Walmart saves families $700 million a year? Show me the math

[Ballygrl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8405375&mesg_id=8405375

Another Walmart thread, the idiocy of these Elitists.

Ian David  (1000+ posts)           Mon May-24-10 01:12 PM
Original message
Walmart saves families $700 million a year? Show me the math   

Edited on Mon May-24-10 01:21 PM by Ian David
Last year Walmart got into some trouble for claiming it saved shoppers $700 a year just by shopping its stores. Competitors took issue with the claim, as did the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and the ads were pulled. But Walmart is at it again, saying it can save shoppers $28 a week with its latest round of reduced prices. That's more than twice the amount it claimed that got it into hot water last year. Is it true?

"American families could see more than $700 million in savings this summer across all grocery categories through the retailer's continued, aggressive Rollbacks program," Walmart says in a press release. "Price reductions include 'deep Rollbacks' on a basket of 22 favorite foods and everyday essentials families routinely purchase, offered for an average savings of 30% off the retailer's everyday low price."

The math goes like this: If you regularly buy all 22 items, you'll save $28 from the formerly higher prices. Just how Walmart came up with the $700 million annual savings is unclear. Walmart says on its website that it "serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,446 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries." But that's globally; breaking out the numbers for U.S. shoppers is much more difficult -- dare I say, near impossible.

So let's go back to the new rollback prices: if you buy those same items every week, the savings total up to $1,456 annually. But that's faulty reasoning since many of those are staple products like ketchup and mayonnaise, things most families don't buy every week for 52 weeks. The reductions are hefty to be sure -- a 40 oz. bottle of Heinz ketchup reduced to $1 from $2.42 -- but it's the rare household that uses that much ketchup with any regularity.

dflprincess  (1000+ posts)          Mon May-24-10 02:15 PM

27. The difference between Walmart & where I buy my groceries
   is that when I buy it, it's pushed over the scanner by a union cashier and put into the bag buy a union carry out who have better wages and benefits.

Yes, I may pay a bit more and as long as I can afford it, I think I should shop at a union store.

That said, I do understand that some people are on awfully tight budgets and need to save every penny they can & that some areas may not have union stores or that Walmart may be the only store within a reasonable distance.

Unions Unions Unions

mwooldri (1000+ posts)          Mon May-24-10 02:39 PM

38. Because Wal-Mart pay minimum wage and encourage ...
   ... their families to sign up for food stamps, Medicaid, other government welfare - which ultimately taxpayers have to fund (or the Chinese, by purchasing our T-Bills).

Taxes themselves may be low, but it's the microeconomic equivalent of dumping - moving in, their lower costs pushing out the responsible retailers who pay their staff a more reasonable wage - plus don't have Wal-Mart's buying power.

If Wal-Mart would pay their employees a decent wage, give them good healthcare that is as good as if not better than mine (and I work for a company that's part of the Dow Jones Index) and hired enough people to be able to give some actual customer service - i.e. show a heart to their employees, their employees will show a heart to their customers.

I consciensously try to avoid Wal-Mart where possible - sometimes it is not... but their customer service is rotten, and their corporate ethos has got its way down to the front line that customers aren't seen as customers anymore - just revenue machines. If Tesco - in the UK - can afford to pay its employees a wage above minimum, and have a checkout policy of "if there's more than one person in front of you we'll open up another checkout until all our checkouts are open" then surely Wal-Mart can do the same? It'll mean "shock horror" actually hiring some staff to do some work!!! Tesco isn't any where near Wal-Mart size but they're not exactly any tiny food store company either...

[Ballygrl]

That's all I can deal with right now when it comes to the lefts obsession with Walmart and Unions.

[BlueStateSaint]

Ballygrl, you have to understand what a douchebag Ian David is.  This Oedipus-complex sufferer (extra credit if you can figure out what that is!) came up with a yellow ribbon magnet that had something on it that just infuriated a lot of us over here.  Someone who has a jpg or gif of that can post it.

[Ballygrl]

Ballygrl, you have to understand what a douchebag Ian David is.  This Oedipus-complex sufferer (extra credit if you can figure out what that is!) came up with a yellow ribbon magnet that had something on it that just infuriated a lot of us over here.  Someone who has a jpg or gif of that can post it.

And people take that fool seriously over there then?

[The Village Idiot]

Didn't Wal-Mart support Healthcare reform? and other things? Which would help put competitors out of business?

[DumbAss Tanker]

And people take that fool seriously over there then?

There's a reason we call them DUmmies.  And worse.

[Chris_]

Wasn't he the one with the mile-long ignore list?  I remember when they made them public... it seems like he had half the DUmmies on ignore. 

I'm trying to find a thread on it but not having any luck.

[Wineslob]

Yes IanDUmmie, Walmart saves familes money. Just like I go to Grocery Outlet to save money. Lets see, I go to Safeway (union) and Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup is $1.49 a can. At the Gross Out...........79 cents. Do the math. I suppose going to the Wonder Bread Outlet is evil too.

You DUmmies are truly so ****ing stupid that you will shoot yourselves in the financial foot for Unions? Really? 

Damn you people (term used loosely) are DUMB.

[diesel driver]

dflprincess  (1000+ posts)

I wonder what the "dfl" in "dflprincess" stands for....

Probably "Dumb F'n Liberal"....

[miskie]

Ballygrl, you have to understand what a douchebag Ian David is.  This Oedipus-complex sufferer (extra credit if you can figure out what that is!) came up with a yellow ribbon magnet that had something on it that just infuriated a lot of us over here.  Someone who has a jpg or gif of that can post it.

I don't think I have the screencap anymore, and the image has been scrubbed from DU.. IanDavid (IanDB1 at the time) produced a yellow ribbon car magnet that read "I F**K Our Troops Wives" in decorative script. I have no Idea if this product ever existed, or if it was just a graphical mock-up. It doesn't matter. How he could produce something in such poor taste indicates what a piece of unholy excrement this person is.

[The Village Idiot]

I wonder what the "dfl" in "dflprincess" stands for....

Probably "Dumb F'n Liberal"....

Is it Minn or Wisc that has the Democrat Farmer Labor Party? or somesuch?

[diesel driver]

Is it Minn or Wisc that has the Democrat Farmer Labor Party? or somesuch?

Not sure....

I live in Virginia....   

Wiki says it was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger.

Orville Freeman was elected the state's first DFL governor in 1954. Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey, and Walter Mondale were important members of the party. Both ran for the presidency as the nominees of the national Democratic Party; Humphrey in 1968 and Mondale in 1984. Both were unsuccessful, losing to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, respectively.

Other important party members include Senator Eugene McCarthy, who ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1968 as the anti-Vietnam War candidate, and Senator Paul Wellstone, known during his years in the Senate (1991–2002) as one of that body's chief voices of populist progressivism. The party's headquarters are in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Wasn't he the one with the mile-long ignore list?  I remember when they made them public... it seems like he had half the DUmmies on ignore. 

I'm trying to find a thread on it but not having any luck.

Yes, he had to have the longest ignore list ever.  I remember the threads about that when $kimmer made the silly decision to make everyone's ignore list public...maybe pre-crash at CU...I don't recall for sure.

[Chris_]

Is it Minn or Wisc that has the Democrat Farmer Labor Party? or somesuch?

Minnesota.....

doc

[Reality vs DU]

Ballygrl, you have to understand what a douchebag Ian David is.  This Oedipus-complex sufferer (extra credit if you can figure out what that is!) came up with a yellow ribbon magnet that had something on it that just infuriated a lot of us over here.  Someone who has a jpg or gif of that can post it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex

[soleil]

I don't think I have the screencap anymore, and the image has been scrubbed from DU.. IanDavid (IanDB1 at the time) produced a yellow ribbon car magnet that read "I F**K Our Troops Wives" in decorative script. I have no Idea if this product ever existed, or if it was just a graphical mock-up. It doesn't matter. How he could produce something in such poor taste indicates what a piece of unholy excrement this person is.

That is disgusting.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I don't think I have the screencap anymore, and the image has been scrubbed from DU.. IanDavid (IanDB1 at the time) produced a yellow ribbon car magnet that read "I F**K Our Troops Wives" in decorative script. I have no Idea if this product ever existed, or if it was just a graphical mock-up. It doesn't matter. How he could produce something in such poor taste indicates what a piece of unholy excrement this person is.

[The Village Idiot]

That screencap has at least 3 f-words!!

Is that the normal calibre of language skills over there?

[soleil]

That screencap has at least 3 f-words!!

Is that the normal calibre of language skills over there?

I would say it was warranted in that situation because really WTF?

[The Village Idiot]

I would say it was warranted in that situation because really WTF?

That did deserve a tombstoning IMO

[soleil]

That did deserve a tombstoning IMO

Did he get TSd? I really don't know that poster, but I agree that deserved a TS.

[Ralph Wiggum]

That did deserve a tombstoning IMO

There was no TS at the time, and that post wasn't up for long.  $kimmer probably demanded a big donation from IanDB1 to keep his account active.

[soleil]

There was no TS at the time, and that post wasn't up for long.  $kimmer probably demanded a big donation from IanDB1 to keep his account active.

You can definitely tell the ones who donate a lot. They get away with whatever they want. That was disgusting, and he should have been banned for it.

[Ballygrl]

WOW! what a nasty thing to do to our troops.

[diesel driver]

WOW! what a nasty thing to do to our troops.

Just the DUmmie way of showing their "support"....   

Class is not one of their strong suits....