Behold!! The cancerous growth of Wal Mart!!!

[Skybird]

WalMart is okay as long as it stays on it'S side of the Atlantic. In Germany, their business model did not work - they ignored too many local habits and customs and demands here, and tried too long to implement american habits. Even well-meant service offers like the young man helping to pack your bags earned them rised eye-brows - Germans simply do not want that and consider that to be "aufdringlich". Like the salesman in a bookstore, you just want to look around and he immediately dives down on you and asks "What are you looking for?" Hehe, I do not want a salesman by my side as long as I do not ask for one.

Spying on their employees' private sphere and gagging them by working treaties, also reports on bad payment, did not help to make WalMart more popular here. Customers started to avoid them, business did not run, and they had to give up. They are not missed.

A real explanation all that is not, becasue we have chain stores and discounters where all this happens, too, bad working conditions, spying, etc. But they stay in business, and expand. Maybe WalMart simply was not liked for being WalMart.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Going by those numbers I live below the poverty line as well.

Me too!

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Maybe WalMart simply was not liked for being WalMart.

This..

[Zachstar]

I have to admit I am both sides on the walmart issue.

On one side their anti-union crusade leaves a bad taste in the mouth not to mention their constant use of china made products and not even offering the same type of product from an American made source.

On the other hand tho without wal mart there would likely be many many many more people in true poverty today. Atleast with the crap you buy there you can maintain a basic standard of living and they do provide boatloads of jobs that mom and pops just cant support.

mom and pops do not need to be selling general merchandise anyway. They need to sell local made stuff.

Its a sad crappy situation but its not going to change anytime soon.

[tater]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Depends on what you define as successful:

You seem to be unclear on the concept.

One, what employees make doesn't matter in the least.

Two, assuming that anyone employed by WalMart has to be the sole support for a family of 4 is absurd. Most PROFESSIONALS I know have both spouses working. Why would someone making 10-60 times less per hour not also have a working spouse? Two such average WM employees would make around 40k a year. You'd do quite well on that in the interior of the US, actually. A single parent... should not have churned out so many kids to need to support 3 with an unskilled job (parenthood is a CHOICE, period).

[tater]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

This is the result of a free market society and I am fine with it in that sense compared to the alternative

At it's core I am a little more disappointed with big businesses swallowing up smaller ones and with that local ownership. By not having local ownership more dollars leave the community and are replaced with lower paying jobs, etc. On the surface it looks fine, more jobs created...., but the larger portion of the dollars ( profits ) do not stay within the community.

That calculus is far more complex than you make it out to be. It;s not like a mom and pop store makes the goods they sell. They in effect sell the exact same goods, but at a higher cost of sales. Mom and pop stores likely pay LESS, and certainly employ fewer people. How can a mom and pop store pay considerably more for goods because they buy in FAR lower quantity, AND afford to pay wages higher than 10.whatever bucks an hour to sales clerks and stay afloat?

Since they pay more for goods, their margin is lower. The margin sort of stays in town—to the extent mom and pop exclusively buy local gods themselves—but the bulk goes to their wholesaler anyway (likely out of town).

I'm not seeing the "keeps the money in the community" advantage vs many jobs.

That doesn't even consider that the money SAVED by the consumer is also staying "in the community."

You might be right, but I'd need to "see the math" to judge properly, it's by no means close to being self-evident.

[Zachstar]

The only real advantage was they bought more American products. But most retail stores these days will atleast make a small effort to sell local product.

To be perfectly honest tho. We don't really stand a chance in hell of making it manufacturing. The only real future for our economy is resource extraction in my opinion. We still have many trillions in gold, copper, iron, etc...

[Platapus]

Sure wish I could have gotten a slice of Walmart stock back then.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I'm not a big Walmart fan either but where else can you go for a power drill and underwear in one stop?

In your area do they have a "Fleet Farm" store? That store had pretty much everything!

[GoldenRivet]

About wal mart employees being well below the poverty line...

i have this to say:

hold on i have to get something out of the way first.



ok here goes:

Try being a regional airline pilot on a whole $18,500 per year

It aint just Wal Mart friends.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Nothing to write home about considering the profits that Walmart makes. Anyway 40 hours is debatable.

In my company, full time is also defined by when you receive full benefits. In my company full time is 38 hours. Anyone less than 38 is a part-timer and get reduced/no benefits.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

Try being a regional airline pilot on a whole $18,500 per year

That's a pretty low salary.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Platapus

That's a pretty low salary.

Yup, and while wal mart doesnt particularly take a high level of training and education... the pilot job does... yet the pay is about the same for that 20 something "kid" steering your connecting flight toward your destination at 300+ mph

nice thought eh?

[Zachstar]

The absurdly low pilot pay as well as the fact that the TSA goons that harrass you at the airport get paid more is one of the reasons I will always take the Bus or train.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Behold the amazing growth of a sucessful buisness model.

While at the same time screwing over the American working class.

if it were not true. I hate walmart, their as bad as CEO's outsourcing your job overseas. Everytime you go in there, it feels like your supporting the chinese economy because every god damn thing is made in china.

From what i heard, originally walmart would buy american when they could. When Walton kicked off and his two boys took over, they went all out for chinese made crap.