Attention Wallmart Shoppers:

“y2, I have never in my life heard a walmart spokesman speak about the wonders of walmart. I just live where there are walmarts and the funny thing is wherever they show up, 100's of small businesses show up around them. I know people that get jobs there and are happy about it. I know people that shop there and are happy about it. Hell, I know people that shop there and aren't happy about it (but they still shop there).

I don't want to read statistics or studies or any other crap that people can manipulate. What I want is for you to show me a town that was destroyed due to a walmart opening. It's like that earlier statement someone made about a bookstore closing because of Walmart. what a joke, walmart's book selection couldn't put a sidewalk paperstand out of business, yet it got blamed for the closing of the mentioned bookstore.

Take your nose out of your studies and go out to a Walmart and look around. Small business thrives around a walmart. So do chain stores, gas stations, video stores and grocery stores. Downtown areas get revitalized (if the community cares about their downtown) and serves niche clientelle who don't mind paying $10 for a lunch and a stroll while window shopping antique stores, boutiques, artists shops, etc.

So please, point me to a town that no longer exists because a walmart came. And make sure if you do find one it dissappeared because of walmart and not because the steel plant closed down or something similar.”

“Crash has his panties on too tight today. ;-)

Well said, hyway.”

“All businesses are now drawn to strip malls Hyway.

As much as business are drawn there they are also drawn where a taget opens up, a best buy, and whatever else.

The reason Walmart has spent a lot on charity, (and on marketting btw) is that it knows it's got an image probelm. That's the only way the company does anything.

It's only public and media pressure that makes them make any concessions. Keep it up I say.”

““You knew it would happen. this and you using a Wiki link today. I'm speechless. Almost.

:D”
bearmagnet
3:52:34 PM
3/29/07

Liar, liar, pants on fire! You are never speechless! ;-)

How's Dani doing? Never did hear how her ER trip turned out.”

“She survived. I've fallen behind on my stories...”

“and thanks for asking.”

“Who here checks every single thing they pick up at a store to see where it's made? Come on, get those hands up.”

“I will grant that the bookstore may have had other issues beyond simply Walmart moving in. But the rest of the stroy is absolutely true. I know the book selection at Walmart sucks... until they decided to undercut a local store. The owner is a very good personal friend of mine. She knows what was going on and she knows what she knows. I have seen the story play out too many times to believe it was a fluke.

As I said, I shop there, but there are many things I won't buy there simply because the quality is crap even if the price is cheap.”

“you know, that old tag line, "there are some jobs americans don't want?" that's because they don't pay a fair wage because they can get illegal labor cheaper. welcome to the world where you don't have a choice where you work and the bottom line is set by someone willing to work for food overseas. it will get worse before it gets better because our politicians in washingion aren't smart enough to figure out that american jobs are an asset to the american economy.”

“wow, did i type that. man was i drunk.”

“One of the interesting things in the Frontline piece is that many if not most of the items in Walmart are not any cheaper than in other stores. They'll have an entry level item (say an DVD player or microwave) at a rockbottom price, but the next step up with the features or size you actually want isn't any cheaper than in other stores, but people assume that it is. Frequently, it's MORE.

Click on that link and you can listen to a former Walmart manager explain exactly how it works. Does the expression 'bait & switch' ring a bell?”

“Dude, I know how much money it cost me to buy groceries at walmart and how much it costs me to buy somewhere else. It isn't even close. walmart is easily 20-30% less.

Jimmy, I know this feels like a new scenerio, but american companies have been oversees for years. Heck the main reason we had a military was to send it down to banana republics to slap down revolutions (or support them depending on how friendly they were with us) to protect Dole foods, and other big corporations.”

“ok Dude.

If you're already convinced to the point where you won't check out the evidence you yourself asked for ----- next time don't ask.”

“you gave me a link to a frontline show. I asked for a town that has been ruined by walmart. Why should I read every scrap of that if you know the name of a town.

BTW, the difference between me and you on this subject is that I am not trying to convince you to shop there so I don't care about all your links. While you apparently care deeply that I not shop there, so maybe you should be a little more specific when giving me a link.
last edited: 3/29/07 9:33:22 PM”

“Evil Cheese

Taunts the tube-topped

trailer trashin'

walmart shoppers

from the underwere aisle.”

“Dude, I know how much money it cost me to buy groceries at walmart and how much it costs me to buy somewhere else. It isn't even close. walmart is easily 20-30% less.

Jimmy, I know this feels like a new scenerio, but american companies have been oversees for years. Heck the main reason we had a military was to send it down to banana republics to slap down revolutions (or support them depending on how friendly they were with us) to protect Dole foods, and other big corporations.”
hyway
9:58:21 PM
3/29/07
95-99% of my food is local. a few items from Cali. None of my food is overseas”

“Hyway - Circleville, Ohio - electronics plant cut because Walmart wanted lower prices.

Wooster Ohio - Rubbermaid plant closes after Walmart refused to allow them to increase prices because of the cost of resin had gone up.

Retail forward has predicted (a few years ago) that for every new Walmart superstore, two others will close. Walmart pays less than its rivals, taking a large chunk of change out of local pockets.”

“union shops, right? They closed because walmart is the only place that sells electronics and plastic buckets, and not because of the myriad other reasons that businesses close that has nothing to do with walmart. Were teh workers given the option to accept lower pay to keep their jobs or did the heartless management take their golden parachutes and let everyone else go down with the plane? If walmart didn't exist, would those two plants have never existed or would they have found someplace else to sell their goods?”

“If they pay less, I wouldn't know. I do know one thing and this is why the company has become the giant they are:

Their payment terms to their vendors are off the charts.

The law firm I used to work for provided a lot of the legal work for Walmart, specifically our Houston office. One key phrase in our engagement letter was that payment terms were 120 days from receipt of the invoice. That is typically 4 months!

No one can do this, but it is allowed. Why you may ask?

Lets say you come up with the hottest new product on the market and everyone wants to sell it, including Walmart.

You deliver 10,000 units and hand over an invoice for what you charge. The Walmart rep shakes his or her head and says, "sorry, payment terms are 120 days, you will be paid then."

Okay, so now you get to wait 4 months until you get paid for the product that Walmart gets to sell at a lower price than anyone else. Usually they sell all 10,000 units, then invest the cash made (mind you, they have not paid for the product yet) in high interest, low turn around loans.

What they make in interest pays the vendor and everyone is happy.


Genius! I wish I would have come up with this. I am not knocking them one bit. I say if they want to stave out every other store in America, let them!

I will never shop there however, because I cannot stand the smell of the place when I walk through the front door. Get rid of the damn cafe inside, and I will come back.”

“Tilt- makes an irrelevant comment to hear himself talk.




Jimmy san- “these big companies move into communities and, with a big sucking sound, siphon the money out of them and blow it into the pockets of executives and shareholders living in distant places. they are basically economic vampires that put only just enough back into their victims to keep them alive and spending.”

Completely ignores any relevant information about economics and blathers on about his own feelings.




Sassafras- It’s all about child labor.

Completely ignoring that people in China are better off employed, than unemployed. Ignoring the fact that employment in China keeps people from the oppressive poverty that has ruled their starving lives. Only governments can force people, businesses can’t force people to do anything without government compliance! This is typical, “I’m a member of the morality police for the world but I’ll ignore economics nonsense.”




Marko- “Eeeeeeeeh, like takin' candy from a baby!”

The tune never changes: “Blah, blah, blah, I’m an idiot and I ignore any information that conflicts with my preconceived notions. Besides, people who provide me with information I don’t want to listen to only see the world in black and white.”




Wow, I’m sure more has been said after those gems, but I fear if I read any more I’ll drool on my shirt.

I don’t wonder why we get the political leadership we do anymore.

And I’ve found a new way to lower my IQ without drugs. I just read the thought processes some of the folks here. There’s some pretty weak thinking out there.”

“It might not be 4 months wait, but do some work for the government and see how long it takes to get a check. :) But that aside, the reason the walmart way works is because a supplier CAN sell 10,000 widgits to walmart in one order. There aren't too many places where you can do that.”

““Hyway - Circleville, Ohio - electronics plant cut because Walmart wanted lower prices.


When I hear something like this and I do a search I find all these articles and almost always it all goes back to one single source. After digging though I found the International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker's web site concerning the Circleville plant's closing.

The local news reporters said the closing came as "no surprise" to the workers. Sure, Johnson and others knew that the company "wasn’t going to stay in the U.S. if they could go somewhere else and work people for 50 cents an hour,"

While Thomson’s tube production is moving to Mexico, the competitive pressure that led to the move, and the abandonment of glass making, originates in Asia. Consumer Electronics Daily reported on March 18, 2004: "Thomson’s closing of CRT and TV glass plants is part of the continuing retrenchment of the tube business in the U.S., as manufacturers move production to low-cost regions such as Mexico and the Far East, industry officials said. With direct-view [tube] TV price wars raging at retail, manufacturers have moved in recent years to transfer production of 19- and 20-inch tubes to the Far East, leading to speculation that the 25-inch and up sizes aren’t far behind."

He said: "I have to laugh when Thomson talks about ‘foreign competition.’ In January 2004 Thomson and TCL International Holdings Limited, the leading multimedia consumer electronic products manufacturer in China, signed a combination agreement in Paris in the presence of the President of the People’s Republic of China and the French prime minister. Our ‘foreign’ competition’ is Thomson." Thomson has sold TCL a 20-year license to use the RCA name, while retaining control of tube and glass making.

Another factor in the price wars is "dumping"—selling color televisions in the U.S. for less than the cost of making them—by both China and Malaysia. The IBEW was party, with the U.S. government and other unions, to a petition before the International Trade Commission (ITC) that accuses China and Malaysia of illegally dumping TV’s on the U.S. market. The petitioners are seeking an extra import duty on televisions from China and Malaysia to bring prices closer to the normal value.

http://www.ibew.org/articles/04journal/0405/p11.htm

******************************
It is partly about their own stupidity, partly the fact they were still making and selling an unpopular product, and partly because they couldn't compete with the competition from overseas. You'd think the official union web site would have mentioned Walmart, whom they have always shown hate and scorn for, if they were responsible for their demise. But I didn't see Walmart in there at all.

In the words of Chcuk D "...ain't nothin' propa 'bout yo propaganda..."”

“And I’ve found a new way to lower my IQ without drugs. I just read the thought processes some of the folks here. There’s some pretty weak thinking out there.

SOMEBODY misses his college football thread. LOL!

I know when Walmart came to my town of Piqua they bought a big old ugly abandoned mall and that whole side of town exploded in new businesses. They will still be here even if Walmart pulled out. The people who work there are from my community and most are either mothers who couldn't work full time if they wanted to or people who wanted a second job to bolster their full time job or high school/college kids looking for beer money.”

“Does walmart provide full benees to part time employess and could they not make some space for child care?”

“Welcome to Walmart. Would you like a cart?

”

“You know the really hilarious part is all the people screaming about companies wanting LOWER prices....and how UNAMERICAN that is...yet the "deals" "cheap gear" threads on here are always active.

It'sa called "COMPETITION" look into it. I note the same libbies who scream about the low prices at Walmart are the same ones screaming about higher gas prices.....WIERD.”

“bm, why should they?”

“Critics not swayed because admitting that Wal-Mart does anything positive would make their heads explode.

Note my first post, LOL.”

“bm, I dont know of any retail that provide bennies to part timers.”

“bear that is so nice of a thought.. Why don't they go an extra step. They can hire people to go to the houses of the employees, wake them up and get them to work on time and then when they go poopie they can wipe for them....JEEZE

See bear, you may not get it, but Children are a RESPONSIBILITY if you want to have them be prepared for the RESPONSIBILITY of raising them. Walmart or even Bills House of Twisty Things hires..E-M-P-L-O-Y-E-E-S they aren't marrying them and as such they are not taking responsibility for their families or kids.

Now there was a time LONG LONG ago when (using kindergarten teacher voice) there was a system that handled the workers, their families and put near everything...The business made sure they had housing and food and they always had jobs....it was called SLAVERY.”

“hyway - I'm not necessarily saying they should. But medicaid does provide full coverage. often better than some insurance. So what is a single mothers better option?

SC - Doesn't REI provide? Might be others out there.”

“Starbucks?”

“what does all this have to do with the stupidity of calling a company generous, despite the fact that they still have nearly 11B in their coffers after their PR-inspired "charity"?”

“I like how everyone here knows the motives of people in charge of corporate gifts. OTOH, when I write a corporate gift check the people getting the check rarely care about my motives. They just want the cash.”

“well i love how YOU know their motives so well.”

“i also love how some posters on here just KNOW my motives (like hyway is SO SURE that im ENVIOUS, still waiting for any evidence of that, btw)”

“I made no statement to knowing their motives. I do feel that I have a glimpse of their motives because I'm frequently on that side of the fence. I'm a past president for our local Kiwanis club and am starting to get involved with some Boy Scout fundraising.”

“sorry crash, you aren't envious of walmarts success. You just trash them because they are the most successful of all the various businesses that buy goods from china. BTW, please refrain from viewing any fireworks displays in the future. For your enjoyment some poor kid had to go to work in a factory at 12 instead of being strangled at birth because females are deemed less valuable than males.”

“Wait...lets look at Walmart's Business plan.

Walmart Hires people...now to the best of my knowledge the people voluntarily WALK IN off the street and apply, when they accept the job they know the pay, and benefits.
So Walmart hires them...too (big question here????)
Answer - WORK in return for their work they PAY them then the employee goes and BUYS stuff which contributes to the business industry.

So they are low paid, well in the world of REALITY of business competition if you are not being paid what you think you are due. GO FIND A NEW JOB! Lets say you are doing the incredibly demanding job of...mopping floors. You are getting 7.00 an hour. It is obvious that you spent long hours prepareing for this difficult career and you think you should be paid more. Leave! Go to BOB's HOUSE of TWISTY THINGS and get a better paying job.

Now lets say the supply of qualified Floor Moppers drops off. Say it is impossible for the Manager of Wal mart to find qualified people to push a mop at the requisite $7.00 and hour. He will raise his price. Real simple guys.

Now lets say you decide you want a better paying job. GET better training, put forth the effort to make yourself better.”

“http://newsroom.circuitcity.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=235835

The company has completed a wage management initiative that will result in the separation of approximately 3,400 store Associates. The separations, which are occurring today, focused on Associates who were paid well above the market-based salary range for their role. New Associates will be hired for these positions and compensated at the current market range for the job.

Well looks like Circuit City is off the list as well. Wonder if they are going to do the same for the board.

I tried to avoid Circuit City anyway as I've found them to be pretty crap.”

“You just trash them

where in this discussion have i trashed them? be specific. all im saying is theyre not as generous as stove wants us to believe”

“Pretty or Petty...Y2 this is another effect of the FREE MARKET.

Since this is not a Facist society we can choose where to take our money. For instance three years ago an airline who will not be named but has a BIG TRIANGLE for a symbol screwed up on a direct flight to Dallas from Columbia SC. No one loaded any luggage on a 57 passenger aircraft. We found this out in Dallas after standing by the baggage claim for 3 hours.
The next day I went through the challenge of finding a Customer NO service rep and then getting the twit delivering the luggage to give me ALL my luggage.

I wrote the airline (based out of Atlanta) a complaint letter. I got back a nice form letter and a WHOLE $50.00 gift certificate.

Threw it away and have NEVER FLOWN THEM AGAIN. I have gone so far as to convince 10 major travel groups not to use them. I giggle heartily when I see them filing for bankruptcy.”

““I made no statement to knowing their motives.

true, but you did imply that you knew.

I do feel that I have a glimpse of their motives because I'm frequently on that side of the fence. I'm a past president for our local Kiwanis club and am starting to get involved with some Boy Scout fundraising.”

i have no doubt that your motives are good. im sorry if you felt like i was questioning your motives by extension”

“Guys knowing what I know of Crash I wonder how much of his comments are just fun bomb throwing from the "left" like mine is often from the 'right"

And in his defense these things must be debated in society. Debate is what makes us question our lines of thought and practice.

just as the Heretic and their presence actually spurred religious orders to question and become more responsive Crash and others may be spurring us to improve our society.”

“Heretics RULE :D”

“why....gosh.....xl.....im.....touched”

“XL, please stop touching my friend crush. Thats just gross!”

““why....gosh.....xl.....im.....touched”
crash bang
10:41:47 AM
3/30/07
ignore this use

Head, heart or ass?
last edited: 3/30/07 9:43:36 AM”

“Well yeah and so am I (or at least that was the doctors said) (LOL). But I know you off line and on line....this is a great place to throw bombs and have some fun. Some dont' take it that way.

In truth one of my firefighters was working a one of the local WALMARTs they hosed him over (poor management and leadership). Wow they lost a huge chance to bid on some supplies. Got another better operated Walmart and we will deal with it.

Anyone remember the great part of "Pretty Woman" when Julia Roberts was getting snubbed by the high noses at the fashionable stores. The Hotel Manager got her a personal dressmaker and she goes back to the store with all the stuff and asks,"I assume you work on commission? Well I just bought all this from (other store) you #&%!$!"”

“are you being homophobic, sc? thats not a very tolerant libbie”