Cross-posted at the Writing on the Wal.
This woman deserves a medal. From ABC News:
Everyone loves a good deal, and low prices were reason enough for Texas mom Lisa Stauber to travel up to 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart to nab the best deals for her family of 11.
But after 12 years prowling the aisles of the retail giant, the mommy blogger finds little reason these days to shop at the store where she once spent more than $10,000 annually.
Aggravating lines, restrictive grocery choices, higher prices, and poor customer service were enough to curb visits to the store, says the Houston resident, who has shopped at numerous Walmart's throughout the South. After shopping around, Stauber says she was able to find better deals and more choices at stores like private supermarket chain H-E-B....
After hearing from some readers that cheaper prices was their main reason for shopping at Walmart, Stauber kicked off what she's calling "The Walmart Challenge." "I've issued a challenge in the comments [section] of the Houston Chronicle post, and on my blog as well [for readers] to list the top 10-20 items bought at WalMart, and I'll do a follow up post to see if those items are actually cheaper at Walmart or if that's just a perception," says Stauber.
Here's her post about the Walmart Challenge. However, I think this post about abandoning Walmart is of equal merit:
But then the meat. Oh, that’s when the tide changed. You started prepackaging your meat in vacuum sealed containers, the kind that are pumped full of carbon monoxide to keep things looking fresh even when bacteria had spoiled things past the point of human consumption. I’m sorry, that was too far. And so I began to stray. I started buying my meat elsewhere.
And that’s when I noticed how overpriced your produce was. Not only that, it was poor quality. Soon I was skipping the perimeter, buying my peripherals elsewhere. I still stopped by once a week or so for the basics. Oh, Walmart, you were still the core of my pantry. Except that often, as in every trip, I would leave without completing my shopping list because you were out of one or five basic staples. That was annoying.
I bought the kids a drawerful of Garanimals that barely lasted a season. I discovered Sears sold clearanced clothes cheaper, and guaranteed them through the KidVantage program. So many things I bought for my home fell apart. The MainStays ironing board. The GV food storage containers. The HomeTrends lamp that fell apart a month later. Why, oh why, did you desert me, durable goods?
And I hate to take credit for something I wrote five years ago, but nonetheless I still told you so.
