The big box stores in general are pretty bad in keeping things appropriate to the location. Every year, they get those god-awful little sad sticks in boxes brought in during February, when we have 2 1/2 months before it would be safe to plant them out here in Michigan. And invariably, they have cultivars like Thompson Seedless grapes that can't possibly survive here. I've also seen other gems like rabbiteye blueberries, fuzzy kiwi, etc. Mind you, as someone willing to try via "extraordinary techniques" to overwinter out of zone plants, I find it interesting, but its bad and deceptive for the novice who doesn't know the difference. As far as the enormous operations that supply plants for the big-box stores, I find it fascinating that they have such complex systems set up, yet can't manage to find enough people to unload, unpack, water, and properly care for these plants once they arrive at your local Wal-mart, Home Depot, Lowe's,, etc. I always wondered how they made ANY profit at all, given the high cost of inputs such as energy, when they are all paid essentially on commission under these pay-by-scanned-sales programs, and so much of the plant material dies in the retail outlet due to abuse, neglect, and just plain market saturation beyond all reasonable ability to sell it all. But, they must, or it wouldn't happen. I guess the good side -- some of these places, particularly Lowe's, are pretty good about marking things down dramatically to move them -- I get good bargains on things all the time. Best was a few years back at the end of season at my local Home Depot, when they got down to the "everything in small pots is $0.50, everything in medium pots is $1, and everything larger is $2" by Halloween -- I ended up getting several cartloads of nice nursery stock for next to nothing -- Buddleia, crabapples, maples, all kinds of things. Best was a grafted dwarf mounding blue spruce, original price $80, for $2.

Hello everyone! I'm definitely NOT a fan of Wal-Mart, although I can appreciate the reasons why people shop there. Wal-Mart has extremely low prices, but I am absolutely NOT convinvced their products are of good quality. One of the few things I bought was a garden-hose-spray-nozzle for .99 which broke within a few days. At a yard sale, I got 2 used garden-hose-spray-nozzles for $1 each, which have held up faithfully. 4 years ago, My mom bought a kids' mountain bike for her grandson. What a piece of crap that was. Crappy enough to make a kid not want to ride a bike. Yes, it was very inexpensive, but who cares, if its just junk? I bought my mountain bike on local-ebay, 2nd hand, for a lot less than what it'd cost new. Walmart clothes: decent, but Target is far better. I'm lucky to live in a metropolitan area, where thrift stores are chock-full of good clothes. Nobody does a better job of being thrifty than me: I'm enthusiastic about buying things 2nd hand, at thrift stores, auctions, on craigslist.org, in the local paper, etc. I get a lot of great things, used. Where I live, anything I need can be found for a good price at smaller stores (...every store is smaller than Walmart). And if paying a little more means supporting a smaller and/or local store, I will do so. Smaller stores sometimes have great sales! I believe in supporting small/smaller businesses, because I believe they are healthy for our economy, from which everyone benefits. I wrote a letter to the mayor of Oregon City, thanking her for saying "no" to a Walmart store being built here. (She wrote me back!) Another point: Don't buy anything just because it's dirt cheap. Garbage service costs, and the landfills have enough junk already. How much useless crap could a household possibly need?

Last month, I went into W*M to buy an inexpensive digital camera for my daughter, and I asked the person working the camera counter which additional memory chip to get to replace the worthless one that comes with all new digital cameras. She assured me that such-n-such was what I needed, so I bought one for $85.00, payed for everything, and went home. Opened up the box, saw that the extra chip was the wrong kind, so drove back in, went to the appropriate returns desk, gave the receipt and the unopened package, and went and exchanged it for the right one. I was held up by the store door man - 'security' guy, some poor geezer well into his 80's with a cane, for 30 minutes while they checked to see if I had pulled a switcheroo. I think he was more annoyed than I was, and offered me a chair. Anyway, reason to add to the thread is I read of a new t-shirt on the market, something about "Every time you shop at Walmart, God kills a kitten"

Like I said above, it's just a personal preference/reaction, but I always felt cash gifts said "we didn't put any thought into this." My late mother-in-law always gave me generous cash gifts, but I always wished she had bought something instead. I used to take the cash to Tiffany's and buy a piece of jewelry and then tell people, "My mother-in-law gave me this." Only technically true, I guess, but it felt so much better to me than saying, "My mother-in-law gave me the money to buy this." Unfortunately, it's all moot now since my jewelry got stolen years ago. :-( I should add that for certain recipients, like teenagers and college students, cash is probably the most appreciated gift of all. This post was edited by alisande on Thu, Nov 20, 14 at 12:47