Is Walmart Bad For America?

[Kanewpadle]

What do you think?

I'm no economic expert, but I think they are.

May not help but I think I'm going to boycott them.

 

[Bkreutz]

I'm afraid to go there, it might be contagious.

 

[sigp220.45]

I like Wal Mart.

Its an American company that employs a lot of Americans.

For all the hate Wal Mart gets, they sure are busy.

 

[JayFramer]

I hate Wal-Mart but it does employ a lot of fantastic and enthusiastic Americans.

 

[Kanewpadle]

I like Wal Mart.

Its an American company that employs a lot of Americans.

For all the hate Wal Mart gets, they sure are busy.

Yes, but at a much lower wage after putting others out of work at jobs where they've been for decades. Not to mention benefits.

Walmart wants you to think they are doing everyone a favor by employing people and offering lower prices. But the facts show that this is a farce.

Workers overseas working in sweat shops make less than $5.00 a week and work in deplorable conditions.

And Walmart make a HUGE profit on their sweat. Sometimes 80% profit.

Walmart is a monopoly that our government is overlooking.

 

[Alpo]

I'm attempting to make sense of that first post.

"Is Wal-Mart bad?
"I don't think they are bad.
"So I will boycott them."

If they are not bad for the country, why boycott them?

 

[Kanewpadle]

I'm attempting to make sense of that first post.

"Is Wal-Mart bad?
"I don't think they are bad.
"So I will boycott them."

If they are not bad for the country, why boycott them?

Happy now?

 

[sigp220.45]

Yes, but at a much lower wage after putting others out of work at jobs where they've been for decades. Not to mention benefits.

Walmart wants you to think they are doing everyone a favor by employing people and offering lower prices. But the facts show that this is a farce.

Workers overseas working in sweat shops make less than $5.00 a week and work in deplorable conditions.

And Walmart make a HUGE profit on their sweat. Sometimes 80% profit.

Walmart is a monopoly that our government is overlooking.

Its not a monopoly - anything you can get at Wal Mart you can also get elsewhere.

Wal Mart may be able to sell it cheaper, though. That's capitalism. I'm a big fan of capitalism. I'm glad they make a profit.

The market decides. If enough people feel like you and boycott Wal Mart, then the company will fail and their competition will flourish. That's the way it works.

I'd rather have the government stay out of it.

 

[cougar14]

Like everyone else in the retail industry, Walmart must adapt or die. They cannot survive in a fully encapsulated brick and mortar environment. They have already begun to expand into direct sales through the Internet, and will probably overweight this end of their business as far as it will increase sales. I have been involved in retail, and have seen this "enthusiastic" attitude of the "associates", and can tell you it's a ploy to artificially stimulate you the shopper into parting with more of your money. Valueless incentives such as "employee of the month", department "challenges", etc. are bandied about along with "you all understand, if we (meaning you) don't get more sales, we (meaning you) will need to cut back on hours, etc.

By the way, the beatings will continue until morale improves. HAVE A NICE DAY!!!

 

[Marshwheeling]

You could call WalMart a poster child for the demise of the middle class.

 

[soFlaNative]

First WM I went to was in Sebring in the late 80's. My wife would recruit family in the area to stock up on baby supplies we'd pick up when visiting. I enjoyed shopping around despite dropping more bucks than anticipated due to the sheer amount of goods under one roof.


When they began to expand everywhere I read WalMart began to restrict content of the books and music they chose to stock. Since their market share was so vast publishers would not produce material they feared WM might find offensive and it affected the creative freedoms of writers and artists who felt if WM did not carry their work it would not sell.


Can't say whether true or not the tale offered a perspective I had not considered.
Wife still uses WalMart for the bulk paper goods and other sundries.
We're both exploring the possibilities of Amazon Prime.

 

[msjdgman]

I guess that I consider using or not using Walmart one of those decisions that each of us must live with. Either you can accept their business model or you don't. I also don't believe that it's a whole bunch different really than when we all talk about buying guns from an online vendor vs a LGS, because the price is better. You can choose the online vendor or perhaps pay more to your LGS. I do most of my gun buying local, but I also utilize the online sources for certain needs.

 

[fdw]

Perhaps a better question is "Is Amazon bad for Wal-Mart?" Apparently so seeing how Wal-Mart has gotten into 2 day free shipping.... Not to hijack the thread but I do a lot of shopping now a days on Amazon and have never been disappointed.

So I thought I'd try Wal-Mart for a toner cartridge and see how their 2 day shipping went. I'm going to make a long story short and after 2 weeks of waiting for my toner I contacted Wal-Mart. Answer "lost in shipping"... I'm not going to say it doesn't happen but as much online shopping as I've done throughout the years I've never had anything "lost in shipping"...

Recent Amazon orders include a desantis hoslter for my wife's bodyguard and some "Glo-On" sight paint for my LCR Custom. I tell ya, you can just about order anything you want from there.

So to get back to the original post, I'm not sure Wal-Mart is the issue, it may very well be Amazon.

 

[jimmyj]

If there was no Wal-marts, where would us "Old Folks" go to wander ?
Without Wal-marts us "Old Folks" would be wandering the roads and woods (like on " The Walking Dead")

 

[ACORN]

My wife works there. She's only been there a few years but the low rate they supposedly pay relative to your point of view. She is paid around $10-$11 per hour. Not enough to raise a family say many but you have to look at the skill level required for many of the jobs. You are not going to make $50000 running a cash register or stocking shelves. Her big issue is the store management. So many levels from CSMs to zone managers and on up. Many lack the people skills to have their titles and eventually it will bite them in the arse. The trouble is the lower level associates suffer in the meantime. My wife has an issue with on of her many managers. For whatever reason this woman does not like my wife. Although she pays lip service and says she wishes she had more like my wife she seems to do what she can to make her day miserable. Once my wife accidentally shot changed a customer and caught the mistake after she had closed her cash drawer. She had to call this manager to open her drawer since it was a "no sale". My wife gave the $10 to the manager. The manager gave the money to the customer and told her that "She (my wife) was probably going to steal that money and go shopping with it". My wife heard her say it and other associates also heard it. When my wife told me me I wanted to punch that (female dog) in the mouth but my wife begged me not to make an issue out of it and she would take care of which of course she didn't. But I digress. At least I got that off my chest.
Back to the point. I think all of these factories pay the going rate for labor here and abroad. More factories means more jobs. If there is an increased demand for labor pay rates go up. If every factory paid $5 a day who would pay $20? I don't know that Wal Mart owns the sweat shops perhaps they do. I suspect they are look for the best price and cooresponding quality level. If anyone wants to boycott them go ahead. It will make it easier for me to find a good parking space there.

 

[Tom S.]

I won't lie and say I've never shopped at Walmart, but it's been less than a dozen times and only when under duress. If possible, I go elsewhere.

 

[pinduck]

The reason people shop at Walmart is the cheap prices, many pay lip service to buy American, but when push comes to shove they look for the cheapest price. If it wasn't for this action there would be no Walmart, Dollar store etc.

 

[Enzo]

Weren't the early Walmarts all about American made? With their volume of sales they could do a lot for American manufacturing by getting back to this.

 

[Lee's Landing Billy]

There are 7 WM Superstores in our county. 7! A manager of the busiest one told me they had the most sales of all and that they had 9 fulltime employees. The rest are part-timers with NO benefits.
We also have 4 neighborhood WMs.
The was a discussion amongst our group about the value of the WM to the county. One of our guys who is over the local bank that handles all the WM credit card transactions in the county said that every night by 11:59 all that money was in Arkansas.
As you can tell I'm all over the board on this. They employ hundreds in this county. If they're glad, I'm glad. I guess what bothers me the most about this is the struggle most hard workers have. The ones that show up everyday, do their best and just can' ever get that little "leg up".
Yes I shop there. Mainly because they are usually a one stop shop all.
Well, it appears I wrote a bunch and didn't say a damn thing.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Out West where the towns are far apart and populations are often low, you can define the towns by which have Walmarts and McDonalds and those which don't.
The towns which have both, like Deming, seem to have more other retail.
Go on down to Lordsburg, Mickey there but no Walmart, it's dead in the water.
Except there not of that either.