to navigate. if you went back in time you would see that target made a huge effort to make their aisles wider, brighter, and cleaner. this is something that caused walmart to fix themselves and ever since then they go back and forth a lot. i did all the case studies on this. their corporate office was actually a huge recruiter on my old college campus.

btw- uconn needs some help on the old gridiron these days! lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to a Walmart in Maine once about a decade ago, before I knew what the hell a Walmart was (ah, life was so simple then), to try to buy batteries. I couldn't find any, so I didn't buy anything, and never have.

I ended up getting my batteries in the urban grocery store on Congress Street in Downtown Portland.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I went to the SuperCenter on Monday and was not impressed. The groceries were overpriced!

I've been shopping at PriceRite for about 5 years and I believe their prices have always been fair. At Wal-Mart I guess I expect stuff to cost less than any place else.

So I don't like the SC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love PriceRite, especially for things like Olive Oil, where you can get a barrel of it for like 5 bucks.

Nothing, however, beats Job Lot. Seriously, why can't they open a Job Lot supercenter? I've been buying groceries there quite often now and nothing is ever cheaper. And, I know my money is going to two guys who live in this state and spend their money in this state.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love PriceRite, especially for things like Olive Oil, where you can get a barrel of it for like 5 bucks.

Nothing, however, beats Job Lot. Seriously, why can't they open a Job Lot supercenter? I've been buying groceries there quite often now and nothing is ever cheaper. And, I know my money is going to two guys who live in this state and spend their money in this state.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to this monstrosity on Friday to check it out and to get my 50 cans of tuna at BJ's for $30....anyway, holy sh!t, it's even worse than I thought. Some observations:

-the sidewalks in the development don't even have curb ramps.

-they're so much traffic coming out of superwalmart that I guarantee they'll actually have to put a traffic light at its entrance WITHIN the development.

-the main road into the development is THREE LANES in each direction. It's like putting big boxes along I-95 in Pawtucket.

-the exit out of Walmart onto the main road in the development has double left turn lanes. Double left turn lanes, yet no traffic light, accidents just waiting to happen...

-The housing is all across the 6-lane superhighway main road from the majority of the retail. I wonder how good we are going to make the pedestrian connections here...

In regards to basic traffic engineering, it looks as though the developer read an engineering for dumbies book and designed this place. Obviously the town did nothing to enforce any MUTC standards.

I can't wait til all the condos are done and people live in them. I will then go down and do a pedestrian count one day to see if ANYONE at all that lives there will actually walk to Superwalmart or any other stores.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
I went to this monstrosity on Friday to check it out and to get my 50 cans of tuna at BJ's for $30....anyway, holy sh!t, it's even worse than I thought. Some observations:

-the sidewalks in the development don't even have curb ramps.

-they're so much traffic coming out of superwalmart that I guarantee they'll actually have to put a traffic light at its entrance WITHIN the development.

-the main road into the development is THREE LANES in each direction. It's like putting big boxes along I-95 in Pawtucket.

-the exit out of Walmart onto the main road in the development has double left turn lanes. Double left turn lanes, yet no traffic light, accidents just waiting to happen...

-The housing is all across the 6-lane superhighway main road from the majority of the retail. I wonder how good we are going to make the pedestrian connections here...

In regards to basic traffic engineering, it looks as though the developer read an engineering for dumbies book and designed this place. Obviously the town did nothing to enforce any MUTC standards.

I can't wait til all the condos are done and people live in them. I will then go down and do a pedestrian count one day to see if ANYONE at all that lives there will actually walk to Superwalmart or any other stores.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Municipal town "planners" should be known as "tax revenue increase finders", as most of them obviously know little about good planning and only concentrate on bringin home that tax revenue.

I am happy to see some of the condos will sell for less than $200,000 however. The more expensive ones could be a suburban Rhode Islanders dream, a nice house, no need to cut the lawn, and only a short drive away from Walmart and Home Depot! :yahoo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I hate Home Depot even more than WalMart simply for its lack of knowledgeable sales associates, and of course having to drive out to THE BOX.

I walk in to Mt. Pleasant Hardware and they say hello, ask what you need, show you where it is. You're in, you're out, and you get the whole job done in the time it would take you to walk from your car to the front door at HD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I hate Home Depot even more than WalMart simply for its lack of knowledgeable sales associates, and of course having to drive out to THE BOX.

I walk in to Mt. Pleasant Hardware and they say hello, ask what you need, show you where it is. You're in, you're out, and you get the whole job done in the time it would take you to walk from your car to the front door at HD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually go to Adler's even though the Oville one is closer to me. I have nearly door to door trolley service to Adler's. Kind of sad that I'm better connected to the East Side via transit than most of the rest of the West Side. <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't believe Federal Hill/Broadway/Westminster area has no local hardware store. With all the activity and ongoing rehab projects around the neighborhood, you'd think it would be a more worthy business venture than another bodega or pizza joint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.