Free Bags and a Personal Opinion

1 Million Reusable Bag Giveaway on April 19As part of Earth Month 2008, Wal-Mart and Kellogg’s will be partnering to give away one million custom-made reusable shopping bags on Saturday, April 19th at 8AM local time*.
Plastic bags can take as long as 1,000 years to degrade. Wal-Mart sells reusable shopping bags every day made from recycled materials you can use instead, for just $1.
*While supplies last.

And, for anyone that has kids they're also offering a free seed packet!

Free for Kids: Nickelodeon’s Wildflower Seed Cards on April 19
One way to start help in making a difference for the Earth, come to Wal-Mart on April 19 at 8AM local time* to pick up your free seed card from Wal-Mart and Nickelodeon.
Just by planting your card under 1/4" of soil and ensuring it receives plenty of sun and moisture, the wildflowers grown will help create great environments for honeybees and birds!
Wal-Mart is the exclusive online sponsor for Nickelodeon’s, The Big Green Help.
Be sure to check out the back of your seed card for an invitation to play The SpongeBob Eco-Adventure game at http://www.biggreenhelp.com/. The game where you can help SpongeBob and Patrick save Bikini Bottom from an undersea avalanche of un-recycled trash–and the dreaded dirty bubbles!
*While supplies last.

I have friends that refuse to shop at Wal-Mart unless they absolutely can not find the item anywhere else. I understand their reasoning behind it but at the same time... it's a store. When I worked at a local Office Supply store in Dillsboro, NC there were customers that bought all their supplies from mom and pop stores. Most of these people were older and had seen the rise of Wal-Mart around the world. They refused to shop in such a place because it put small stores out of business. According to one gentleman I spoke to "Sam Walton said his sole purpose was to put every mom and pop store out of business before the end". I've had my fair share of bad experiences with stores but I never once had a problem shopping at the Wal-Mart in Sylva. Because Wal-Mart was the largest store in the area and always hiring, quite a few people I knew during my time in that area worked there. I heard all kinds of stories on all different spectrums. One girl abhorred going to work there every day because Wal-Mart oppressed it's employees and women didn't make as much as men and when she would ask for time off she was always denied. A guy I was acquainted with worked there for most of his college career and became a manager and ended up moving to California, undergoing General Manager training, and presumably becoming a General Manager of Wal-Mart... all while he went to college to become an evangelical leader in the Military.

I've heard good sides and bad sides but I still shop there. I think it's a personal choice honestly. I have a harder time entering certain Wal-Mart stores in Raleigh because they aren't clean, the employees are loud and too busy playing to do their jobs, and the store itself often smells of urine. But when I lived in the small mountain town of Sylva, I had no problem walking into Wal-Mart every day to do my shopping. The store was well maintained and the employees were lovely people with very nice personalities. I bought my groceries, DVD's, music, personal items... everything really... at the Wal-Mart. Not only was it convenient but it was just cost effective, especially for a college student. So the people that want to complain that Wal-Mart is taking over the world, consider this, perhaps not everyone has enough money to shop somewhere that has the higher price just on principal.