Much may depend on the level of shoplifting prevalent in a given area. I have driven through places it would appear a good policy would be to keep the doors basically locked. Letting people in and out or the operation would be picked clean.

Here if you have a piece of paper in your hand that resembles a reciept even they never examine it. Personally I find few goods I want to purchase at their stores anyways.

If I want the equivelant chinese goods I usually source them from the orient myself and have them mailed to me. This habit started long ago when wal mart wanted 20.00 for memory chips. I got them for .60 cents each from the orient. Wally world probably paid .20 cents at that time for the ones they retailed for twenty dollars as they buy in huge volumes.

Their is something detrimental to this high of a margin on products in the long haul I suspect. Just for starters it enables too much wealth transfer in my opinion.

National statistics kind of indicate this has and continues to be an issue. This is also perhaps the reason that about 70 percent of gnp is based on retail currently in the United States.

This excess greed is an open invitation for the chinese themselves to get a handle on direct retail in the states. It is only a matter of time in my opinion. Companies like wal mart will have made it innevatable as well in my opinion.

I think I come from or lived through a time of more ethical behaviour in retail. We realised everyone had to live. The average consumer watches his or her country suffer by these extreme markups.

Most are unaware of just how cheaply chains like these get much of their products to resell. I doubt the average employee is made aware either. Certainly not the consumer.

We as a family make X dollars a year. How we dispose of it is probably just as important as how we make it. For example it is observable that the rich generally have made a nice recovery from the recession. The average working person has not done nearly as well.

We as a family do have an obligaition to support the general economy. We do not have an obligation to be financially bled to death to enable this though.

This is about the only way the dollar has any value left in my opinion. Just paying the going price for almost everything no longer makes sense to me. Certain things are unavoidable as to cost but many are not. Wall mart and other simular outlets are not wise places to get good value for the dollar in my opinion. In someways I see it as an abuse of the free enterprise system.