ME: Wal-Mart Rant!

As the old adage says "You get what you pay for!" and more times now than ever, every time I walk into Wal-Mart that's how Im feeling. We all know the quality of service and customer service is terrible, the stores are rarely cleaned, there are 20 something registers but for some strange reason only 4 are usually open but thats not my real issue. My issue is that I used to be able to run in and run out fairly quick and the prices were just about guaranteed to be the lowest among the other comparable stores in my area. BUT lately? I've been noticing a strange trend that maybe most customers don't notice, if they don't go there as much as I do. Wal-mart has slowly but surely been increasing their prices on namebrand stuff! The main reason I shop at Wal-Mart (other than the fact that I can get hair color, bananas, nail polish, and  a steak in one spot) is for the prices. Plain and simple. Now Im noticing that Wally World is now coming out with their own brands of foods under this Great Value name and raising the prices on similiar items. This morning I woke up craving bacon and pancakes but guess what? I didn't have bacon. So I decided to walk across the street to Wal-mart before the babe woke up to get this 3.99 bacon, only to my dismay to see 5.89 and the Great Value brand for 3.89. Wal-Mart do you think you really are on the same level as Oscar Meyer? I think not! I've tried you before again and again AND the quality is consistently horrible! So I grabbed the OM bacon and made a vow to start shopping at other stores instead of consistently giving my money to Wal-mart almost exclusively. This aint a marriage. They don't even treat their employees right! Despite being the #1 retailer in the US with the #2 competition millions of dollars away, but that's is another story for a different day. But yeah thats how I started my day. Now that I got that out Im going to step off my soapbox now and mmh go back to enjoying my Saturday.