I hear you on the Subway bakery smell but ours is not a super store with a bakery. Its supposed to get renovated soon and have a 24 hr supermarket and will probably get a bakery. If that happens I may pop in there early AM before the circus tent gets filled.
Funny when I was down at Hilton Head Island visiting relatives I went to Walmart to get a fishing license & some bait. From the outside it was perfectly disguised with a beautiful building facade & unbelievable landscaping but as soon as I got past the front doors there was Walmart in all its glory but without the sour smell.
Lol, we have a place in Stuart, Florida - the one there is set way back off the road and has a nicely landscaped parking lot. Just as you describe the full experience awaits once you go inside.
I really wish Food Babe would shut up about things she doesn’t understand, rather than start ridiculous rumors.
The chemical in question is an extremely widely used dough conditioner. It’s commonly used by tons of commercial bakers. Yes, it’s also a chemical used in the manufacture of the foam in things like yoga mats and styrofoam, but that doesn’t mean there’s yoga mat chemicals in Subway sandwiches.
I have never noticed any weird smells associated with any Subway anywhere, and have never understood why that’s something that gets brought up all the time. If anything, they smell like yeast from the baking bread, and I’m very okay with that.
Hey I’m not trying to besmirch Subway or Walmart for that matter, I’m just trying to tie a connection between the two very similar smells to me. I know some people complain about Subway stores smelling up surrounding area’s, I have never found that, but I do smell “something” when I enter a store.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…DUH !!!
I just realized there is a Subway directly next to the entrance of the Walmart I go to. LOL Forget about everything I said previously, the Subway smell I get when I walk into my Walmart is a SUBWAY!!! LMAO…
I have to say that for people on a major diet who are “passing through” a few sizes, Walmart has to be appealing, because you don’t have to spend outrageous prices for items that you’ll be out of in a couple of months.
That said, one could also go to Goodwill or other thrift shops, where they often have new or almost-new items even cheaper than Walmart.
I have mixed feelings about Walmart. On the one hand, it doesn’t treat its suppliers and employees as well as it should. On the other, it makes it possible for people with very little money to buy clothing and other things they could not otherwise afford.
I don’t like Walmart. I’m going to repeat this: I don’t like Walmart.
But.
It’s all I have. The Target (the one with mostly empty shelves, apathetic employees, and prices no better than Publix) is 10 miles further down the road, in the middle of an insanely crowded suburb.
So my choice is to drive further, spend more time, burn more gas, spend more money at a poorly-run store and end up having to go somewhere else to finish my list…all to make a purchase small enough that neither of them really care whether I’m there or not…
No problem – I haven’t reached my daily caffeine allotment yet, so I tend to mumble incoherently for a while.
I end up going to Walmart because even though I don’t like Walmart, spending an extra hour or two of time, more more, more gas, and more angst because now I still have to go somewhere else to buy all the stuff that this store is out of isn’t worth it for a purchase of less than $100.
My bi-weekly spend (because I don’t even go every week) is neither enough to make Target nor break Walmart, and I’ve made myself tired and pissed-off in the process.
(and as bizarre as this sounds – Walmart almost always has fennel, leeks, and parsnips – for way less than Publix. I refuse to pay $1.69 for ONE leek)
I had to buy leeks last month and was taken back by Publix pricing. My wife and I were both making dishes that included them. I got them for her but opted to use green onions in my dish. Was at WM shortly after and they had 3 leeks for Publix 2 for about the same price. You have to watch how things are priced between the two stores, per pound or each.
Yeah, what is with produce being priced by the pound in some places and by the piece in others? I understand that corner markets may not want to have to bother to weigh produce, but even in one store and with one item, oranges are per pound if bought in a bag, but per piece if bought individually.
I found that with Trader Joe’s, the first time I went I saw the price of an item and was like wow what a deal, I go up to the register and find out the price was per item, not per lbs. One of the many reasons TJ"s get’s on my nerves.
Leeks are bizarrely expensive in America in general. They’re usually $2.99 or $3.99 per pound in my neighborhood grocery stores. Completely insane.
And just to add my $.02 to the Walmart discussion, I also don’t like Walmart, but there are times when it’s the only choice. As Sunshine said, driving miles and miles out of your way to avoid it and then not be assured of getting the item you need just isn’t worth it.
This is what makes the haters hate them even more - they’ve undercut and driven away the competition, leaving you little choice. I am happy to live in a place where Walmart would be a much farther detour than Target or any other store. I have never spent a dime there and plan to keep it that way.
See this is where I have a problem “hating” them; " they’ve undercut and driven away the competition" so you people are hating them for beating their competition and having the lowest prices?
I’ve been self employed for 27 years, every day I strive to undercut my competition and “beat” them into submission. lol It’s my dream. It just doesn’t make sense…and I’m a small business so I know what it’s like to be driven out by a HUGE company like them, but that’s business.
Not criticizing you or anyone for their feelings, just expressing mine.
To be fair, the signage at TJ’s does say “ea”, and the practice is becoming more common in other supermarkets as well. The onus is on the customer to pay attention.
The business of making money is, essentially, doing better than your competition and attracting more business through better prices, products, and service. I have no problem with Wal-Mart being competitive in a general sort of sense.
But having done business with them ‘behind the scenes’, I know how dirty and underhanded their business is. They cheat, they lie, they pull every nasty dirty trick they can to stay on top, including treating their employees poorly. There’s a reason they’re widely loathed by the companies that have to do business with them, whereas Target is well-liked, in my experience.
To be fairer and as of the time of my incident (approx 3 years ago) they sign says $ .99 ea. Not “each” and the “ea” was written in smaller letters in the upper right hand corner of the sign in significantly smaller font. I remember this specifically because I did go back to double check it, thinking the register person was wrong and ringing me up incorrectly.
Around me per pound was the norm for produce, this was green bell peppers specifically, I had never encountered them priced per item before. The register person was obviously correct and I paid whatever it was, but I just didn’t like that and felt it was a bit shady. lol The eye and mind in my case was trained that the small letters were lb. not ea.
Their business, their business model, just the first time I had experienced it.
Well to be clear, I’m not a “Pro-Walmart” guy. I don’t go out of my way to shop there and if one hadn’t opened up less than a mile on the same highway of my office I would probably still have never set foot in one. So by the same token I can’t compare to Target because I haven’t been to one, however if one were to open in such close proximity I certainly would check them out.
I do know Walmart more from a business observers perspective and while I know of their employment tactics - keeping employees part time to avoid benefits, low(er) wages etc. Again, I’m unaware of an “illegal” tactics they use to rip-off their employees, I also know that for every position that opens at Walmart they receive something like 25 applications per job. Also Walmart is the worlds largest employer and their combined sales is something like more than Target, JC Pennys Costco and some other large stores combined.
I also think they are the largest charitable organization. So although they have their faults, they have many positives as well. All I can say is now having experienced them first hand I do think they get a bad rap. I’m not familiar with them lying or cheating or dirty tricks, if you do have knowledge or experience with that I would certainly like to hear about it.
Absolutely! No company is “pure evil” or any such malarky; Wal-Mart is indeed hugely philanthropic, and they just gave huge bonuses to (some) employees not long ago. And they’re well known for letting truckers use their parking lots overnight.
I spent quite a few years working with various brands at P&G and was privy to many conference calls; Wal-Mart always demanded their own store exclusives and forced companies to bend over backwards for the privilege of shelf space, because they knew they held the cards. Many brand managers told me stories of being constantly cheated and lied to by Wal-Mart. One call I remember was when Folgers had negotiated to be on the front page of a Wal-Mart flyer with accompanying in-store promos; it was a huge deal and we worked on the promo for months. The last call before the flyer launched, we were in the office with the head of Folgers and some bigwig at Wal-Mart was on the line, who angrily told us that Maxwell House had just done a surprise similar promo, one week early, in their competitor’s flyer. The Folgers brand manager was taken aback, “That’s unfortunate, but we don’t control their business or when they advertise in flyers. I’m sure our flyer will do very well.”
“Fuck your flyer,” said the voice on the other line, and hung up. The entire promotion and months of work was cancelled and Wal-Mart pulled tons of their business out of spite. This kind of thing happened ALL THE TIME.
