I simply don't buy the "staying in the community" numbers.
There is no possible way 60% stays in the community. No way. That figure is CLEARLY absurd.
$0.60 per dollar? You believe that?
Most stores mark stuff up around 100%. Meaning they buy something for $1, and sell it for $2. Maybe, they might be able to get it a little cheaper. They'd have to buy their stuff at 40% of retail, and have no other cost of sales that leaves "downtown" for them to make $0.60/$1.00.
So right off the bat I doubt that figure.
Basically, the idea is presumably that every penny not spent on product stays in town as wages for the employees, and the owners (the profit). The owners, of course, would only really spend their salary, and invest the rest, so only the owner salaries stay in town. Dunno what the excess is there, that's hard to characterize.
With WalMart, I think you'd need to sum all the wages, and other stuff that "stays downtown" for the mom and pop, AND add in the total savings for the volume of sales vs mom and pop.
Ie: The total sales of the WalMart is 10M$. The same goods, had they been sold by mom and pop would have cost maybe 12M$. So WalMart kept ~1M$ "downtown" in the hands of consumers (2M$, minus mom and pop's cost of sales).
I used to be reflexively anti-walmart, but I've moderated. Bottom line is that the only legitimate way to beat walmart is to beat them in the marketplace some how. If walmart can't do that, they deserve to fold. Frankly, they'd be in trouble now anyway, if not walmart, the
internet would have creamed them (look at local bookstores).
That said, we buy as much as possible from local merchants. Those that remain have changed to higher-end stuff, and a more customer service oriented approach.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torvald Von Mansee
So...why do you guys seem to go to bat to defend the wealthy? Do you think they became that way by being nice? On balance, do you think they care about you?
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What is it that you want? Presumably you want "the wealthy" to be liberated of their wealth at gunpoint? Cept of course the government's guns—and everything else—are paid for by a tiny handful of taxpayers at the top.
Neal (below) is spot on. Why should I care? Their job is the same as mine, take care of MY family. It;s not their job to help me, it's not my job to help THEM. I'll help them by being a customer only if it is in my best interest to do so.
The nice thing about people acting in self-interest is that it makes sense all around. Altruism is nonsense, and only funtions in small family sized groups, or at gunpoint (in which case it's not altruism anyway).