Cash Your Economic Stimulus Check At Walmart

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the economic stimulus checks and the incentives offered by Walmart for cashing these checks, particularly targeting individuals without bank accounts. Participants explore the implications of using Walmart's MoneyCard, the potential financial management issues for users, and the broader economic impact of spending stimulus money at a single retailer.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants note that Walmart cashes stimulus checks without the customary fee, which could benefit those without bank accounts.
  • Others argue that using the MoneyCard effectively ties consumers to spending their checks exclusively at Walmart, raising concerns about financial management.
  • A participant questions the wisdom of spending the entire check at Walmart, suggesting that individuals could open a bank account instead.
  • There are claims that Walmart's pricing strategy may not always reflect the best quality, with some asserting that brand-name items sold at Walmart may differ in quality from those sold elsewhere.
  • Some participants express skepticism about the overall economic stimulation if stimulus checks are predominantly spent at Walmart.
  • Concerns are raised about the fees associated with the MoneyCard, suggesting that it may not be as beneficial as simply using a bank account.
  • Several participants share personal experiences regarding the quality of electronics purchased at Walmart, with mixed opinions on refurbished items versus new products.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of opinions, with no clear consensus on the benefits or drawbacks of using Walmart for cashing stimulus checks or the implications of the MoneyCard. Disagreement exists regarding the quality of products sold at Walmart and the effectiveness of the stimulus checks in stimulating the economy.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight various assumptions about financial management, the quality of products, and the economic impact of spending stimulus checks at a single retailer. There are unresolved questions about the fees associated with the MoneyCard and its comparison to traditional banking options.

  • #31
Evo said:
This has nothing to do with Walmart or your claims about Walmart.

You can say that you don't like Walmart, you can say you disagree with how harshly they negotiate, you can say you had a bad experience at one of their stores, but you cannot make "truth statements" based on your personal opinion.

I never did say it was about Wal-Mart nor did I make personal opinions. I suggest that you don't insert artificial facts in your head.
 
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  • #32
JasonRox said:
Which one is Chinese? :smile: I never said Asia. :smile:
You said
The company is forced to relocate plants to places like China, Mexico and so on.
 
  • #33
Evo said:
You said

Of course Japan isn't one of them. :smile:

Mexico isn't in Asia. So, I have no idea how you picked out Asia as a pattern. :smile:[/quote]
 
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  • #34
JasonRox said:
Of course Japan isn't one of them. :smile:

Mexico isn't in Asia. So, I have no idea how you picked out Asia as a pattern. :smile:
[/QUOTE]I have no idea what you are talking about. Go back and read what I posted within it's context.

I said country, :smile: Obviously Asia is not a country. :-p
 
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  • #35
JasonRox said:
I never did say it was about Wal-Mart nor did I make personal opinions. I suggest that you don't insert artificial facts in your head.
I suggest that you read what you posted.

JasonRox said:
An important point you mentionned, is the sheer volume of sales Wal-Mart produces for a manufacturer. This leads to Wal-Mart being responsible for a large portion of the manufacturers revenues up to the point that they can not afford to lose a contract with Wal-Mart or it would result in large lay-offs or closure of many plants or even the company itself. Why is that bad? Well, Wal-Mart uses this edge to choose it's own prices. If a manufacturer offers it's lowest possible price of at say $1 a unit, Wal-Mart can and sometimes will reject the offer and offer to purchase it for $0.50 a unit. Clearly, the company can not cut its costs in half! What happens? The company is forced to relocate plants to places like China, Mexico and so on.
 
  • #36
Whether the Walmart/china relationship is good or bad for America definitely depends on a personal point of view. I have a lot of old friends who live in the rust belt. They have seen their world turned upside down. Watch "taking the hits"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/

On the other hand the deed is done so to speak. We can not reverse the course of outsourced manufacturing.
 
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  • #37
edward said:
Whether the Walmart/china relationship is good or bad for America definitely depends on a personal point of view. I have a lot of old friends who live in the rust belt. They have seen their world turned upside down. Watch "taking the hits"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/

On the other hand the deed is done so to speak. We can not reverse the course of outsourced manufacturing.

The video says exactly what I was saying about Wal-Mart and pressuring manufacturers, like Sanyo in the video.
 
  • #38
All retailers, American consumers and stockholders for that matter are forcing outsourcing. Americans want to pay less, shareholders of the companies want higher dividends, the companies want higher profits, so companies choose to outsource to countries where they can produce for less so everyone gets what they want. And it's not just manufacturing, it's tech support, customer service, etc... It's all driven by greed. When is the last time you wanted to pay more for something simply because it was made or had customer service in the US? If you own stock, do you want to lose money to keep everything in country or are you only looking at your dividends? If a company's stock tanks because they will not go international, will you keep that stock watching your money evaporate going "yeah, that's what I mean, lower profits!" I want to invest my money in companies that will bankrupt me!.

Yeah, riiight.
 
  • #39
JasonRox said:
The video says exactly what I was saying about Wal-Mart and pressuring manufacturers, like Sanyo in the video.

Walmart definitely did introduce the concept of the retailer setting the price. They also got a head start on other retailers by being the first to computerized bar codes to trace consumer buying habits.
 
  • #40
Evo said:
All retailers, American consumers and stockholders for that matter are forcing outsourcing. Americans want to pay less, shareholders of the companies want higher dividends, the companies want higher profits, so companies choose to outsource to countries where they can produce for less so everyone gets what they want. And it's not just manufacturing, it's tech support, customer service, etc... It's all driven by greed. When is the last time you wanted to pay more for something simply because it was made or had customer service in the US? If you own stock, do you want to lose money to keep everything in country or are you only looking at your dividends? If a company's stock tanks because they will not go international, will you keep that stock watching your money evaporate going "yeah, that's what I mean, lower profits!" I want to invest my money in companies that will bankrupt me!.

Yeah, riiight.

You make good points as usuall. One thing that always comes to mind when I think of how much manufacturing has gone to China is; what do we do when they all of a sudded say: "Sorry we are rasing prices by 25%, tough ruck Amelica".
 
  • #41
edward said:
You make good points as usuall. One thing that always comes to mind when I think of how much manufacturing has gone to China is; what do we do when they all of a sudded say: "Sorry we are rasing prices by 25%, tough ruck Amelica".
Oh, we are definitely at the mercy of foreign countries, China in particular. And it all boils down to greed. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

But when I pay a dollar less for a large can of Hunt's tomatoes (owned by ConAgra) at Walmart where are the tomatoes from? Does it mater if I buy a can of Hunt's tomatoes from Walmart or from the over priced snobbish store down the street? About the only thing I buy at Walmart are brand name pre-packaged grocery items.
 
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  • #42
China, and vietnam are communist countries. The entire government structure treats its people like crap. Its not the fault of american companies that the chinese government doesn't do sh!t to fix the working conditions.
 
  • #43
Cyrus said:
China, and vietnam are communist countries. The entire government structure treats its people like crap. Its not the fault of american companies that the chinese government doesn't do sh!t to fix the working conditions.

We aren't talking about working conditions and how the Chinese government does nothing.
 
  • #44
JasonRox said:
I pay more for my cellphone than most people because the service I get is better and is not outsourced. I can talk to representatives and they know what I'm talking about. They know Quebec City isn't close to my hometown and so on. I have called outsourced customer service and they knew nothing about the area, the cities, or basically anything. Who wants that? I certainly don't. So yes, I want Customer Service from Canada, or even the US.
The company I work for owns a major cellular company one of the top 3. We outsource our customer service, but we hire the really good ones and even I couldn't tell that I was talking to "John" in the Phillipines the other day. Absolutely no detectable accent. He was awesome. He, like many of his co-workers, are college students working at a call center outside of Manilla.

I used to work for the company that owns the #1 cellular company in the US, and yes, they outsource to India.

Also, all of the cell phones are made in China, Japan, Korea, etc...
 
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  • #45
JasonRox said:
We aren't talking about working conditions and how the Chinese government does nothing.

This whole thing started because of kids working in a chinese sweat shop factory, Jason...
 
  • #46
Cyrus said:
This whole thing started because of kids working in a chinese sweat shop factory, Jason...

...
 
  • #47
JasonRox said:
...

Look through the first page of this thread.

...Anyways, really good PBS link!
 
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  • #48
B. Elliott said:
My experience was with accessories where the performance can be rated. I've seen 'new' video cards form Walmart that either don't meet the performance level of the other sellers product, or have inherent problems... then taking them back for a refund. I've also seen these issues with a few CD data drives... The Walmart product either being noisier or reading/writing at a much slower rate.

At the same time, I have seen perfectly good products come from Wally World that function as they should. It's just that I haven't seen this level of 'hit and miss' with products form other retailers.

This probably has more to do with individual store policy on handling returns. I bought a wireless mouse at walmart. When I got it home and went to open it up I found that it had already been opened and that the product inside was very obviously used and roughly handled. Fortunately they took it back no questions asked but you have to wonder how often that happens and how much money they may be making on reselling products that oughtn't be resold.
 
  • #49
TheStatutoryApe said:
This probably has more to do with individual store policy on handling returns. I bought a wireless mouse at walmart. When I got it home and went to open it up I found that it had already been opened and that the product inside was very obviously used and roughly handled. Fortunately they took it back no questions asked but you have to wonder how often that happens and how much money they may be making on reselling products that oughtn't be resold.

Walmart does appear to have a bad habit of putting returned, even used, items back on the shelf.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/283/RipOff0283813.htm

also:

10-Year-Old Girl Receives Video MP3 Player Loaded with Porn for Christmas
Well, if I had to get a screwed-up Christmas present, would I prefer a PS3 box with a phone book inside or a video MP3 player with porn pre-loaded? Hmmm.

In Cookeville, Tennessee, Daryl Hill wants to know how the Sparta, Tennessee Wal-Mart sold the MP3 player as new, which violates Wal-Mart's policy: returned items are not supposed to be put back on the sales floor.

http://www.topix.com/news/weird/200...deo-mp3-player-loaded-with-porn-for-christmas
 
  • #50
Evo said:
All retailers, American consumers and stockholders for that matter are forcing outsourcing. Americans want to pay less, shareholders of the companies want higher dividends, the companies want higher profits, so companies choose to outsource to countries where they can produce for less so everyone gets what they want. And it's not just manufacturing, it's tech support, customer service, etc... It's all driven by greed. When is the last time you wanted to pay more for something simply because it was made or had customer service in the US? If you own stock, do you want to lose money to keep everything in country or are you only looking at your dividends? If a company's stock tanks because they will not go international, will you keep that stock watching your money evaporate going "yeah, that's what I mean, lower profits!" I want to invest my money in companies that will bankrupt me!.

Yeah, riiight.

I actually pay more money for items quite often because it is made in America.
 
  • #51
Aycex said:
I actually pay more money for items quite often because it is made in America.
Funny, many "made in America" items are made in US Prisons. I know this because a lot of the companies that use prisoners for labor are my clients. You'd be surprised who they are. I think it's great, prisoners should work.
 
  • #52
Evo said:
Funny, many "made in America" items are made in US Prisons. I know this because a lot of the companies that use prisoners for labor are my clients. You'd be surprised who they are. I think it's great, prisoners should work.

I agree 200%. Other than the crazies that should be kept in solitary confinement, the rest (98-99%?) should be spending their time making or producing something. Since quite a high percentage will be spending the rest of their life in prison, why not get something out of them rather than just letting them sit around working out, watching TV, ect, and using taxpayers money? Money-wise, potentially making the prison system self sufficient. Or at least try to close the gap in costs a little.
 
  • #53
By the way, just today I received a letter from the IRS stating that I should be receiving my 'stimulus check' by July 11th. It then goes on to state that it could take up to six weeks after that date to get to me!

I so wish I had my checking account info with me when I was doing my taxes.:frown:
 
  • #54
Will it really stimulate the economy or will just stimulate the economy in China since just about everything is made there.
 
  • #55
JasonRox said:
Will it really stimulate the economy or will just stimulate the economy in China since just about everything is made there.

I say China. Since I'm probably going to be spending part of it it on computer parts, that immediately means it's at least going to somewhere in Asia.
 

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