Is Walmart Good For America?

[SomethingBlue]

Wal-Mart is evil...

I'm a boycotter...

 

[Great Big C]

Wal-Mart is evil...

I'm a boycotter...

Me three. I just can't, in good conscience, do it. Everything that I can get at Mal*Wart I can get at K-Mart or Target, and 9 times out of 10 I'm in and out a LOT faster.

Hubs insists on Sam's Club, though...I don't have him quite thoroughly trained yet.

 

[DAC1]

So am I. I haven't darkened the door of a Wal-Mart in years. Evil doesn't even begin to describe Wal-Mart. They're the largest human rights violator in the world!! That cheap shirt you buy at the "Big W" comes at a human price.

They will never get any of my money! I will pay more for something before I shop there! Every cent that you give them only strengthens them in their effort to "rule the world"!

 

[RationalLunacy]

I avoid Wal Mart simply because I cannot stand the sounds of dozens of uncontrolled rugrats running amok and squealing throughout the store.

It has nothing to do with China.

 

[The Gay Wizard]

I presonally avoid Evil-Mart too but only cause they greet you at the door. I don't know why but I don't want anyone saying hello to me at the door of the stoor, it makes me feel uncomfortable I don't realy know why though

 

[cityboy-stl]

Wal-Mart is evil...
I'm a boycotter...

Agreed, Walmart is evil. I've have in the past shopped at Sam's but I did not renew the now $40 membership this year. My conscience would bother me if I shopped at Sam's any more.

 

[metta]

I will not shop at any of their stores either, for the same reasons.

 

[tx_doc]

I don't shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club. I go to Costco for anything that I need in 10 gallon containers and I prefer to go to smaller, local stores for everything else. And I frequent the farmer's market for produce. Anything I can do to keep the smaller mom and pop stores that die in the wake of Wal-Mart....

 

[Kuja]

I shop at Wal-Mart all the time. They have what I want, for considerably cheaper prices.
There are four Wal-Marts within a twenty-minute drive from where I live. The closest is the nicest. There are always free lanes, and you rarely see "noisy kids". The other three, aren't quite as nice, but nowhere near as bad as the ones some of you describe. I'll continue shopping at Wal-Mart. Yay Wal-Mart! ^_^

 

[cityboy-stl]

I buy American when I can but the problem is there's hardly anything left that's made here. Walmart is really the one that started the proliferation of outsourcing and foreign imports. They get the boycott.

Can we call it COMMUNIST CHINA like it really is?

 

[Soilwork]

I'll buy things from anywhere.

But not Walmart.

Their business pratices are draconian and I won't support them.

 

[Kulindahr]

Walmart is an example of a phenomenon that occurs whenever the labor in one place begins to outprice the rest of the world. Goods which cannot be made at home because of high labor prices are made elsewhere, in order to achieve lower prices, which draws customers. No business which ignores this can stay in business.

Another way to put it is that American manufacturing workers have become greedy and are pricing their industries out of the world market, thus depriving themselves of jobs. This greed has spilled not only into nearly all the unionized portions of the labor force, but across the board. Thus those not so greedy, or able to work for less for other reasons, pick up the slack, and jobs migrate to where the best deal is available in order to keep prices below those of competitors, and in so doing bring the lowest possible price to customers.

So Walmart is, in one sense, good for America because people don't have to pay as much. Ask anyone on the bottom of the economic scale if that's a good thing or not!
On the other hand, Walmart is a symptom of American greed -- if we didn't think we had to have so much money from our labor, the jobs wouldn't be migrating.

A final comment: I read a summary of a study recently that found that manufacturing jobs in the country were disappearing at an alarming rate. People were understandably upset that jobs were going to foreign workers. The location -- South Korea.

 

[Great Big C]

No business which ignores this can stay in business.

Thes guys are thriving: www.americanapperal.net

Another way to put it is that American manufacturing workers have become greedy and are pricing their industries out of the world market.

It's not the workers that have gotten greedy, it's the robber-baron corporate executives that are making the millions-per-year salaries.

 

[dynk]

I buy a few things at Walmart, toiletries, gardening stuff, Sams diet cola, but I watch what I buy there. Some items are inferior. Also we have a few Jubbers that work there.

 

[Oden_grey]

Walmart's stuff is pretty low quality... so you're just throwing money away when you buy from there. However, to people who need to stretch a dollar Walmart is a godsend.

I personally don't buy from Walmart unless I'm desperate. Their stores are so drab and depressing and the employees look abused and tired (which they most certainly are) while the Walton family rakes in record profits for themselves. I think one of them died in an airplane crash and went to Hell last year... I think it couldn't have happened to a better person!

 

[xyzguy]

American products are not junk, they are quality products, thats why walmart sells Chinese products, because they have less quality and therefore are cheaper.

Plus dont you think its better that Americans can buy things for a cheaper price and they can use their money elsewhere?

 

[Kulindahr]

Thes guys are thriving: www.americanapperal.net

It's not the workers that have gotten greedy, it's the robber-baron corporate executives that are making the millions-per-year salaries.

Let's see. I have a relative in a union manufacturing job, and he gets $48 an hour.
That's $1920 a week. Comes to $96,000 per year.
He owns a house with several bedrooms, a cabin with two bedrooms and a loft, two pickups, an RV, a boat, a pair of four-wheelers. Oh -- almost forgot the time-share condo.
I know a Mexican immigrant doing essentially the same work -- non-union. He gets $26 an hour. His family is the same size, his house is spacious, he has one pickup and a car.

The difference between the $48 and the $26 per hour is what we call luxury -- it isn't need.
Demanding wages that bring luxury is greed.

Oh -- take that $96,000 a year and multiply it by the 1200-man workforce he's part of. That's over $115 million. The exec's salary is hardly a scratch, since he sits above twenty or more times that many people.

BTW -- do you enjoy any professional sports?

 

[Kulindahr]

American products are not junk, they are quality products, thats why walmart sells Chinese products, because they have less quality and therefore are cheaper.

Plus dont you think its better that Americans can buy things for a cheaper price and they can use their money elsewhere?

Some of those foreign-made things are better, especially for the price.
And yes -- freeing up money to use elsewhere is definitely better.

 

[metta]

Wal-Mart to use more part-timers, wage caps: NYT
Mon Oct 2, 2006 6:34am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is pushing to create a cheaper, more flexible work force by capping wages, using more part-time workers and scheduling more staff on nights and weekends, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Wal-Mart executives say they embraced the new policies for a large number of their 1.3 million workers to better serve customers, the newspaper said.

But some Wal-Mart workers say the changes are further reducing their modest incomes and putting a strain on personal lives, the newspaper reported.

Investment analysts and store managers say Wal-Mart executives have told them the company wants to transform its work force to 40 percent part-time from 20 percent, the Times reported.

Wal-Mart denies it has a goal of 40 percent part-time workers, although company officials said part-timers now comprise 25 percent to 30 percent of its workers, up from 20 percent last October, according to the newspaper.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark told Reuters the company had no specific target for part-timers as a percentage of its work force.

Clark added that it is important that Wal-Mart staff are working at times when customers want to shop.

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...2332158_RTRIDST_0_RETAIL-WALMART-UPDATE-1.XML

 

[mike0501]

Are you serious? Is Wal Mart "good for America"??? Of course it is. It is vital to our economy and to the productivity of this country! I am a perfect example of why that is. About once every few months, I start to feel a bit down and start feeling as though I hate my job. So, what do I do? I go spend an hour at the nearest Wal Mart......Then I get my ass right back to my office, put in an extra hour, and thank God for how good I have it. That place is my hell! But, it makes me put in a good day's work.