Is Walmart Bad For America?

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sigp220.45 said:
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.
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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.
 
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? :confused:
 
Kanewpadle said:
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.
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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.
 
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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!!!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
The business model they use is good for them but not the rest of us. Study them and you will understand why. The heirs are the richest family in the country and the employees among the poorest.
 
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Kanewpadle said:
Is Walmart Bad For America... I think they are...I think I'm going to boycott them.
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What brought this on?
think.gif
 
You can start a Walmart bashing thread on the internet and normally hundreds will join in quickly to bash them but the thing I like about Walmart is that the entire store philosophy evolves around keeping costs down. In the old days executives had huge, plush offices with multiple secretaries and private wash rooms but Walmart big shots have a cubicle or small simple office. I wish our country was ran like Walmart we wouldn't have 20 trillion in debt. Walmart also has a great return policy, remember the days when you had to have a receipt and the box and only a few days to return a defective product or it's yours. I just a bought a new Stihl chainsaw from a mom and pop store and I used it once and it broke and took it back and the store owner said I misused the saw by running it with the brake on. I said I've owned lots of chainsaws over 30 years and never ran one with the brake on but he charged me $125 to fix it and it was a week old. You never have that kind of problem at Walmart, I once bought a car battery there and was loading it in my truck and dropped it in the parking lot and cracked it and fluid started leaking out. I took it back in and told the manager at the counter and said it was my fault and he just gave me a new battery.
 
Most of us are old enough to remember what "Main Street" use to mean...... small family owned specialty shops (with the Owners, wives and kids working 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week/ to achieve middle-class status)............over my 6 decades fewer and fewer shopped on Main Street ....... the action moved to the edge of most small towns........

Over the decades....................

GC Murphy"s 5 & 10s were done in by K-Mart...... which in turn has been pretty much done in by Walmart....... and what happened to Sears and JC Penney's????????

Look out folks........ here comes Amazon............ the 21st century's electronic Sears Catalog. At one time you could buy everything you needed even a "house Kit" from the Sears Catalog....... today we look to Amazon Prime and 2 day delivery!!!

The world changes.....the world moves on and everyone must adapt........business models need to change.

Anyone know where I can find a good "buggy whip"?
 
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Enzo said:
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.
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Tyrod said:
Sam Walton, the founder, started the "buy American" campaign. He died, the policy went out the window.
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This is the only thing that bothers me about WalMart. 97.94% of what they sell comes from China. Many people and companies to blame for that. WalMart is only one of them.

Still I shop there. I buy at least half of my ammo there. I certainly don't "hate" WalMart except when I can't find an Associate who speaks English. Plus their competition as at least as bad these days. :o
 
I am almost not certain where to start on this thread.

Walmart is NOT a monopoly. There is tons of competition. But Americans love low prices and that was always Sam Walton's goal.

Yes Sam wanted to buy American but nothing is made in America anymore. Is this Sam's fault? I would advise anyone to go to Bentonville and see the store that Sam started. It was just a simple 5 and 10 store of its day.

My daughter worked in WM headquarters in Bentonville for several years. Her job was beauty and health. She met with the largest companies in the world and she said she had to tell them all what the customer wanted, not what the elite company wanted to sell and and that each company's products would be displayed equally. She was there during the economic crisis and in some very high level meetings. She called and said all they talked about was the customer and how they knew the customer was going to have a difficult year with buying for their families. They didn't talk about profits but how they could help the customer. Of course, profits are important, they don't work for free.

They don't make 80% on everything. Some things they lose money on, that is a fact. They require companies that sell to them to have an office in Bentonville. The execs do not live high on the hog. Their buildings are simple and basic, I have been there.

They are a very simple business model. They are competing nationally and internationally trying to bring the best value they can to people. Spend some time seeing all of the schools and public service things WM has done, it is pretty amazing. I don't live in Arkansas but by daughter still does and it is amazing what they have put back into America.

My father who will turn 87 soon works 40 hours a week at WM. He absolutely loves it and thinks it is a great place. They struggle at times with managers but don't judge all managers on one manager's faults like we don't judge all gun owners when one does something stupid. My father gets paid well, he is very satisfied, has a 401 (K) and he has more PTO time than he can use up. They hire people that a lot of places won't hire including elderly, handicapped, etc. Yes, they aren't paying $15 an hour but these are not highly skilled jobs either. He doesn't use the insurance but others tell him the insurance is very good and affordable.

So I don't get the angst towards WM. Yes they have had some bad practices in their past with selling below costs to undercut the competition. I understand that. Sam had a model he built the company on and to see how it started not that many years ago to where it is now is amazing and didn't happen by accident. I do think they value their people and it isn't just words. Feel free to go spend more money somewhere else if you want - that is the American way and your right. The problem is you won't find any more American made products there as well.

So while I don't agree with everything WM does, I do see the other side of things. Look around at how many businesses are no longer around: Montgomery Wards, Sears just shut down our mall store, JC Penny, Kohls is in trouble, etc, etc, etc. And people complain because WM has low prices and a good value for their hard earned dollar? huh?
 
Well... taking advantage of cheap labor abroad is exploited by manufactures and then passed along to retailers across the country, from small to large retail operations.. not just Walmart.

What I think you're really asking... Are the benefits from economies of scale in the retail industry outweighed by the downslide, perceived or otherwise?

You mentioned wages. Mom and Pop operating a 500sqf storefront have little bargaining power with manufactures, so they'll pay what the manufactures dictate, period. Having a small store, on par they'll pay a higher price per sqf as well as other building related expenses compared to larger operations. They'll enjoy no efficiencies with economies of scale on the purchase, operating or selling side of the business. So with no purchasing power, inflated operating costs and no economies of scale, where is all the extra money going to come from to pay their employee higher wages, better benefits and more opportunity for advancement in a Mom and Pop shop?
 
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