I Don't Like Wal-Mart.

Not for the usual reasons. I've shopped there several times now, and I frankly think it's a con. It's too "brandy" -- your only choices are the handful of top national brands of something (Keebler and Nabisco cookies, Charmin and Scot toilet paper), or really atrocious generics labeled in Spanish -- and the prices for the brands aren't all that great. They take 35 cents off a $3 to $5 price and call it a "rollback." If you want to economize and still enjoy unbloated, unpretentious quality, a combination of dollar stores and supermarket chains -- particularly the latter's weekly sales and very acceptable house brands -- will do you proud.

Take as an example the humble, hardly mentionable toilet paper. A necessity and a nuisance, because most American brands are so disgustingly bleached and scented and puffed and fluffed (and quickly used up) that it becomes an obscenity. I think the best deal and the least obnoxious product is the plain, 1000-sheet roll. The single rolls of Marcal -- proudly unbleached -- that I used to see in New York supermarkets had 65 cents printed right on the label, and they'd be on sale for 50 cents with some regularity. Scot is the only other company that makes that kind (theirs is bleached). Wal-Mart offers twelve rolls for $7.57, or 63 cents a roll. That's a deal??

I think Wal-Mart is not so much a way for low-income families to save as it is a conspiracy to train the poor consumer to shop the wasteful, bloated-brand-loyal, American way. Surely someone, somewhere has done a systematic comparison of its prices for common items to those at dollar stores like Rose's. Hey, here's an article that says the dollar stores are making Wal-Mart very nervous:

[The dollar store is] one of the fastest-growing retail channels, one that combines low prices with small-store convenience.

The fact that Wal-Mart considers these stores a competitive threat clearly proves this channel is one to watch. [ ... ]

Nearly 60% of consumers shopped in dollar stores last year, up from 47% in 1998.

And that makes me happy.

POSTSCRIPT: I shouldn't forget, though, that when I needed quick, cheap home furnishings, Wal-Mart had the goods -- all made in China -- lamps and tableware so cheap they're almost disposable, yet quite cleverly and gracefully designed.

Comments

[realpc]

I love dollar stores. But lately they're sneaking in items that cost over a dollar, sometimes $25! So that's a con also. Still you can get amazing deals. One warning though -- I bought a cheap lock for my bike in a dollar store and the other day the cheap little key broke in half, 15 miles from home. It only cost $6 for a really good lock and key, so that was a case of wasting a lot of time by saving a little money.

But in general, dollar and discount stores are great -- what's the point of wasting money? It's more fun to get everything you need without going broke.

[Melinda]

Ah, the single roll of Marcal...truly the unsung hero of my household.

[Charles Martin]

When I lived in Durham, Rose's was like southern K-Mart, so the dollar store thing is likely a reaction to wal-mart.