The Walmart you don't know

[VitalRemains]

Nahhh

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

These are the facts, and the same thing is true of almost all countries in the world.

Actually, America's income and education level is higher than much of the world, and is not greatly exceeded by any country. No country anywhere near our population size has avergaes anywherenear this.

People need to realize though that in the US, the middle class has been repalced with the upper-middle classand the working class. Out of 5 middle class people, 1 goes up, 4 go down, as the middle class is slwoly eroded.

This I totally agree with. Do we want to be successful in the global economy? Then we better learn to be competitive in the global economy. There is a time and place for supposedly applying sappy and emotional christian morals to our actions in the global economy: corporate and government PR. In all other contexts I can think of, we better be competitive, or else.

This is a deper issue though. Americans should in theory reap great rewardds from all this utsorucing - things are cheaper, there are more opportunities for Americns to run busiensses more chaeply, increased welath leadsto icnreased spending etc.

But can Americans manage this global economic empire? Is it possible, short of conquering other countruies? Who will American doctors treat? what will American MBAs manage? And so on...
it create ssome interesting issues going forward...

Exactly! If your skills are not in demand, DON'T ask a company (or the government for that matter) to create "demand"!

This I agree with fully.

 

[[email protected]]

Most Americans are unedcuated (majority does not have a college degree)

A very useless piece of paper in most cases.

Someone graduating with a degree in liberal arts or some basic computer science is just something to add to your resume.

No I do not fall into the $35,000 class. That wouldn’t even cover my Federal Income tax and is near what I get on a return. I DO NOT have a college degree. Do I want one? Not really… The investment would not give me an acceptable return.

Did I go to college? Yes I did. For a year and a half. What I learned in college:

How to be a good subordinate for a company / job / boss
How not to think for yourself
If you are not far left liberal then there is something wrong with you

Education and intelligence should be separated here. A factory line worker, as an example, may NOT have a college degree but may be so good at what he is doing, no school can even come close to his technique.

 

[[email protected]]

Wal-Mart, in the beginning of its expansion, took losses on products with the intent of putting its local competition out of business.

In all, Wal-Mart’s policy may be to provide the lowest prices today. As we have seen in the past with the telcos (for you older folk out there), when Wal-Mart is the only player on the field that matters, expect to start paying more for the same thing. At that point what choice will you have? Wal-Mart will keep suppliers prices lean and start increasing its profits.

I shop at Wal-Mart; I don’t take sweatshops or forced foreign labor into any consideration. This is something that I really don’t have the time to look into. Should I look into every complaint of every company to try and ferret out who is taking advantage of someone else? If you look that far into it then you can state ALL low paying jobs in some form can be loosely linked to sweat shop labor. Where $2 a day somewhere else may be equal to $50 a day in the United States.

My objective is to get the best product at the best possible price. My objective is to make as much money as possible. Wal-Mart fits into my plan. Second, it’s one stop shopping. This is the most important factor of them all.

It’s not uncommon knowledge that corporations with their huge influence control the world. You can either buck the system and look in from the outside or make adjustments and use the system to your own advantage.

 

[EnderJE]

If the article told the whole story, you;d be right on.

By being a supplier;s largest customer, wal Mart foces suppliers to comply with everything Wal Mart is doing. Suppliers change their shipping schedule, procuremnet etc in order to satisfy their biggest customer.

This comes to the detriment of other customers, but those accounts are smaller, so the suppliers let them go.

Over time, Wal Mart basically controls the suppliers's operations, and then forces the proft margin down down down. Suppliers are hog tied bevcause they changed their operations to fit wal mart;s demands.

They can;t just drop their biggest account - their whole way of doing business has changed.

I get that, but why would the supplier knowingly put themselves in that position? For example, if Walmart provides a company with 30% of sales and offers to go up to 50%, then shouldn't the supplier realize that the position that they could be in and find ways around it? Sure, they'll take a loss initially if they drop Walmart, but the thinking will be that over time they'll be able to make it up.

 

[EnderJE]

I shop at Wal-Mart; I don’t take sweatshops or forced foreign labor into any consideration. This is something that I really don’t have the time to look into. Should I look into every complaint of every company to try and ferret out who is taking advantage of someone else? If you look that far into it then you can state ALL low paying jobs in some form can be loosely linked to sweat shop labor. Where $2 a day somewhere else may be equal to $50 a day in the United States.

I used to think like that until I saw something in the Phillipines where the "slave labour" were living in the trade free areas compounds. These compounds housed the workers and the factories where they sewed clothing. Given that the living quaters was taken care of, the workers only had to pay for food / clothing / supplies.

They were paid just enough to eat once a day provided that they met their quotas. I remember thinking that this was horrible and that they were slaves. Some thought it was ok, some complained, and some went on strike.

The ones who went on strike were fired. The labour laws are different over there. They protested. The local police came and shot into the crowd.

I still remember seeing that.

For that reason, I try to only buy stuff made in North America as my belief (naive as it might be) is that there aren't legal sweatshops over here. Is it the lowest price? Nope. Fortunately, I have an occupation / salary that allows me that luxury. I just have problems thinking that me purchasing this item that was crafted over there was helping support that oppressive structure.

 

[Fast Twitch Fiber]

Does anyone else just think waldomart is a pain in the ass to shop in? The only way you can navigate through the fucking store is if you bring a few offensive tackles with you to clear a path. The people working there normally don't have any clue what they are doing. There are too many fat people, you don't stand a chance at getting through the snack food aisle. On top of that, your odds of being run over by a red neck in a jacked up pick up truck in the parking lot are quite high.

 

[milo hobgoblin]

..

I hate to say it... NO WAIT I dont hate to say it..

but if you're white and you shop in Wal Mart.. you need to get some fucking pride.

thats just sad.

 

[ChefWide]

Nice One, you racist asswipe!

 

[milo hobgoblin]

..

LOL thanks... Im proud of my status.