My original issues with Walmart may be long past their time and prime to complain. Originally my dislike and rejection from shopping and supporting Walmart had more to do with how poorly (at the time) they were treating merchants, more specifically someone I knew. Their approach to bullying smaller businesses that sell through them and basically treating them like garage as they tossed around their collective weight and buying power didn't sit well so i decided to no longer support them. I realize Walmart isn't alone in this type of behavior nor am I trying to convert anyone here in forgoing their shopping at Walmart; it was just more personal. Since giving up purchasing anything from Walmart, it's just been a thing that hasn't been a big deal to continue doing so I see no real reason to go back.
I like Costco as well but we don't have many close by my home. There is one near my work (16 miles or so away) that I should probably start using, I just haven't made it a priority.
If you need to buy non-perishables you might as well buy in bulk and save. Definitely google for "what to buy," and "what not to buy" at Costco as some of their bulk items aren't actually cheaper than your local store. Plus their food stand is awesome and cheap. Super cheap and super quality. Costco has always run their food stand as a loss leader with nearly 20 year old prices for food items. Cheap and great tasting lunch.
I remember all those reports of Walmart bullying vendors. You don't generally hear those reports today. Don't know if that is because the bullying has gone down or it's simply old news that's not worth reporting anymore.
With the rise of Ebay & Amazon, smaller vendors can sell directly to customers if Walmart gives them a hard time. Plus I think the proliferation of vendors setting up their own personal web presence allows them to sell directly to customers via their own web site. Possibly reducing the power of Walmart. I'm thinking the tiny startup businesses our going that route, while the larger and growing-in-size "small/less-small vendors" see the value of using Walmart and their logistics infrastructure if they outgrow selling out of their garage via Ebay/Amazon.
My beef with them is their crappy produce and substandard merchandise. They work with their vendors to make similar, but lower quality items that are hard to distinquish from the higher quality versions other stores sell.
For the most part Costco's, Kirkland "national brand equivalent," range of products are pretty good. Are Walmart's Great Value brand of products not even close to the "national brand equivalent" of products? Interesting. I did not know that.
Yeah I'd guess that produce in a Walmart would be lower quality. I'm guessing that Walmart's grocery store inside a department store setup is a near loss-leader to get people into the stores to buy their higher profit items.