Walmart is a product of Laissez Faire Capitalism, not all capitalism.

I had not shopped WalMart in years, but they have handled the pandemic better than most, which matters with me on a fixed income supporting three households. They offered curbside first here, when four of five groceries never did. Also, they are not price gouging/dropping quality yet like the others. I have really tightened my belt to avoid having to buy, but it makes sense to get essentials where my $ go farthest, right now.

Walmart has been on the list of predator stores for a long time. I have and will never shop at that loathsome place. Someone once gave us a electric kettle they bought at Walmart and we didn't need it. I had to return it to 'that' place and got out as fast as I could. I do go to Costco (infrequently) but mainly to get glasses, tires or Cliff bars.

Costco here has Starting pay $17/hour and benefits!

no I don't shop at wal mart

These days I am not a big fan of Walmart but I still shop there. They are also my pharmacy. I also shop at 4 or 5 other places but paying more money for something has never been anything I like to do. Walmart will not "go away" just because you chose to pay more shopping somewhere else.

We have a local shop in the village, and he goes to the discount store to buy products and then puts them on the shelves. Because the discount stores are often cheaper than the wholesalers he can use. So if you do go to the local store, you may still be buying stuff from the conglomerates.

I'm proud to say I have NEVER set-foot in any Walmart.

Fore-runner to Buy-N-Large...

Since the pandemic and the fact I loathe shopping I do a lot of my shopping on line but I stopped shopping Wal-Mart like 6 years ago just because.

I rarely shop at Walmart. I might go in there once a year. But it's not as if the alternatives are all that better. Target, Amazon, Best Buy, etc are in the same business of eliminating small businesses to reduce competition.

I do. It's essentially impossible not to patronize conglomerates anymore. At least where I live. And to be honest, people expecting you to pay more than you have to for your goods and services by guilting you into thinking it's your duty is the same kind of responsibility shifting that corporations did with the recycling/trash problem. Congress has the power to level the playing field and they don't because they're too accustomed to getting their beaks wet to do the wrong thing. There really is no way to stop them without legislation, either. They have too much money for boycotts to work against them, there needs to be laws. Chipotle moved in to town almost right next to this mom & pop Mexican burrito joint that was really tasty. Chipotle proceeded to run special after special for free burritos running at a huge net loss until the mom & pop finally went out of business. I mean, if you're well off and you want to pay full price for your burrito, that's awesome for you. But if you're broke and you can get dinner for free instead, how do you pass that up (especially if you like Chipotle, personally I wouldn't even eat it for free, but it's not because of principle, it's because I think it's trash).