There has been a lot of opposition to super stores that sell goods at cheap prices moving into certain communities. The opposition is due to that which comes with stores like Wal-Mart such as low paying dead end jobs, the driving of ‘mom and pop’ stores out of business, and the physical design and acres of land that is taken up by such store chains. Communities feel they can do better.
Well, I’m not one to really knock the store that can give me a cheap price and quality goods. I do shop at stores that sell things at good prices. Don’t knock it because even Donald Trump took his kids shopping for school clothing at K-Mart when they were young. I guess ‘The Donald’ who lavishly and expensively furnishes and dress up his buildings knew that unlike real estate that increases in value, clothing decreases in value (and for children in utility also as they grow).
I am what some would call a utilitarian shopper. I do not go for too much glitz and flash. I usually don’t shop for show off gadgets or eye candy. I am not always a brand name shopper (although sometime brand name does matter). I buy things do to price, functionality, and quality.
A thing has quality if it does its function well and reliably and I look for this characteristic. The price relative to other things that do that same function is also important to me.
Brand names most of the time mean you are paying some money for the name assigned to that product. Sometime a brand name can guarantee a certain quality that one desires in a product and I guess that is important but on many occasions a brand name means more expense due to the brand.
As I said I’m pretty utilitarian in most cases and look for functional characteristics in things I purchase.
Being someone who would buy things that others might consider literally cheap and cheesy like compressed wood furniture or imitation leather (“pleather” or plastic we use to call it in grade school) I noticed when things began to deteriorate in such products and I can tell you that many inexpensive products that use to be durable and reliable are deteriorating in quality (I wonder why?).
For instance I brought a jacket that I normally paid thirty dollars for from the ‘mom and pop’ store I use to go to for eleven dollars from Wal-Mart.
The jacket was the same style and looked good but within a month the jacket from Wal-Mart began to come apart at the seams (literally). I went back and exchanged it. Within a months time that jacket began to come apart at the seams also.
The rumor has always been that inexpensive clothing wears out faster by fading, ripping or coming apart at the seams. Never before have I actually experienced it. Even imitation or illegal fakes of designer fashions have proven to be of reliable quality. Never have I ever purchased inexpensive clothing that is really…cheap.
I must add that this experience has mainly happened with products purchased from Wal-Mart (although I have purchased things of okay quality from the store).
My father purchased a twenty-seven inch television from Wal-Mart and it blew out in six months. It had to be returned and we didn’t exchange it for another one. Who wants to haul a twenty-seven inch television up and down the highway?
Since that experience I never purchase any expensive electronics from Wal-Mart and wince when I purchase less expensive electronics from them (which only happened once). I think buying electronics from Wal-Mart is risky business.
On an even more serious note there are questions about medicines Wal-Mart stocks. A medicine (generic brand) I took that came from Wal-Mart proved ineffective (the FDA should due a better job of ensuring that all nonprescription and prescribed medicines meet a certain efficacy. You definitely do not want imitation drugs for the treatment of medical conditions entering the market in any significant way).
Never did I ever think that the day would come when that which many mistakenly and snobbishly consider cheap would actually be cheap or basically garbage because it failed to meet its basic utilitarian function.
I will continue to shop for the bargain but I will be extra wary about the things I buy. As the saying goes let the buyer beware and might I add be extra aware nowadays.