Newsweek Columnist on WalMart

Ragu, I'd argue that given Wal-Mart's growth, they've actually reduced the overall standard of living based on their wages.

Wal-Mart doesn't buy its labour at the market rate. They decide what the labour rate is going to be and use every tactic in the book to keep it that way. Their anti-unionism is one tactic that comes to mind.

In the post war era the steel and automobile industries helped to foster the North America middle class through above average wages. Wal-Mart is reversing that trend and is reducing that middle class to the working poor.

 

Another idiotic post by the resident idiotic Canadian.

What part of "if you don't like it, don't shop there" is incompatible with speaking out against Wal-Mart?

If enough people don't shop there, they'll get "the message" (whatever that is) and change their business practices. Shop at Costco, for example, like the idiot Canadian suggests.

Sounds like some of you don't trust people to make their own economic decisions.

I buy some things at Wal-Mart (cleaning supplies, durable goods, etc.) because they're cheaper than they are at other places. I don't buy clothes there, simply because they're cheap (as in quality).

I don't know about you, but where I live (a relatively small town), there are plenty of other shopping options besides Wal-Mart. But that won't dissuade me from going there if I think I can get a good value.

 

Wal-Mart has gotten so big and powerful it goes beyond not shopping there.

Read The Wal-Mart Effect.

What do they do besides paying low wages? They put in these big superstores, drive small businesses out them move to another spot in a few years and the old store sits empty.

They make a deal with suppliers, change the terms and run them out of business.

For example, they may say they want to buy your skateboard and sell it for $20. So you hire a bunch of workers, lease new space, buy equipment and all to ratchet up production and they come back and say, we need to selll it for $15. You can't do it for that price? Too bad. You're out of business.

They drove Vlasic into bankruptcy because they refued to let Vlasic raise the price on a gallon of pickle spears. The weren't making any money but couldn't say no to Wal-Mart.

So either people suffer or the products they sell get worse and worse to keep the price down.

They have too much power and too little concern with how they wield it.

Not even talking about the wages or the way we have to pick up the cost of insurance for their millions of employees because they won't.

 

Hey, Lyman, you were the one with the idiotic Soviet Union crack.

Oh, and if you're so naive as to think that a bunch of people "shopping elsewhere" is going to change Wal-Mart's business you're dumber than I thought.

We're all happy that your cleaning supplies are cheaper at Wal-Mart. Nice analysis of the situation.

 

It is not as simple as "don't shop there." My objection to WalMart has little to do with how it treats its employees. I don't like the way it destroys little downtown stores through predatory pricing that will be jacked up once the competition dies, the way it doesn't generally advertise in local newspapers, the way it strong-arms U.S. companies into supplying cheaper and cheaper goods, which leaves the U.S. companies little choice but to procure the goods overseas instead of making them here. "Don't shop there," isn't enough. In many towns, people have no choice because all the alternatives have been killed.

I recommend the book "How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and The World and What You Can Do About It." I bought this book not at a local commie bookstore but at, of all things, a South Carolina barbecue restaurant owned by right-wing nutcase.

This is not a liberal-vs.-conservative issue.

 

Ace,
Your pickle example is a good one.

Wal-Mart has turned the vendor/customer relationship on its head.

Traditionally, a vendor would sell a widget for X and if volumes warranted it, they'd give the buyer a volume discount. Still the same widget, though.

Now, Wal-Mart will say, I want this widget, but I want to buy it at Y. Vendor goes away, reduces quality on some of their parts cuts some corners and says, to Wal-Mart, there's your widget at your Y price.

Problem is, it's not the same widget. It's a substantially inferior widget and if Joe Consumer sees the original widget at another store, he feels he's getting ripped because it's $5.00 more. Problem is, it ain't the same widget.

You get what you pay for and yes, there's no free lunch.

 

A BBQ house that sells books?
I love it.

 

Lord, you people sure do overreact....
I have the right to not shop at Wal-Mart, or shop there.
I have the right to not work at Wal-Mart, or work there.
My god...they drove a pickle company out of business...couldn't Vlasic sell their pickles at Public, Winn-Dixie, Kroger, Giant or Target? If they went out of business because they couldn't distribute their product at one chain, they were vulnerable in the first place.
I know many middle and low income people. Wal-Mart is a godsend to them. It's not just cleaning supplies, pet food and toothpaste. People who can't afford furniture at Rooms to Go or Akea can get decent stuff at Wal-Mart. People who can't afford to Christmas shop for their kids at Toys R Us or Best Buy can get their kids a decent Christmas at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart destroying the America and the world? Please. Got news for you...if Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, Nike, General Motors or Microsoft didn't destroy the world, a chain of discount stories won't be able to.

 

hondo,

So I put you down for unions to blame for the ruination of the country and Wal-Mart is a godsend?

That about cover it for you?

 

Ace --
Don't you get it?
The Market determines everything, and it's a natural force, out of the control of human beings. It's like the weather that way. And if The Market wants to destroy, well, The Market and inch toward heedless monopoly, well, you can't stop it.

 

So it's OK if the Waltons are worth more than $100 billion and the CEO takes in more than $17 million annually while the average "associate" earns $14,000 annually and can't afford the $1,000 health plan deductible. Now I get it. It's just the way The Market works.