The price of Wal-Mart coming to town

[BINOWGAYLATER]

dayum !! I tried to read everything - but my head is spinning..
Walmart is the biggest machine of all time - it is doubtful it can be stopped -before destroying everything in its path. People DO HATE IT -- yet they HAVE TO shop there - because they have lost their job - I totally see how they cost jobs- and the few jobs they might create - are low paying - part time -without beneits - and they will fight unioniation with their last breath.
Ours is a supercenter - it has a large supermarket - that has caused the big supermarket next door to LOWER its prices significantly - that is a good thing. but it's only ONE.
They are well known (WM) for giving their vendors specs for the product and telling them exactly how to make it cheaper - or they will not buy - Companies like Coke - have "branch offices in AK - that have 200 people alone - just to handle walmart orders..
other big companies have the same - the airport in Bentonville is BECAUSE OF WALMART - it's theirs. (I think)
They were even so stupid as to open stores in CHINA - that's not the stupid part - the stupid part is that they layed out the store with departments an products just like it was in Kansas - it didn't fly - the few Chinese marketing people they hired told them -- chinese people will not buy these clothes - they want this pattern -or solid - or whatever - NOBODY LISTENED - same with laundry soap - they are soo bold and so stupid as to believe that every country should do things their way - what arrogant bastards !!
and yes, i still have to buy some things there - because i have no income - and I can get qute a few grocery items for 20% less than the fancy supermarket.. so it goes....

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

You can't beat them. Why not join?

Iiiiiit's bliiiiiiiiiiiiss........

 

[yeeeaaahhh]

That is what Wal-Mart is all about. Moving into a small-ish town making all of these promises and the community accepts them with open arms.
Then they essentially close down all the other businesses, and eventually the community has no choice but Wal-Mart.
How do you think they've become one of the most profitable corporations in the world?

 

[Lukeee]

That is what Wal-Mart is all about. Moving into a small-ish town making all of these promises and the community accepts them with open arms.
Then they essentially close down all the other businesses, and eventually the community has no choice but Wal-Mart.
How do you think they've become one of the most profitable corporations in the world?

How? Do they run in there with baseball bats and smash the place up? Do you mean they just offer better services and so other places lose business?

 

[Rex]

Meh... I love Walmart. This is a dog eat dog world. They destroy their competition and life isn't fair but at the end of the day people are going to go with the best deals and best prices which Walmart offers.

 

[videoboi08]

There was a great documentary made called 'Wal Mart the high cost of low prices'.
It makes you want to never step foot in one of those hell pits again. I went in one once and ran out having broken out in hives. True story.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GINui9LdIQ

yeah i saw some of that movie it was a little sad

 

[Yooper]

The problem with the whole anti Wally World movement is ITS BEEN DONE BEFORE!

100+ years ago, local small town merchants sponsored Sears Catalog Burnings on Main Street USA (and Canada) because Sears 'hurt the local merchants.' Which was true. Sears and Montgomery Wards dominated the biz for years. Now look at them. Wards is history and Sears is on its deathbed.

50+ years ago, the local Grocers sponsored 'Don't Shop at the Supermarkets' campaigns because the Supermarkets 'hurt the local merchants.' Which was true. Try to find a local grocer these days. They still exist but are very rare. The big grocers dominated the biz for years and now they are struggling to reinvent themselves.

30+ years ago the local Shoe Stores sponsored 'Don't Shop at the National Shoe Stores' campaigns because the National Chains 'hurt the local merchants.' Which was true. The big National chains, Kinney's, Thom McAnn, dominated the shoe biz for years. Where are they now?

Business models change. GM and Chrysler both went belly up this year.

Walmart stock has been essentially flat for the last 5+ years.

50 years from now, I wonder who is going to be on top? I'll bet the farm it won't be Walmart. Chinamart? Perhaps.

It is called Captialism, folks. Last one standing wins.

 

[stutter032]

I was watching 60 Minutes A few years ago, and a brand new Walmart opened and the workers tried to form a union. They shut it down and it was only open a few days. Walmart said if one store forms a union then they all will.

But if they had unions they wouldn't be able to provide such cheap prices, was there reason behind not allowing unions. I guess they donate alot of money to local community, well that's what they claimed.

Walmart helps out the regular person. They just built another one around my house and there's always people at either one, no matter what time you go there. A few years ago when the original one turned into a super center all the local grocery and drug stores changed there hours to be 24hrs also. I think it helps drive competition and keep all the prices low.

 

[Haberdashery]

no point complaining about it as if walmart were some isolated or independent thing. Walmart is simply a thread woven thru the fabric of what is the united states of America. A fabric that represents greed, acquisition and conquest. A fabric that wants to blanket the world and convince the peoples of the planet that it's ideals of gross consumption and it's tidal wave of predictable sameness is a great thing.

For me this is not enterprise, it's fat, ugly and grotesque. It's only gonna get worse and worse as this system chews up everything good that crosses it's path.

Enjoy them flowers u talk about BANKSIDE. Well at least while the opportunity allows you.

 

[Blatino]

hmmm don't get me started about Walmart.

In Philosophy class we had a discussion about it and after
that I can never walk into that store without thinkin about
capitalism, sweat shops, and how ironic it is that Walmart's
clothing brand's name is Faded Glory.

 

[bankside]

Haberdashery,

Walmart is not one of the signs of the apocalypse. Seriously, what next? A fast dial tone? Meat packed in styrofoam trays instead of brown butcher's paper?

Common greed is common greed. It has been kept in check more or less well over the centuries. It will be again.

Walmart is just an unpleasant place that I don't shop at because they haven't earned my business with the quality or variety of their products. I don't want something cheap, I want something good, and they don't want me as their customer. I'm happy to oblige.

 

[yeeeaaahhh]

How? Do they run in there with baseball bats and smash the place up? Do you mean they just offer better services and so other places lose business?

They are able to offer very low prices, because most of the products in their stores come from sweat shops in China, they pay their workers the bare minimum, and because they are a giant corporation and can afford too.
The little "Ma & Pop" stores can't compete with that, so they end up going out of business. By the time people realize what they've done, it's too late and Wal-Mart essentially controls their town.
That is how they do it.

Meh... I love Walmart. This is a dog eat dog world. They destroy their competition and life isn't fair but at the end of the day people are going to go with the best deals and best prices which Walmart offers.

It is people like who have killed altruism.
You and I will never be friends.

 

[954dude]

Wal Mart has nothing to offer but making consumers a slut and a whore to their low prices.

 

[ronboy]

Wal-Mart is what it is, the world's largest corporation.

They didn't get there by being warm and fuzzy.

By shrewdly selling popular priced items to a largely Southern, rural, American population, they grew from Sam Walton's Five and Dime in Bentonville, Arkansas, to the retail giant that they are today.

I remember my first encounter with a Wal-Mart. It was in Florida in the mid-1980's. They brought people in with a sparkling clean, orderly store. It was the first major store I had ever been in where there was a greeter at the door, offering me a shopping cart. At first, I attributed it to Southern hospitality. But when they opened in my hometown, sure enough, there was a greeter at each entrance.

Think about the discounters of your youth...We had them all here in the Rochester area, including JB Hunter, JM Fields, Arlan's, Shopper's Fair, Hills, Ames, Zayre, Barker's, Atlantic Department Stores, Two Guys, Twin Fair, King's, Gold Circle, Topps, Caldor, Grant City, and K-Mart. The most successful ones were the ones that kept the stores neat and orderly, and offered decent merchandise (maybe not always of the highest quality) at reasonable prices. The rest, sold a lot of junk... The only store above that is still in business (and just barely at that) is K-Mart.

The mass merchandise retailer of today has to be smart, and be able to offer the consumer something unique.

Wal-Mart, by sheer size alone, has the capability to buy in such mass quantities, that they can undersell everyone else on many items and still make a profit.

Target is the only "upscale" discounter left. They have filled the void left by the closing of the better-end mass merchandisers of the past, such as Gold Circle, Venture, Bradlee's and Caldor, which did have a reputation for better quality. Target offers style on a budget.

And yes, even K-Mart still has its niche. Once (and occasionally still) the home of the blue light specials, Kmart is starting to morph into a more Sears-like store. They have had celebrity fashion and home lines like Jaclyn Smith and Martha Stewart for over 20 years now. They carry premium Sears brand merchandise such as Craftsmen, Diehard Batteries, and Kenmore now. They have positioned themselves in a notch above Wal-Mart, although they are now a much smaller company overall.

So what of the others?

Sears is still Sears. The store, which used to have the slogan, "Sears, where America shops," is really the place where America used to shop. They have a huge presence in most of the largest US shopping centers. And they still sell their hardlines best. Need appliances, tools, a water heater, furnace, paint, tires, or a car battery? Then Sears is the place to go. Their fashions and domestics are good, but not outstanding. Sears is often more expensive when they sell the same items that the mass discounters sell for much less.

The American company could take lessons from Sears Canada, which is a more upscale store. The Canadian stores never forgot their roots, the legendary Simpson's, a major Toronto and Montreal department store chain of the past. Walk into any Sears store in Canada, and I have been to several (Centre Mall in Hamilton, Toronto Eaton Centre, Oakville Centre, Penn Centre in St Catharines, and Fairview Pointe Claire in Montreal), and you will be saying "This is Sears?" It is really that different...

JC Penney always had a solid, middle-class reputation for quality. They distinguish themselves by being tuned into fashion, and offering up style without compromising the basic staples that people relied upon. You can buy designer fashions there, as well as the store brands such as Stafford, Worthington, Towncraft. Penney's still sells a ton of underwear and socks. Their home department is much more extensive than in most stores. The selection of bed and bath wares, curtians and draperies, and home accents is unparalleled for any department store. And if they don't have it in store, it can either be ordered from the catalogue, or, in the case of window treatments, custom-made.

Kohl's has become a factor in recent years. They fill the gap between a discounter and a major department store. They locate on the fringes of most major shopping areas (where rents or land is cheaper), and they have taken the place of stores like Montgomery Ward, Mervyn's, and in some ways, even Sears.

And then there's Macy's. Once the darling of New York, and San Francisco, and a few choice locales, it has become the "All-American Department Store." It actually began in the late 1980's, when they took stores that they owned, and "merged" them into the Macy banner. These stores included Bullock's of Los Angeles, Bamberger's of Newark and Philadelphia, and LaSalle's of Toledo. They had sold off their Mid-West stores to Dillard's.
In the early 2000's, Macy's name was applied to what was left of the former-Federated Department Stores, including Lazarus of Ohio, The Bon Marche of Seattle, Burdines of Florida, Rich's of Atlanta, and Goldsmith's of Tennessee.

Macy's bought out May Department Stores in 2005. They sold off the Lord & Taylor division because of its similarity to Macy's upscale Bloomingdale's division. The remainder of the stores became a part of the Macy's family. Long time retail names such as Hecht's, Kaufmann's, Filene's, Foley's, Meier & Frank, Robinson-May's, Strawbridge's, and LS Ayres disappeared. The most stinging blow was in Chicago, where the iconic retailer, Marshall Field & Co. , a store with a fiercely loyal following, was rebranded as Macy's. In some cities, it has been an improvement. Macy's was an improvement over the bland Kaufmann's in my area. But in Chicago, Field's loyalists are still boycotting Macy's.

Okay, before I get any more off topic, I'll wrap it up. Wal-Mart does not have to be the death of any town's downtown. They proved it in Greenfield, a small town in Western Massachusetts, not far from either Springfield or Albany, NY. They fought against the building of a Wal-Mart and were successful. They even wrote a book about it, but I can't remember the title right now. Their major store, Wilson's, a long time Main Street fixture, is one of the last examples of a thriving small market department store. I've been there. It's a complete, wonderful shopping experience. If you are in the area, it's worth the stop to see the town that fought Wal-Mart and won!
Sorry for the length...I got a little carried away...

 

[Lukeee]

They are able to offer very low prices, because most of the products in their stores come from sweat shops in China, they pay their workers the bare minimum, and because they are a giant corporation and can afford too.
The little "Ma & Pop" stores can't compete with that, so they end up going out of business. By the time people realize what they've done, it's too late and Wal-Mart essentially controls their town.
That is how they do it.

The people get what the people want. The people want those low prices and WalMart can give them, so it makes sense that they do well. If the 'Ma & Pop' shops can't provide what the people want then it makes sense for them to go out of business.

And too late for what? Obviously not enough people want the quality that the 'Ma & Pop' shops can provide so them going out of business isn't a big deal to most of the shoppers.

Oh, and why bother fighting against having a WalMart built? If everyone in a town hates it as much as it is claimed they should let WalMart waste their money building the store then they will soon move on when nobody wants to shop there. Or maybe the bargains are just too tempting?

 

[gsdx]

Meh... I love Walmart. This is a dog eat dog world. They destroy their competition and life isn't fair but at the end of the day people are going to go with the best deals and best prices which Walmart offers.

Did you read the article? They are destroying over 600 American jobs every day. Every business which closes because of Walmart puts people out of a job. And more people lose their jobs than get a job at Walmart.

 

[chillyboi]

theres a tiny lil town here in ohio that got 1 (mainly Amish)
i guess its going well

but some towns i heard will boycott & fight it!

 

[yeeeaaahhh]

The people get what the people want. The people want those low prices and WalMart can give them, so it makes sense that they do well. If the 'Ma & Pop' shops can't provide what the people want then it makes sense for them to go out of business.

And too late for what? Obviously not enough people want the quality that the 'Ma & Pop' shops can provide so them going out of business isn't a big deal to most of the shoppers.

Oh, and why bother fighting against having a WalMart built? If everyone in a town hates it as much as it is claimed they should let WalMart waste their money building the store then they will soon move on when nobody wants to shop there. Or maybe the bargains are just too tempting?

People get sucked in by their low prices (which comes from near-slave labor in China) and don't realize that everyone is doing the same thing. Then the little stores go out of business, the town becomes desolate, and by that point people have no choice but to shop at Wal-Mart... it is their only option.
And Wal-Mart knows what they are doing. This IS their business strategy! This is how they have become so large! And it is not acceptable.

 

[Yooper]

I repeat:

It is called Captialism, folks. Last one standing wins.

Have you flown on Pan Am lately? Bought shoes at Kinney's? Shopped at a Woolworth's? Bought an new Oldsmobile? Or a Hudson? Watched the DuMont Television Network?

This is how it works. This is how it has always worked.

If you don't like Wally World, vote with your wallet.

 

[Lukeee]

People get sucked in by their low prices (which comes from near-slave labor in China) and don't realize that everyone is doing the same thing. Then the little stores go out of business, the town becomes desolate, and by that point people have no choice but to shop at Wal-Mart... it is their only option.
And Wal-Mart knows what they are doing. This IS their business strategy! This is how they have become so large! And it is not acceptable.

And what is wrong with that? People (or at least most of them) don't want the quality that they would get at those little stores, they had no other option till WalMart came along. They wanted low prices and they got it. Even if those little stores had stayed open with very few customers the WalMart shoppers wouldn't have gone back because they are more bothered about the price than the quality.

Also it is common knowledge by now that this happens. I am in a country where we don't have WalMarts and I know about it. Anyone in those towns where they are just being built who don't realise that the smaller businesses are going to close must be stupid.