Wal-Mart signifies all that is wrong in America

Donating is all well and good but if they are that hard up for a tax write-off why not give every shopper $1000 just for the hell of it?

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There's a Supercenter where I live, it the biggest and bussiest in the US. It's just a tadd smaller than the one in Japan. I shop there to get things cheaper or things that they have, that other stores don't have. In Central, Rural Maine, that's the closest Department Store they have, and its an half an hour drive too. Everything else, is an hour drive. This Walmarts opened, right after Ames closed up. Which my relatives took avandtage of. There is no perfect Department Store, after all remember what Kmarts is involed in. "That's right their still doing it!" Martha Stewart's Blue Light Special

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lost_my_calgon wrote:

Donating is all well and good but if they are that hard up for a tax write-off why not give every shopper $1000 just for the hell of it?

I was born in northeastern Connecticut, a collection of dead (their not dieing any more) textile mill towns that are among the poorest in the northeast. Wall-Mart among the worlds richest corporations, is proposing to build a mega distribution center that will offer $10 (max) an hour jobs (that $20,000 a year before taxes folks) and they are asking for tax relief from the town and state before they will build. This corporation donates nothing, all they do is take.

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Acquiunk wrote:

lost_my_calgon wrote:
Donating is all well and good but if they are that hard up for a tax write-off why not give every shopper $1000 just for the hell of it?

I was born in northeastern Connecticut, a collection of dead (their not dieing any more) textile mill towns that are among the poorest in the northeast. Wall-Mart among the worlds richest corporations, is proposing to build a mega distribution center that will offer $10 (max) an hour jobs (that $20,000 a year before taxes folks) and they are asking for tax relief from the town and state before they will build. This corporation donates nothing, all they do is take.

See it doesn't matter if they did good or not. hating something will never allow anyone to see the good in anything even if it is really good.

It is so funny. There isn't a spotless corporation out there. But that is what everyone wants. Good luck in finding that. Not gonna.

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Let's see...$20K a year vs $0...hmmmm...boy, that's a tough one there...work at Wal-Mart or starve...

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I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart. In fact, I've disliked Wal-Mart for years. Even before it was popular to dislike them I've noticed things about their marketing tactics that I've disagreed with. The first thing that turned me off to the store was the fact that they sell censored versions of music without telling the consumer.

In the part of the country there's another one stop shopping outlet that I really like. I won't mention the name of the chain but they have been significantly hurt in reascent years by the Wal-Mart molopoly. It's a shame to see businesses that play by the rules and have a long history of good customer service be hurt by cut throat and sleazy business practices.

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You think they play by the rules. I highly doubt they do.

On the CD it states that it is censored.

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Yes but when they first started censoring material they did it without telling customers.

Who needs CD's and DVD's that have been censored to please a specific retail outlet. They are strong arming the artists because they know that if they don't sell at Wal-Mart they will loose a big chunk of change. So it's either edit the material to make Wal-mart happy, or forget about making a dime.

Wal-mart's too big and needs to go away.

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Don't go there for CDs then. No one is making anyone go to Wal-Mart for CDs nor are they making them give their CDs to sell there.

Wal-Mart will not go away. But wishful thinking.

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Just because a company is smaller does not make them better nor does it make them innocent of doing any wrong in a business sense.

Likewise just because the company is big does not make them the best choice or protect them from the wrongs they do.

Like one more than the other is a preference but if you like the small companies just because you think they are innocent of wrongs- you have problems that have already been mentioned.

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They also censor the books they sell. Certain subjects are forbidden. You know what I do? I go to a different store for books.

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I think Wal-Mart has an unfair advantage over smaller companies. Since they have big money, they have the power to absorb the backlash when they do something which some of their customers don't like. A small business would be out on their ass if they tried to do some of the things that Wal-Mart does. They can avoid consequences, because of their market power, which is what pisses people off. It's like when a big bully beats up the same nerd everyday, because he can. That's the feeling that this taps into. But the thing is, in this country, there is always the perception that we can change that. I don't know if we can, but we should.

These people who glibly defend Wal-Mart would use the same arguments if Wal-Mart decided to start selling slaves. I can just hear McG saying, "I don't like slaves either. But you know what I do? I just go to a different store."

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Do you also feel the same way about Amazon, GE, Ford, K-Mart, PigglyWiggly, Goodyear, and every other business that has evolved in the past few decades?

When was the last time you have even seen a small business that sold books? Barnes and noble and Amazon have single handedly almost eliminated them.

It's fun and easy to say that Wal-Mart represents all the is bad about America. But it also represents what is right and just about America. Freedom and choice. Sam Walton didn't just wake up one day owning hundreds of Wal-Marts distributed around the country. He had to work at it. There also had to be demand for it. So, take your anti-Walmart message and, well, nevermind.

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Another difference between a small store and Wal-Mart has to do with regional diversity. If we all shopped at Wal-Mart, we could be anywhere in the US and it would feel the same. Local stores provide a sense of regional and cultural identity, something that's lost when we all shop in the same mega-stores and eat at the same franchise restaurants.

I guess, though, if buying cheap stuff is all that matters, these other factors are irrelevant.

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People need to stop living in the past. These are the people that have the future past them right on by.

It is like when the car was invented and people thought that was bad. They kept their buggies. Where are the buggies now? No where other then when you want a romantic trip around Central Park.

It is a thing call progress. Time moves on. All of you who want the Mom and Pop shops to prevail are not paying attention very well. They are nice and they will never disappear - no matter how much you think Wal-Mart might put them under. You just can't keep the same in business and expect to make money.

If cars didn't progress towards something better but only staid like they were first made Car Lots would be out of business. There is no way of staying the same.

It isn't a dream world it is living in the past. The past is gone. It no longer exists. Wal-Mart is progress weather you like it or not.

Wal-Mart doesn't sale slaves. But Mom and Pops shops did. Hmmm whoes the bad guy now?

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BlueMonkey wrote:

It isn't a dream world it is living in the past. The past is gone. It no longer exists. Wal-Mart is progress weather you like it or not.

Wal-Mart doesn't sale slaves. But Mom and Pops shops did. Hmmm whoes the bad guy now?

I hope you'll understand, BM, that the somewhat glaring mistakes in red devalue the rest of your opinion.

And you simply don't stand much chance of convincing others of anything, regardless of your rather atrocious spelling, when you make comments like 'Mom and Pops did' sell slaves.

And if 'progress' is wages and benefits like this article discloses, well, we just don't need to go there:

Quote:

When Pamela Robasciotti was a cosmetics department manager at Wal-Mart, she had to borrow money from her boyfriend or parents to pay for the $25 inhalers she uses to control asthma attacks.

On a wage of $9.27 per hour, every expense stretched her pocketbook. But the prescription cost seemed particularly unfair. Robasciotti already paid about $130 per month for Blue Cross HMO health care coverage.

"They take $130 a month out ... plus the pay wasn't really good," said Robasciotti, a 45-year-old Gilroy resident who worked in the town's Wal-Mart for more than six years. "I just got tired of it."

Robasciotti illustrates Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s tough approach to benefits, an approach that has its employees paying more for health-care than most workers across the country, including their peers at other large retailers. It's a key part of the Wal-Mart cost-cutting model that has helped the retailer grow into the largest company -- and employer -- in the world.

Most of us in this forum are simply not going to support a company that has such a miserable record in so many areas.

Wal-Mart is contemptible of the people who work in their stores, of the people who manufacture their goods overseas, and probably of you and the rest of its customers.

When you understand the power of what your dollars spent with a company like this mean, you'll perhaps have a change of heart about Wal-Mart.

I hope that happens, but I won't hold my breath.

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Yeah, what PDiddie said!

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BlueMonkey thinks it's futuristic to shop at Wal-Mart. Sounds to me like what it must have been like in the USSR, except with better consumer junk.

Didn't work there, BlueMonkey, sorry...

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Remind me again how many Americans Walmart employs? Including their distribution centers, truck drivers, etc.? Do you have a place in the mom and pop shops for those people to work?

I highly doubt it.

Also, commenting on another's spelling is both childish and petty.

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McGentrix wrote:

commenting on another's spelling is both childish and petty.

Spelling and punctuation and sentence composition are all a reflection of a person's education and intelligence.

Most people strive to be clear and cogent on a discussion forum such as this.

What you call elitist I call erudite, McG.

I don't think people ought to use words that they don't know how to spell. There are several online dictionaries where one can verify spelling and meaning. I use them all the time. Hell, this website has a spellcheck for posting.

It's just an observation on my part that folks on the boards who exhibit some of the same reading, spelling, and comprehension difficulties also tend to agree with Bush that Saddam and al-Qaeda planned 9-11, that WMDs are still waiting to be discovered in Iraq, and that Wal-Mart is a great place to shop for everything one might need.

It could be that they got a nice Wal-Mart-style education -- ubiquitous, woefully inexpensive, served up by overworked and underpaid people and complete with a valueless warranty.

Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

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Wal-Mart signifies all that is wrong in America

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