Walmart - Good For America?

[MilwaukeeMike]

Since there isn't a Business section here this will have to settle here.

In the last couple of years we have heard a lot about how Wal Mart is destroying America. (Mostly from the liberal media, which is pretty much everybody except Fox, WSJ, W. Post to name a few)

But what is so bad with fullfilling the American dream to its fullest extent. Shouldn't people who claim America is a free market jump for joy at the sucess story that is Wal Mart. Not according to websites like the one listed below.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

They lead you to think that everything is being made in China and thousands of people are loosing their jobs. But in fact productivity in the United States has been climbing and is at all time highs which obviously means that it takes less people to make the same good. (Granted tousands of people have been laid off because of many different reasons, not just Wal Marts policies.
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci10-13/ci10-13.html

U.S. manufacturing productivity is rising relative to Germany, France and the United Kingdom after falling for many years.

It is true that employment is down, but manufacturing's share of total employment has fallen by a similar percentage in every industrialized country--including those with active industrial policies.

http://www.ncpa.org/iss/eco/2004/pd012104a.html

Not to mention, GDP or Gross Domestic Product has been rising every year and is higher then it was 50 years ago. For those of you who don't know what GDP is, its the total market value of everythingPRODUCED in a given country.

No need for a link, just check any economic website with GDP data

gross domestic product
n. Abbr. GDP
The total market value of all the goods and services produced within the borders of a nation during a specified period.

http://www.dictionary.com

I still can't see a problem with Wal Mart. Some claim they don't pay fair, or don't pay enough. Just go to their web site and you can read about all the benefits employees actually get. How much do these people need to be paid for jobs that require no education, sub par IQ's (at least the Wal Mart by my house), and no hidden bias towards social conditions. Some people claim that they are putting the little guy out of business; Wal Mart found a more efficient way to sell goods to people reducing prices. Remember, no one is forced to shop there. All Wal Mart is doing is supplying a demand for cheaper goods. If the whole of the country was truly concerned about Wal Mart and how they operate they would have gone out of business a long time ago.


So what do all of you think about this issue and what I said. Im sure I pissed some people off. So let me have it.

 

[Jocko]

Non-issue. Wal Mart is a natural market reaction to economic trends that draw cheap labor from third-world nations and support the idea that even the poorest of Americans somehow deserve Dolby 5.1 surround sound DVD players.

Neither good nor evil. Simply necessary and predictable. When the paradigm shifts then Wal Mart will go away. That said, the hysteria over the name is unfounded paranoia and some people should get a friggin' hobby. Wal Mart has them on sale through Saturday, BTW.

 

[Rob Lister]

Well, I voted "a great American success story" but I could just as easily voted "a non issue".

Wal-mart is a non-issue. The principle is a great success. The fact that they could achieve such success is the success.

Wal-mart, as the driver, will fade. They are already so K-martish (if I may so conjugate) that I refuse to go unless I know they're the only likely supplier of the product I need. I'll go to Target first (more expensive but more betterest for other reasons).

 

[TragicMonkey]

As an American consumer, I don't give a crap about the political, economic, or social implications of Walmart or any other business. I simply find the items sold at Walmart to be of inferior quality. Cheap, yes, but cheap in both price and in construction. The only things there that I've found of acceptable quality are the same items sold elsewhere for a few pennies more. Which makes it not worth going there, especially as the Walmart near me tends to be dirty, overcrowded, and with very poorly-designed traffic flow on the approach. There's a Target down the street from it that's cleaner, with much better traffic, superior parking, and an abundance of other shops surrounding it. And the stuff you get there doesn't look like it cost eight cents to make, and falls apart before you get it home.

Screw the big picture. I demand decent stuff for my hard-earned money. I'd rather have one nice Target thing than thirty crappy Walmart ones for the same price! (Kmart, btw, is a good median between the two, only the one nearest me is way ghetto, so nobody goes there.)

 

[Rob Lister]

Damn...Tragic, Lister and Jocko cross agreeing with each other.

Tragic...your description of the walmart near you makes me think you live very, very near me. I forget, are you a VaBch'er?

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Well, I voted "a great American success story" but I could just as easily voted "a non issue".

Wal-mart is a non-issue. The principle is a great success. The fact that they could achieve such success is the success.

Wal-mart, as the driver, will fade. They are already so K-martish (if I may so conjugate) that I refuse to go unless I know they're the only likely supplier of the product I need. I'll go to Target first (more expensive but more betterest for other reasons).

I agree on all points.

 

[Jorghnassen]

All of the above... It's an evil company which is a great American success story, I've never actually shopped there, like communism it works in theory but the practice doesn't live up to that, and it is destroying small town America but that really isn't an issue, because I don't care.

/ok, so I haven't worked there, but close enough.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Damn...Tragic, Lister and Jocko cross agreeing with each other.

Tragic...your description of the walmart near you makes me think you live very, very near me. I forget, are you a VaBch'er?

Chesapeake. The Walmart off Battlefield Blvd is even worse than the one around Lynnhaven. Hard to believe, I know. One time, I joined a crowd watching the staff fight over who was going to clean up what happened in the bathroom towels aisle. You don't want to know.

Someone took a dump on the floor there, then piled towels atop it. Fluffy pink towels. Whoever it was was quite, quite ill. Or maybe it was a group effort.

I told you you didn't want to know. Why did you click on the spoiler box? Just think of this story when next you feel tempted to plunge your hands into those thick piles of fluffy, fluffy towels. I know I do.

 

[pchams]

This is predicated on the assumption that everyone wants "the American Dream".
I for one, am not American, and don't neccessarily have the same values.
I'm a Canuck, and Canada seems to just fall faithfully in line with U.S. economic policy.
I prefer the Mom & Pop stores, knowing the shopkeep, and keeping the money
in the community.
I like capitalism as the lesser of evils, but not neccessarily giant corporations
swallowing up the independent entrepreneur.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

I'm a Canuck, and Canada seems to just fall faithfully in line with U.S. economic policy.

Well any country neighboring a country with a $13 trillion economy kinda has too.

 

[pchams]

Precisely.
We are after all each others largest trading partner.
Wal-Mart/Home Depot have invaded Canada quite successfully, but I can't
find a corner hardware store where wally will just cut me a key.
I have to drive 10 miles fighting traffic, park half a mile away, and waste too
much time for such a trivial errand.

 

[Ziggurat]

Screw the big picture. I demand decent stuff for my hard-earned money. I'd rather have one nice Target thing than thirty crappy Walmart ones for the same price! (Kmart, btw, is a good median between the two, only the one nearest me is way ghetto, so nobody goes there.)

I've had pretty similar experiences: I don't like the layout of the stores, don't enjoy my shopping experience there, and just generally prefer Target. But I will get some stuff there if it's cheaper AND it's something where quality isn't an issue (stuff like cat litter, for example).

 

[Rob Lister]

Precisely.
We are after all each others largest trading partner.
Wal-Mart/Home Depot have invaded Canada quite successfully, but I can't
find a corner hardware store where wally will just cut me a key.
I have to drive 10 miles fighting traffic, park half a mile away, and waste too
much time for such a trivial errand.

You just discovered a niche market.

Photo/Key/Hotdog stand.

Ya see, no matter how the Walmarts of the world try, as long as we maintain the principle, others -- tiny others -- can and will shove them out of the market.

 

[Ziggurat]

This is predicated on the assumption that everyone wants "the American Dream".
I for one, am not American, and don't neccessarily have the same values.
I'm a Canuck, and Canada seems to just fall faithfully in line with U.S. economic policy.
I prefer the Mom & Pop stores, knowing the shopkeep, and keeping the money
in the community.
I like capitalism as the lesser of evils, but not neccessarily giant corporations
swallowing up the independent entrepreneur.

If most Canadians really felt that way, then companies like Walmart could never make inroads, because you wouldn't buy from them, but just keep buying from mom & pop stores. But evidently a whole lot of Canadians don't feel the same way: they actually like the lower prices, and so will choose to shop at the giant corporate stores. So I'm not sure why you're labelling those "values" as "American": they only succeed in Canada to the extent that Canadians actually choose them, which means those are really Canadian values too. That's the great thing about capitalism: if Canadians really preferred mom & pop stores (and that means everything together, including their higher prices), those are the stores that would succeed and the giant corporate stores would not.

 

[coalesce]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who prefers Target. I don't think they're any less predatory in business practices, but they are not the biggest game in town--Wal-Mart is, and as a result, are the lightning rod for the criticism against big chain stores. Like many others here, I've also found Target stores to be cleaner, better organized and a more pleasurable shopping experience. As a matter of fact, my wife and I are moving next month to a town that has a 24-hour Wal-Mart a mile away. We went there during the day and after 11PM, and the difference in clientele is like, well...night and day, actually. During the day, there's a nice cross-section of people. At night, you'd think there was an open casting call for "Cops."

Michael

 

[Rob Lister]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who prefers Target. I don't think they're any less predatory in business practices, but they are not the biggest game in town--Wal-Mart is, and as a result, are the lightning rod for the criticism against big chain stores. Like many others here, I've also found Target stores to be cleaner, better organized and a more pleasurable shopping experience. As a matter of fact, my wife and I are moving next month to a town that has a 24-hour Wal-Mart a mile away. We went there during the day and after 11PM, and the difference in clientele is like, well...night and day, actually. During the day, there's a nice cross-section of people. At night, you'd think there was an open casting call for "Cops."

Michael

Sad as it is to say...there is that. It's a self-correcting market factor. There comes a point where 'low-price' marketing attracts too many of those that others, even being only slightly higher up on the wage curve, find slightly higher prices, a 'best value' solution. Factor in messy, unorganized isles, surly, ignorant and slow cashiers, poor or no customer service, difficult access, and possibly even gate guards eyeing you suspiciously (or searching your bags) as you exist makes for a soon-to-fail K-Mart wannabe.

I give Walmart 10 years before the first Chapter 11 rumor.

 

[Almo]

I'm tired of this "Liberal Media" crap. If the American media are Liberal, then you'd probably think unbiased reporting was from the Extreme Left.

 

[Tony]

I don't know if it's an evil company, but it's what you would expect from a company ran by white-trash from Arkansas. My experiences at Wal-Mart echo what others have already said. The only time I shop at Wal-Mart is when I want to buy a DVD or Video Game at 3 in the morning.

 

[Rob Lister]

I don't know if it's an evil company, but it's what you would expect from a company ran by white-trash from Arkansas. My experiences at Wal-Mart echo what others have already said. The only time I shop at Wal-Mart is when I want to buy a DVD or Video Game at 3 in the morning.

And yet...

there you are, at three in the morning, filling the pockets of so-called "white-trash" from Arkansas.

Irony.

Goes best with Niagara Spray Starch.

 

[Rob Lister]

I'm tired of this "Liberal Media" crap. If the American media are Liberal, then you'd probably think unbiased reporting was from the Extreme Left.

You may need to expound, restate or otherwise clarify. As written, your statement is ambigious.