Weaning off Walmart - It's not worth it anymore

[Steve_In_29]

Trust me, China will not cut off the sugar-teat that they suckle on.
40% of their income comes from US.
They are boosting their military to protect themselves from the bad-actors that surround them and would love to break off a piece.

The ONLY "bad actor" in the region is CHINA. You are badly misinformed if you think otherwise.

 

[Steve_In_29]

But similar to the toilet paper example above, you might think you're buying a 30-06, but you really only get a 25-06.

I hope you were just being facetious.

 

[old tex]

This is just a general comment that I believe is true. In the "old days", probably when a lot of us were young & even in the teen years stuff was made to last. You paid for it once & could plan on having it long enough for it use to be worth the money you paid. Well over the years that thought was replaced with producing "disposable" products. Now I'm not totally against that idea because some things I view as disposable. But I am against paying say over 100 dollars for something to use it less than a year or so & having it die. And stuff like washers & dryers should last a long time (like they used to) but they don't because they weren't made to. The same is true with refrigerators & well just about any electric anything.

My main example of that was that dyson battery powered vacuum. I used it a lot & it was great until it wasn't. I paid $400 for it & it lasted 2 years & that breaks down to spending $200 per year on a vacuum. I didn't do any research on that, the wife told me to buy it, but I'd rather be a generation behind on stuff like that & pay less & have it work longer.

 

[winds-of-change]

Planned obsolescence.

 

[12icemaker]

Wal Mart gets their stuff from the same places every other big box company does, They buy thousands is why they get the wholesale prices PLUS they Start some fledgling companies by buying their products with an exclusive contract as a sole distributor for the consigner.

I buy things like everyone else, but when they mess up I fix them with premium quality parts that make them last for years.

It is like buying a cheap washer and the bearing going out in a year and a half because it was a thin tin roller bearing with iron dust ball bearings in it. I buy a commercial bearing and fab a mount for it put a good quality seal on it, tighten the tolerances and use premium waterproof grease as lube.

I am amazed at the number of machines that cost a lot because of having a lot of cycles that do not work properly from day 1.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Exactly this! I know people who have bought electronics or small kitchen appliances and even guns. When they try to follow up a warranty they are told by the company that it is an item specifically made to sell through WalMart and is a bit different than the ones you can buy through the company. Does that make any sense?

While Walmart might get special editions of weapons (such as my Savage) the actual gun itself is the same as every other from that company and the warranty is the same as well.

On my Savage the difference is the Walmart version of the Byod's AT-One stock is simplified from the one you can purchase direct from Boyds. In this case I actually prefer the simplified version, as I get what I need without the items I don't want that would only add to the cost..

Now way back in the day, Sears, Western Auto, etc would get gun manufacturers to make rifle/shotguns that while the same under the hood were marked with the Store's house brand label.

But the appropriate Rem 870 or Moss 500 parts were interchangeable with them.

 

[havasu]

Folks, please keep this thread on point. Once you mention unions, politics soon follow, and we will be forced to move this thread into the political spectrum. I surely don't want to move yet another thread into the political dungeon.

 

[Haertig]

I hope you were just being facetious.

I hope you were just playing my straight man.

 

[mml373]

Quality going down as well. Vegetables are digusting. We go to ALDI, which has better produce and also better quality stuff that often meets European requirements for what's in it (does not have the awful junk that the US allows in its food).

 

[Tootsie]

You’ve got to grow your own food, if you can. Lots of greenhouses now around where I live, in a rural area. Tomatoes are a big item. To me, greenhouse or hot house stuff tastes as bad as what’s trucked cross country and was picked green and sprayed. Things need direct sun, real soil with real fertilizers, a breeze every now and then to sturdy the plant, and rainwater.