Saturday, November 23, 2013

Costco or Walmart, American or Chinese.

us-chinaWalmart’s price for a Dell Inspiron 15R Touchscreen Laptop, Intel Core i5 is $448. Costco’s prices the same brand for $599. You’d probably think that Costco is ripping you off, but you would be wrong in that assumption. Walmart ‘s model has only 500GB hard drive, while Costco’s has 1TB. So even though they might look the same, they are not, you get more for your money with the model sold at Costco.

You will find a Whirlpool (model 9451) washer (26x27x43) for $449 at Costco and a Golden (GLP26R) washer (23.7x24.1x39.4) for $493 at Walmart. Not only Costco sells a washer that is larger, but also the model at Costco has 11 wash cycles and a fabric softener dispenser that the model at Walmart does not.

Let’s compare grills, the all American outdoors cooking experience. While it is true that Walmart offers junk grills for very affordable prices, let’s compare a good one, because Costco doesn’t sell the ones you can find at any grocery store, like Walmart does. At Costco you can find a KitchenAid (Deluxe 304) gas grill for $749.99. This grill has 5 burners, 696.8 sq. inches of grilling surface and 10-year warranty. Walmart sells a comparable model made by Weber at $849.00 (Genesis S310). However, the model sold at Walmart for a higher price has only 3 burners and a cooking area of 637 sq. inches. Both grills are made in the USA, but once more, you get more for your dollar at Costco.

We can  continue comparing prices between Costco and Walmart. I can assure you that you will find cheaper prices for not as good a quality at Walmart but you can also find comparable prices for better quality products at Costco.

With the current economical situation, it is understandable that families that are trying to stretch their budget will shop at Walmart, thinking they are doing what is best for their families, but they are not. They are perpetuating the economical crises in this country by purchasing their goods from a company that purchase most of their products in China, which benefits that country but not ours. On the financial end you’re not helping the economy move forward, you are perpetuating the current situation.

On the moral end, Walmart is a slave driver. a company that does not believe in paying their workers fair wages, who only offers part-time jobs, forcing their employees to work during the holidays with the real threat that they will be fired if they don't and a company that offers their "associates" no health insurance… Walmart does all this due to greed, to make as large a profit as possible... it's never enough for the Walton family. Most of Walmart's employees have to get help from the government or charities to make ends meet.

Costco, on the other hand, offers its employee decent wages, health care insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, 401K and stock options to all their employees – whether they are full time or part time.  Every Costco employee is eligible to receive these benefits one month after they began working at Costco! Costco also offer their employees the time to spend the holidays with their families. While Walmart doesn’t believe in family, Costco does.

You may not know anyone that works at either store chain, but… what about if you worked at Walmart? Wouldn't you want people to care?

I am boycotting Walmart, they don’t care for the economy of our country and much less for the American people. I rather buy American, I rather support a company that cares for its employees – the treatment a company gives to its employees reflects on how those employees will treat you, and I think it is not too difficult to see who will treat you better.

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