Is Wal-Mart Good For the Economy?

[BAMAPHIN 22]

Make no mistake about it Wal-Mart changes prices in the global economy. Forcing suppliers to reduce prices every year and keeping selling, general and administrative costs at an unheard of 17.5% of sales gives the retail giant the opportunity to charge customers the lowest possible price. “ Save Money. Live Better” is Wal-Mart’ s new slogan as it has attempted to recreate it’ s image. Is Wal-Mart really helping Americans to live better by saving money?

http://www.subprimeblogger.com/?p=313

[phins_4_ever]

Originally Posted by BAMAPHIN 22

http://www.subprimeblogger.com/?p=313

Wal-Mart is the typical anti-american company:

- outsourcing
- use of sweat shops to produce as low as possible
- attempting to politically influence employees


Anybody who buys at Wal-Mart is supporting their violations of human rights and their trampling of human decency.

That company fits nicely into your other thread as well:
http://www.finheaven.com/forums/f36/...ck-235551.html

[MoFinz]

Originally Posted by phins_4_ever

Wal-Mart is the typical anti-american company:

- outsourcing
- use of sweat shops to produce as low as possible
- attempting to politically influence employees


Anybody who buys at Wal-Mart is supporting their violations of human rights and their trampling of human decency.

That company fits nicely into your other thread as well:
http://www.finheaven.com/forums/f36/...ck-235551.html

What does WalMart outsource, HR? They don't really manufacture anything do they?
Sweat shops? I dunno....again, what do they themselves produce?
Politically influence employees? Like UAW?

Of course, theyre the only guys operating profitabily....just saying

[phins_4_ever]

Originally Posted by MoFinz

What does WalMart outsource, HR? They don't really manufacture anything do they?
Sweat shops? I dunno....again, what do they themselves produce?
Politically influence employees? Like UAW?

Of course, theyre the only guys operating profitabily....just saying

You don't have to build things to outsource. You can have sweat shops without producing.

Wal-Mart is most likely not known as Wal-Mart Manufacturing Inc in Taiwan.

Wal-Mart has companies in different parts of the world who are employing workers under total inhuman conditions. Even the use of a company who is using such type of working environment as a vendor is disgusting.

Use of sweat shops is not limited to using your own brand name. Just because you create different companies or use different vendors does not release you from guilt.

Any company who is outsourcing labor and work and production to save a dollar here and there and accepts that such products are build under conditions this country sees as despicable is an anti-American company.

And I don't know what the UAW has anything to do with it.

a) one is a union, the other is an employer - just by these definitions they are worlds apart
b) I never said that I am a union fan
c) In my opinion I find it disgusting for any organization (employer, union, charity) to use their power to influence individual political preferences through threats of discontinued employment or membership. It violates your freedom of speech, you right to vote - it crosses the boundary into your private life.

[MoFinz]

I was just offering you some perspective...WalMart is an 800 pound gorrila....they make nothing, yet sell everything. They keep their prices low, and it makes them the most attractive retailer to the general public.

I sincerely wish we produced more and consumed more of what was produced in the USA. The sad fact is whether its quality or price, US consumers love walmart because its cheap and easy.

Interesting factoid....WalMart is the #1 grocer in the world. In the Richmond Va market, they are number 3, 2 spots behind a local independant that owns this market (although Ukrops market share has shrunk, they still beat everyone else in town. Krogers is #2)

[jguig]

One thing Wal-Mart does provide is low cost medicine for people who can't otherwise afford them. Also they provide goods (clothing and food) for people at the lowest possible cost who can't otherwise afford them either.

How diabolical is that?

[phins_4_ever]

Originally Posted by MoFinz

I was just offering you some perspective...WalMart is an 800 pound gorrila....they make nothing, yet sell everything. They keep their prices low, and it makes them the most attractive retailer to the general public.

I sincerely wish we produced more and consumed more of what was produced in the USA. The sad fact is whether its quality or price, US consumers love walmart because its cheap and easy.

Interesting factoid....WalMart is the #1 grocer in the world. In the Richmond Va market, they are number 3, 2 spots behind a local independant that owns this market (although Ukrops market share has shrunk, they still beat everyone else in town. Krogers is #2)

I certainly do agree with you. Wal-Mart is the product of 'our' desire to rather buy cheap stuff than looking for quality. And we both know, Wal-Mart is not the only ones.

In one of the threads (don't know which one it was) I said that to change politics and the way we live we have to change.

I don't know how old you are but if you are at least in my age (mid 40s) than you probably remember how long TVs lasted. And when they were broken you called a TV Repair shop and they lasted another 5 years.

Today? It cost you more to call a repair shop than to buy a new TV. I would not mind buying a TV which cost me an extra $100 but will last longer but let's face it - your options today are:

- buy a TV made in Taiwan at Walmart for $150
- buy a TV made in China at Best Buy for $200
- buy a TV made on some island you have never heard of at Circuit City for $250

Basically: same crap, different name, different price and they all are throw-away items after 3 or 4 years regardless if you use them or not.

[WaywardZest]

Originally Posted by jguig

One thing Wal-Mart does provide is low cost medicine for people who can't otherwise afford them. Also they provide goods (clothing and food) for people at the lowest possible cost who can't otherwise afford them either.

How diabolical is that?

Their medicine really is great. I get my asthma medication for four dollars. It would be at least a hundred dollars at a normal pharmacy.

I only buy medicine, though. Not because of any hatred at Walmart's practices, but because everyone I went to high school with works there.

[phins_4_ever]

Originally Posted by jguig

One thing Wal-Mart does provide is low cost medicine for people who can't otherwise afford them. Also they provide goods (clothing and food) for people at the lowest possible cost who can't otherwise afford them either.

How diabolical is that?

You really buy what you pay for. Just like in my example with TVs, you essentially buy the same crap at different prices. You can buy a T-Shirt at Wal-Mart for 5 bucks and the same T-Shirt at a designer outlet with a logo on for twice the price. They are all made in sweat shops, all outsourced.

You do have a point of course. But if you could buy a T-Shirt for $5 which after 5 washes is either shrunk to become a g-string and lost all its colors or you could buy a T-Shirt for $10 which actually lasts you a little longer than just 5 wash cycles.

Let me give you the perfect example:
There was wall unit at Rooms-To-Go I wanted to buy (speaking of quality ). Cost: $2100, just the unit.

Online I saw the same unit for $800. I just had to put it together myself. It was a different company, had a different name but was exactly the same (even the manufacture country was in both instances Taiwan ).

Like I said: same crap, different price. Unless WE target Made in USA it will never change. And believe me, if enough people would buy "Made in USA" maybe those who can't afford $10 T-Shirts now would get decent paying jobs through the increase of "Made in USA purchases.

In regards to medicine: Medicine is cheap. It is just sold expensive. That's the loophole Wal-Mart jumped in. Same medicine, different price - just like: same crap, different price.

Let me give you an extreme example: 1 (one) Tylenol cost you in a hospital $8. A bottle of 30 in a store cost you between $5 and $8. Same medicine (same crap), different price. And we all know that we can get the same medicine here and in Canada, in Canada some of it is almost half the price.

And people forget that very few of our pills are manufactured in the USA. Go, grab a bottle of Bayer Aspirin, Tylenol and Excedrin. It either lists a company name on it or a company name and "distributed by".

The pharmaceutical industry has successfulyl lobbied that the 'made in..." does not have to be listed. Nobody likes to take medicine 'made in china'. It is more comforting that medicine is distributed by an American company.

That's why you have those price variances for the same stuff. Some ask for less but sell more (because of the low price) such as Wal-Mart, some ask for more and sell less yet making probably the same profit. Yet, they all come from the same manufacturing plant in some remote rice field in China.

While I understand those who want to save money go to Wal-Mart it is really just a trap we are in - go here and pay more, go there and pay less = same garbage.

Unless we all change and simply say: let's buy our stuff, let's stop outsourcing or limit the possibility of outsourcing.

a) we create new jobs
b) we create competition just like we have competition with the outsourced crap

[Crickett]

Originally Posted by phins_4_ever

You don't have to build things to outsource. You can have sweat shops without producing.

Yes, you can do it just to be eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

I don't like Wal-mart and I don't like their business practices. The only things I have ever bought at Wal mart is

Diet coke
bottled water
plastic cups
Doritos

And I only bought them because it was the only shop within walking distance of the meadowlands convention center during AnimeNext '08. And I felt dirty after I did.

But really, sweat shops without producing anything?

[phins_4_ever]

Originally Posted by Crickett

Yes, you can do it just to be eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

I don't like Wal-mart and I don't like their business practices. The only things I have ever bought at Wal mart is

Diet coke
bottled water
plastic cups
Doritos

And I only bought them because it was the only shop within walking distance of the meadowlands convention center during AnimeNext '08. And I felt dirty after I did.

But really, sweat shops without producing anything?

Maybe I wasn't clear in my post. Let me try that again (let's use any company name).

<Any Company> who sells a wall unit or T-Shirt may not be guilty of directly producing such items in a sweat shop but purchasing it through vendors or even subs who use sweat shops and <any company> knowing about it. In effect <any company> is selling items produced in a sweat shop without ever engaging directly in sweat shop business. Thus being guilty by association and supporting such practice. Without <any company> buying from vendors using sweat shops or creating subsidiaries using sweat shops, sweat shops would not exist. I hope that was a little clearer.

And any time a product is almost completely produced outside the country while having not only the ability to produce domestically but purposely close down domestic production and in turn purchasing the same product which is now made outside the country is outsourcing.

There is a reason why our imports increased and our exports decreased over the last few years.

[Ferretsquig]

Originally Posted by jguig

One thing Wal-Mart does provide is low cost medicine for people who can't otherwise afford them. Also they provide goods (clothing and food) for people at the lowest possible cost who can't otherwise afford them either.

How diabolical is that?

The mentality that has destroyed the entire manufacturing sector of what was once the greatest producing nation in the world..... Just remember every time you go shopping at Walmart.....97 cents out of that dollar is going to China. Think about that for a second before buying more crap.

[shula_guy]

walmart takes more out of the american economy then it invests into it.

[The_Dark_Knight]

I get a kick out of all of this disdain about "out sourcing" or "sweat shops". Either some of you are too young and don't know about...or have completely forgotten about when I was young and everything was "Made in Japan". Retail stores purchasing their inventories at the lowest cost possible has been the cornerstone of our economy for the last 50 plus years...whether they were manufactured here in America or overseas.

Remember these??????
Made in Japan
Made in Mexico
Made in Taiwan
Made in China

Now as for all of these claims that Walmart owns all of these "sweat shops", you're going to have to prove that to me!! Walmart is doing nothing that no other retail store...K-Mart, Montomgery Ward and many smaller local retail outlet stores have done before them. Everything was "Made in Taiwan" at the local Pic-N-Save stores in Jacksonville Beach when I was growing up.

Only in hard economic times does it seem that Walmart is now the bad guy.

[Layfield]

Sweatshops are not evil. Working for any company is a choice and if im not mistaken the employees who work at the sweatshops have the same choice that everyone else does. What they do is take a product and produce it in a third world country giving people jobs and somewhere to work. These people want these jobs and if they didnt they wouldnt work there. Its still there choice. So we are making there lives better by giving them a job. Oh? They dont get paid 12 dollars an hour? Thats fine! All it does is make for a cheaper product because it costs less to make a product. These people are happy to make what they make because the fact is anyone in a poor country will be happy to work. Furthermore, if Walmart DID pay them 12 dollars an hour then we would just make it in america causing everyone in the foreign countries to lose their jobs, and more importantly Walmart would not be walmart, but an upscale store that makes everything in America which would just cause someone else to jump on the market. The wages people make in Taiwanese sweatshops are a statement of the wages in general in Taiwan, not of how evil walmart is.

Spending on only american goods does not create jobs either. The more people have to spend to feed themselves and cloth themselves, the less they have for other goods. So if someone is paying forty dollars to buy an american shirt instead of 15 dollars to buy a foreign shirt then that person loses that 25 dollars. The 25 dollars would have been spent on other goods but now just goes to the shirt. So while the american shirt company is better off with the more business, the place where the person would have spent the rest of his money loses out on $25, making the consumer worse off because he has to spend more for basic goods than he would otherwise and loses out on his luxury items.