Reasons to avoid.

The main reasons cited for avoiding stores and formats were poor customer service, not having advertised items, unsatisfactory return experiences, high prices, and high delivery charges. "I have stopped shopping at Safeway because they are too expensive & the people that work there make me feel like I'm interrupting their day!" Two stores on our list had exceptionally high "try-to-avoid" responses. One was Best Buy, for operations and service reasons. The other was Wal-Mart, where the overriding reason was long-term self-interest or social responsibility. The number of consumers who have begun to think that Wal-Mart's power has gotten out of hand may be reaching a tipping point.

* "Best Buy more often than not does not have what they advertise, and rain checks are a joke there."

* "I plan to avoid Best Buy--difficult to deal with when there is a problem and I have had a bad shopping/return experience with Circuit City."

* "Avoid Best Buy because the help is not knowledgeable. They seem to hire kids who don't care."

* "I avoid big box stores, especially Wal-Mart, because they muscle in to communities that don't want them. They all do it, but Wal-Mart is the worst."

* "I'm trying to boycott Wal-Mart because they have too much control of the marketplace."

* "I feel guilty whenever I shop at Wal-Mart so I try to avoid it."

* "As Wal-Mart becomes something like a monopoly, I'm beginning to think the government should take some control. After all, they broke up AT & T and had a long suit against Microsoft."