I didn't want to bring up my Walmart days, because this'll surely show my age, but since some parts of this thread seem to be talking about "American made" vs "Cheap Chinese" I just thought I'd mention how - with Walmart - it didn't always used to be that way.
I remember when Sam Walton was still alive. I remember being in a store shopping when suddenly word went out that Sam was here, he was walking up toward the doors. And the employees couldn't be happier about it. I didn't linger to see him, I should have. I really should have. He tried to make his stores a haven for all things American Made. The Stars and Stripes were everywhere, in Walmarts & Sam's Clubs both, hanging up and painted on and printed on the signs.
I was a green employee, and I was standing right there to watch this event unfold: our store general manager, Dean, looked over a box from a shipment of American flags and, when he saw the words "Made in China" on those flags, he said to the manager of Receiving "Send them back" because he explained that it felt wrong to sell American flags that were made in China.
After Sam died, just a few years later, those Chinese flags and others of different sizes, were all up and down our shelves. Where could you get American made ones? At that time in Cleveland, I hadn't a clue. What happened to the haven of American made goods? Sam died. That's what happened. What did Walmart employees look forward to, after he was gone. From what this former employee could tell, not very much. When the Walmart I got hired into stopped being the Walmart I felt good about working for, I left. After ol' Sam died, a lot of his personal business ethics and methods died with him, and a degree of Walmart's integrity too. I feel bad about sometimes shopping there nowadays, but lately it's been the only game in town for what I need.
But I'll never forget the REAL Walmart. The one Sam made.
