On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:53:12 -0700, Samantha Hill - remove TRASH to
reply wrote:
Strategically in this case means that they do it to figure out how to
minimize the amount of taxes they have to pay.
That would make sense if it were possible to do that. But you have yet
to explain what you are referring to and it continues to seem
impossible.
Don is right, that the sales tax on gasoline doesn't go to
municipality or the county, unless there is a local surcharge and
those surcharges are rare. So if you were talking about local taxes,
my point about gas tax probably proved nothing. (Plus the sales tax
is paid by the customer and collected for the state by the store.)
But if you are talking about local taxes, what local tax are you
talking about that is not the same for groceries and everything else?
Dave points out that the property tax, the only local tax that comes
to mind, is the same for the part of the store selling groceries and
the rest of the store. How do they save on taxes by selling
groceries? Are the other grocery stores in the area not paying their
share of taxes.
So far, your complaint against Walmart sounds like something you've
heard but haven't really thought about, and is one of the nonsense
complaints that people who don't like something concoct.
Again, I rarely go to Walmart, partly because I rarely buy anything at
all, other than hardware and repair parts for things I already own,
that WM doesn't sell. As to food I've never bought more than a candy
bar or bag of cookies at walmart to be eaten right then.
Exceptions, and worth telling you all about
:
A) I didn't buy a digital camera until the middle of my last big
vacation. From the 8 rolls of film I had shot, I had double prints
made and a CD of each roll. I went several places, including a camera
store and had one roll done at each place. Walmart was the only one
that put mini-pictures, of every picture on the roll, on the CD, so I
don't need to keep the CD in the same envelope with prints or
negatives to know which CD is in my hand. If I find one next to the
CD drive, I can tell what's on it without turning on the computer or
starting the software. It turns out Costco does this too, although I
know nothing else about Costco. I don't know why the others don't.
This solves an annoyance that had bothered me for years.
B) Other than mail order, which I didn't want in case I had to
exchange it, Walmart and Sams Club are the only places around here and
maybe nationwide that sell the Phillips 7576H DVDR with Hard Drive.
AFAIK this is the only digital dvdr with a harddrive available in the
USA. I have no idea why other stores don't sell it, except maybe
eveyone gets a dvr or dvdr from their cable or satellite company, or
has TIVO. I don't want to spend that kind of money, and maybe a
store that targets poor people is likely to have this thing, even
though 250 or 300 dollars isn't so little I sneeze at it. But I like
mine.
C) I can no longer find the little cubes with switches on them that
plug into a receptacle and something else plugs into them. About 1x1x1
inch, with a switch, it's very convenient for lots of things, for
things that don't have their own switches or for which I want the
power to be totally removed (I have a tv that seems to need resetting
once in a while. The bathroom outlet and the switch I put there is
easy to reach). But Walmart usually has them, both 3-prong and
2-prong!!! Eventually I also found one at K-mart, but there the
nearest k-mart is fairly far and only had ONE.
D) For a while they had a very good price on CF bulbs. But
eventually home depot did too, and I won't need any more for years.
I think that's all I've bought from them in the last 3 years, and
maybe nothing before that.
But I still don't want to see prevail what seems like a mistaken
statement about the taxes they pay.
mm wrote:
And another thing: What do you mean by strategically? That usually
refers to placing things where they'll be seen, like out the checkout
counter? Floor space percentages are determined by what they think
the market is.