The last two Walmart stores within Portland’s city limits will close in late March

Started doing more in store shopping at Walmart. Grocery items are a lot less than the local grocery chains.
 

There is not much point in looking for local reasons or politics or corporate conspiracies, when the shut-down of familiar retailers is governed more by changing demographics and technology advancements, combined with the simple physical fact that the bigger something is, the harder it is to change its course - and the more radical the change, the more difficult (if not impossible) it is to solve the problem, without creating even more chaos that would be fatal to your business.
BlockBuster Video comes to mind. It died because of technology advancements, the very thing that created it in the first place. Of course, that was a bit different because it was ultra specialized and dealt with only one single commodity. It was not manipulated out of existence. It just could not compete.

Walmart seems diversified enough that it should be better able to survive, which it has for now, but companies that operate out of warehouses seem to be more competitive. I do miss those brick and mortar tech stores like Circuit City, Frys, and even Radio Shack, where you could walk around and browse. I called them "candy stores." Going into them was shopping, but it was also a form of entertainment.
 
I would imagine that theft has some play in all that's going on at Walmart. Like so many other people on this forum, I have seen people steal goods on those self checkouts and the person that is supposed to be watching what's going on couldn't care less.

Last Saturday afternoon, I was using the self checkout and a Latino couple was across the aisle from me and as I was waiting to get a register, I watched the man scan a product and put a couple of items into his bag. I think he may have paid for about 1/3 of his order. I thought good for him. Walmart deserves what they dish out. It's wrong, it's stealing, but all of these big companies steal from the public each day without recourse.
That's what my son does all day every day at Walmart. He used to be be a cashier and loved it, he was fast and smooth and enjoyed chatting with the customer while he did it. Now he has to just stand on aching feet and "watch people steal." The couple you saw who would run one item through and bag three is not clever or unusual they are just thieves.

My son's job is to pretend it's an accident, go over and say, "I'm sorry sir this register isn't working very well it's been skipping items let me run these things through for you." He gets a lot of hate for this.

I don't know how you think Walmart is stealing from the public. They are a business with employees to be paid and profits to be made for their share holders. No one is forced to shop there. The thieves might eventually force some stores to close, but in the short run they are just causing prices to rise for you in order to off-set the loss.

It disgusts me that people have decided stealing is cool or justified in some way. I hope some thief decides you don't deserve your car because you are privileged member of the patriarchy and on lookers watch him drive off thinking "good for him."
 
That's what my son does all day every day at Walmart. He used to be be a cashier and loved it, he was fast and smooth and enjoyed chatting with the customer while he did it. Now he has to just stand on aching feet and "watch people steal." The couple you saw who would run one item through and bag three is not clever or unusual they are just thieves.

My son's job is to pretend it's an accident, go over and say, "I'm sorry sir this register isn't working very well it's been skipping items let me run these things through for you." He gets a lot of hate for this.

I don't know how you think Walmart is stealing from the public. They are a business with employees to be paid and profits to be made for their share holders. No one is forced to shop there. The thieves might eventually force some stores to close, but in the short run they are just causing prices to rise for you in order to off-set the loss.

It disgusts me that people have decided stealing is cool or justified in some way. I hope some thief decides you don't deserve your car because you are privileged member of the patriarchy and on lookers watch him drive off thinking "good for him."
The reason I wrote they deserve what they get is because the person watching those self checkout scanners made no attempt to approach the couple and face them with what he was seeing. I saw him watching them as they did their 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 scan, but then had to go help another checkout customer. If Walmart is going to put someone there at the self checkout, I would suggest that they be more vigilant and if they have a policy as to how to approach these thieves, the person should be following the directions. If he doesn’t have the nerve to do so, tell your manager and ask to go stock shelves. Some of us are tiring of seeing prices rise or stores being closed due to thievery. I understand that you can’t get them all, but this couple made no bones about it and acted as though they were entitled to do what they were doing.
 
You said it yourself, he had to go help another customer. The law forbids accusing anyone for stealing while still in the store. He may have cued security with his store issued phone. Then the employee at the door would have asked to see their receipt and removed all the things that weren't paid for. The clerks at the self-check registers are cashiers, not armed policemen, they are paid minimum wage to do grocery work, not risk their lives.
 
Just saw..Re: ordering online groceries from Walmart..to be delivered.
Starting March 28, 2023...will charge 40¢ per bag..

10¢ per bag..in Store.
 
I've been waiting for some stores to actually be creative but our world is overrun by morons and lawyers. On my Nextdoor group, have made suggestions over a long time for how they might deal with these issues but those in retail management are either too stupid or legally afraid.

Here in wealthy Santa Clara County also known as Silicon Valley many of the criminals drive down from Alameda County especially Oakland or live about our poor side of east San Jose, a hot bed of illegals and gangs from the south. Many are in black stolen vehicles with stolen license plates. In recent months they've been active in upscale residential neighborhoods because the city of San Jose is apparently ignoring many of the 911 calls people are actively calling in about as they are being victimized. Upper middle class and wealthy that had been ignoring much of this because they felt safe are suddenly in a panic.

And businesses same issue when calling in shoplifting due to the stupid $900 theft limit our !@#$ politicians won't repeal. They know our state has been a Mecca for the country's criminals and gangs of alien invaders but are too afraid of poor advocates that are so firmly entrenched politically. For a few years now, I've been preaching Automated License Plate Readers, ALPRs, on our freeway off ramps and key large boulevards. Our cities are warming to the idea despite ranting by ACLU and poor advocates.

Another thing I suggested is store security people using paintball shotguns with neon pin paint on those they witnessed shoplifting, confronted to stop but don't. Using easily washable paints so clothing can cleaned. Heck, a whole paintgun industry could be be profitable selling bright neon paintball shotguns one cannot mistake for real weapons.

Most times these criminals have a waiting getaway vehicle outside they have found no one is apparently trying to track as police usually don't care. If there are security people inside a store like a major grocery chain or Target or Walmart etc, and also outside, those outside could coordinate any time they see a black vehicle or suspicious group drive in and park, report inside what they look like, and if they shoplift, then flee after being confronted, either splash a bucket of washable red paint on their driver's side windshield or if more serious, plunge an icepick into a left front tire. They would run to their vehicle, notice a obscured windshield or severely flat tire, drop their goods, and run away on foot.
 
And businesses same issue when calling in shoplifting due to the stupid $900 theft limit our !@#$ politicians won't repeal. They know our state has been a Mecca for the country's criminals and gangs of alien invaders but are too afraid of poor advocates that are so firmly entrenched politically.
I thought that $900 limit was approved by the voters of California. Am I wrong? If I am right then I have to believe that the people of California are getting exactly what they want. Good for them!

We elect these people and vote for these initiatives.
 
The issue is that dominant entrenched news media advocates for poor, ethnics, and illegal aliens have manipulated arguments. That is the only way prop 47 passed. The following is an example why prop 47 has not been repealed. They use the argument that only 11 states have lower theft felony thresholds that is $950 here. What they don't state is police in other states actually enforce lower non-felony theft and burglaries that results in jail time while here the DAs are not because enforcing non-felonies would quickly pack prisons and jails again. That is a key reason society ought to return to a level of corporal punishments with oversight with little jail times. A change that dominant psychologist organizations would react to with foaming at the mouth seething hate.

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/03/14/kevin-kileys-proposition-47-repeal-bill-fails-in-committee/

Another lie they often promote is siting somewhat lower crime statistics. But what they never add is how many people and businesses stop reporting rampant burglaries and theft when police don't respond. But now another repeal bill is moving ahead,

https://californiaglobe.com/article...7-lower-felony-theft-threshold-of-950-to-400/
snippets:


However, polls have reported that 2 out of every 3 California voters either want Prop. 47 gone or heavily amended, giving public support for the return of higher penalties. This has led to continuous pushes get rid of it, including a new bill this week released as part of a group of bills pushing for more crime laws – Assembly Bill 335...
While no opposition has formed yet, it is expected that many Ds and criminal justice advocates will likely side against AB 335 soon, stressing that focusing on crime reduction through community efforts and similar means over straight arrests is still the best idea...
“Passing AB 335 would roll California back even further,” noted Annie Osborne, a communications specialist for a social justice organization on Tuesday. “So many people would be jailed if the repeal happened, rather than
being treated a different way. They are people after all.”

Well Annie, sticking those people out for a week at desert non-air conditioned jail facilities with boring food and no tv would be effective "treatment".
 
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I buy everything I need from Amazon including my prescriptions. I rarely leave my house since I do not drive a car anymore due to my advanced age of 88. I order food on the internet from Stop & Shop and Amazon's Whole Foods subsidiary. Everything is delivered to me.
 
I only watched 1/2 of the video. As far as I'm concerned I saw a lot of very, very sick people. As I have been saying over the last couple of years, we got us here a "dumb and dumber" society.
 
You got it right.

Walmart’s departure from Portland shines light on rampant property crime​

Police want to hire 300 more officers. Good luck with that. What policeman would want to work for a city whose leadership creates a hostile environment for law enforcement. I assume this is what the Portland citizens want since they elected this leadership. They should be happy.
 
REI is pulling out of Portland also.
I remember when REI was struggling to make it and had only one store located in Seattle. They were too specialized to be a viable sporting good store , dealing only in mountaineering equipment that could not be purchased anywhere else . Many of their products had to come from from Europe. I still have an ice axe today form REI that was manufactured in Germany. It is an original Ashenbrenner Fuhrerpickle. lol Almost all of their business was done by catalog with drawings of equipment, not photos, and descriptions that bring to mind the J. Peterman catalog of the Seinfeld sitcom, but less corny, of course. But it was the only outlet that I knew of that catered only to serious mountaineers. I visited their store in Seattle one time. I don't remember if I bought anything on that trip. It was more of a pilgrimage than anything else. Now of course, they sell bicycles, canoes, and ski apparel, as well as mountaineering gear, which takes up but a small corner of their inventory today.
 


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