My Dad and my Uncle have been trying to convince my Brother and I that Wal-Mart is the reason that the local Mom and Pop stores are going out of business. My Dad even brought a newspaper article describing how conglomerates tend to destroy local Mom and Pop stores all over the country.
My problem is that their story doesn't hold water. Here is what i think. The only time that Wal-Mart would put a Mom and Pop store out of business is when Wal-Mart goes into a small town of about 25,000 or less. In the larger cities each neighborhood has their own grocer, butcher and the like. Large grocery stores such as Kroger, Albertsons and HEB are already in the larger cities so Wal-Mart only makes them become more competitive.
Wal-Mart, Costco, Kroger, Winn-Dixie and Albertsons are bulk item stores. The speciality stores are still around. In Odessa TX Wal-Mart hasn't even stopped the little Mom and Pop stores. Not everyone goes to the store and buys food and stuff for 1 or 2 weeks. A lot of people like fresh foods and use the locals.
Wal-Mart simply helps you spend more of your paycheck in their store. Wal-Mart is based on convenience and low prices. Here is a test for you. Make a list of 20 commonly purchased items that you use. Go to Wal-Mart, Albertsons, HEB and Market Basket and buy the exact same name brand items. See for your self who is cheaper.
You will find that Wal-Mart is the cheapest. If Wal-Mart is the cheapest, how do the other stores stay open?
The simple fact is that Wal-Mart only hurts locals in hillbilly hick towns.
Now my Dad and Uncle shop at Market Basket, Kroger, Cirle K, 7-11. They eat at Burger King, McDonald's and Ryan's. all these places are chains. All these chains contributed to putting the little guy out of business. You still have some locals who have speciality shops.
Since Dad and Uncle are against Wal-Mart because it is a chain, i would like to see them show that they are not hypocrites and stop spending their money at all chains and help support the little guy.
Show me.
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http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/
I really do hate Wal-Mart. It's just the convenience of being able to get several different items in one single place. I avoid Mal-Wart 99% of the time.
Walmart is what I call a compromise store. It has a little of everything, but it doesn't have all of the best, including prices. It can be inconvenient, the prices can be high and the quality may be lower than at specialty stores.
In my neck of the woods, way before Walmart came to town, the "mom and pop" stores were pooling their resources and affiliating with large wholesale cooperative outlets for cost savings they could pass on to their customers and to be competitive. Some didn't survive, although I think they lost business to convenience stores and the fact their stores depended on a society that wasn't as mobil as today. People look for one stop shopping since they want to deal with the least amount of traffic.
Times change and so does business.
ONE WAL-MART’S COST TO FEDERAL TAXPAYERS
A 200-employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers the following:
• $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families
• $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store
employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family
• $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for
low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child
and 50 are married with two children.
• $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families
qualify with an average of 2 children.
• $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state
children’s health insurance programs (S_CHIP), assuming 30 employees with an
average of two children qualify.
• $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance.
For a grand annual total of $420,750.
Only a few reasons why Wal-Mart is the low cost leader,
Uncle
Oh really, i guess that if WalMart had not opened a store the 50 families for free lunches wouldn't have eaten at all.
They had to build section 8 housing for Wal-Mart? maybe and i am just spit balling here, the section 8 housing was already there. How is it Wal-Mart's fault?
These people who get tax credits will get them anyway. Wal-Mart didn't invent the tax credit.
Wal-Mart is not resposible for SChip. Would you rather have them at the emergency room?
It seems to me that these problems were already there when Wal-Mart moved in. I will try to see it from your point of view but i can not get my head that far up my ass.
Remember when Wal-Mart was as American as apple pie…
In the 1980s, if you can believe it, Sam Walton and Wal-Mart not only used to have a “Buy America” program, but Wal-Mart made a public commitment to "buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States."
Read Sam Walton’s ‘Buy America’ letter.
In fact, Sam Walton understood that losing good-paying, middle class American manufacturing jobs, exploding trade deficits, and a dependence on foreign imports was bad for America, bad for hard working families, and in the end, bad for Wal-Mart.
But that was then... this is now.
Now, it’s safe to say, Wal-Mart likes to buy from anywhere but America.
And, Wal-Mart’s “Buy America program” has become a “Buy China” program that makes Wal-Mart and China stronger while weakening America.
And, if you don’t believe us, here are the facts:
Wal-Mart imports $22 billion of Chinese goods, making Wal-Mart the #1 importer of Chinese goods
Wal-Mart, if it were its own country, would be China’s sixth largest trading partner
Wal-Mart ships American jobs overseas, both directly and by pressuring American suppliers to move offshore
Wal-Mart lobbies for free-trade agreements that make it easier for companies to ship American jobs overseas
Because of the growing trade deficit with China, the U.S. has lost an estimated 1.8 million jobs since 2000
Help China shop at Wal-Mart
Uncle
New Research Shows Wal-Mart Rigs the System to
Skip Out on $2.3 Billion in State Taxes
WASHINGTON, DC — Wal-Mart appears to be skipping out on its fair share of taxes that most
Americans have to pay to help support state governments. New research conducted in part by a
leading non-partisan, non-profit tax organization reveals that Wal-Mart avoided $2.3 billion in
state income taxes, cutting its payment to state governments almost in half between 1999 and
2005:
• Over those seven years, Wal-Mart reported $77.4 billion in pretax U.S. profits to its
shareholders. But it reported a total state income tax bill of only $2.4 billion, just 3.16%
of those profits.
• Had Wal-Mart paid taxes at the statutory state corporate tax rates for the same period, it
would have paid $4.7 billion in state income taxes.
With your head being stuck so far up your WAL-MART consumer ass, I can understand why, you can not see my point.
Uncle
At Wal-Mart the produce s American as is most of the food stuffs. Let's take the grocery side of it out of the equation.
You say Wal-Mart imports so much of it's stuff. Well Wal-Mart sales a lot of name brand products. Sony, RCA, LG, Wrangler, Levis, Faded Glory, Dickies, Hanes, etc...
Wal-Mart is not the manufacturer of these goods. They are a retailer. If Wal-Mart wants to carry Sony, Wrangler, RCA and other names they have to purchase them from the company. It seems to me that the manufacturer of the products is the one you need to be mad at. Wal-Mart is just stocking the products.
Wal-Mart does not control where the products are made. I do not think that Wal-Mart has a contract with China. I think they are simply buying the products where they can get them. Remember that Wal-Mart doesn't buy 10,000 of an item. They buy to stock 10,000 stores.
JCPenny's, Sears and other large retailers carry the same name brands. They are importing from China just as well. Wal-Mart is noticed simply buy the large amounts of products they purchase.
We need to focus on the producers who send it to China to be made rather than the retailers who sale the products.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Your tax story would be more believable if you didn't cheat on your taxes. Wal-Mart done it on a greater scale.
If Wal-Mart did cheat on their taxes that is between them and the State. If the State lets them get away with it, then the Sate is a fool. Honestly i can not believe that as crooked as our politicians are they would let anyone get away without paying billions in taxes.
In reading your last post I now know that you don't know what the hell you are talking about. Your just talking to here yourself.
Wal-Mart does have its own factorys and has control of many of its Suppliers factorys.
You also stated in your response that you do not THINK, well that is very clear.
You don't have a snow balls chance in hell on this issue.
So go ahead and give up just say Uncle
Wal-Mart's Chinese factory workers are treated poorly
Workers making clothing for Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 claiming that they were not paid the legal minimum wage, not permitted to take holidays off and were forced to work overtime. They said their employer had withheld the first three months of all workers' pay, almost making them indentured servants because the company refused to pay the money if they quit. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
Workers making toys for Wal-Mart in China's Guangdong Province reported that they would have to meet a quota of painting 8,900 toy pieces in an eight hour shift in order to earn the stated wage of $3.45 a day. If they failed to meet that quota, the factory would only pay them $1.23 for a day's work. [China Labor Watch, December 21, 2005]
A former Wal-Mart executive James Lynn has sued the company claiming he was fired because he warned the company that an inspection manager was intimidating underlings into passing Central American suppliers. Lynn documented forced pregnancy tests, 24-hour work shifts, extreme heat, pat-down searches, locked exits, and other violations of the labor laws of these Central American countries. [New York Times, July 1, 2005 and James Lynn to Odair Violim, April 28, 2002, www.nclnet.org]
Tip of the pile
Uncle
I was just looking at Wal-Mart's website and they are talking about how they have given $300 million to over 1600 communities. They say they are working to expand there 44% of employees who have medical coverage. According to their website they are doing a lot more than you think.
So the people who hate Wal-Mart put a negative spin on them and Wal-Mart puts a positive spin on them. Wow what a concept.
OK i was wrong. Wal-Mart does have factories in China. If Wal-Mart is following the business practices established in China and meeting their laws, why do you have a beef with it? If China wants to treat their people like crap and pay them $3.65 a day, isn't that China's problem? I am not the China police and nothing i do or say will change the economics in China.
Here is another angle. Wal-Mart employees 1.3 million people in the US. I would guess that about 44% or more of those are there for the long haul and making much more than minimum wage. Wal-Mart is a starter job. That is where kids and retirees go to work. Over half of their employees are short term. If a person applies them selves and can pass a drug test, they do not have to work at Wal-Mart. For example right now in Odessa TX the starting pay for working on an Oil Rig is above $20 per hour. Why would a 19 or 20 year old kid be working at Wal-Mart for $6 an hour when they can be making $20? Drug test are a bitch.
Why would they work ay Wal-Mart when they can work for IBM? I agree that the new employees at Wal-Mart are probably underpaid. Minimum wage is not designed to support a family. It was designed to teach you work habits and to train you for something better. If after 5 years in the workforce and you are still making minimum wage, you need to accept the fact you will probably be in that class for the rest of your life.
It is not my fault that some 18 year old girl spread her leggs and got knocked up and her limited education doesn't allow her to persue better endeavors. She shouldn't have been easy and applied herself to her future. I am sorry she is in that situation but in the end it is her fault. Maybe if she had been a proper young lady she could have landed a better job than Wal-Mart.
Like it or Love it they are here to stay. They cater to an entirely different crowd than say Sears. Wal-Mart supplies a refuge for those that have no greater expectations in life and will be on the bottom of the food chain for their whole life. Wal-Mart simply gives them a place to congrgrate.
Wal-Mart is not following the laws in China.
Bottom line, if you support Wal-Mart then you support both the good and the bad. At Wal-Mart the bad far exceeds the good.
It was stated well, when in previous post it was said that Wal-Mart was a compromise store, you compromise your morals for low prices.
Just say Uncle
I have seen i
Spread that Holiday Cheer the Wal-Mart Way.
Since we are arguing the point that Wal-Mart is an asset to American communities and the world over as well...I thought I'd spread some Holiday Cheer Wal-Mart style! Read on..
This year, we expect that millions of homes will be lit with Christmas lights, the perennial holiday favorite. Like most Americans, I can't help but to smile when I see families quadrupling their electricity bills just to spread a little bit of holiday cheer.
If your family purchased Christmas lights from Wal-Mart, you're in for even more surprises than the ones wrapped up under the tree. How about the risk of lead poisoning, for starters?
CNN just released an article about high lead content in several brands of Christmas lights. Topping the list of dangerous decorations, and hardly a surprise to us, is Wal-Mart's offering. Here the quote from CNN.com.
"Wal-Mart brand lights had the highest levels of surface lead, with levels ranging from 86.6 to 132.7 micrograms. GE lights showed surface lead levels from 68 to 109.1 micrograms. Sylvania had surface lead levels from 59 to 70.3 micrograms. Levels of surface lead in the lights made by Philips ranged from a low of 3.2 -- well under the 15 microgram limit -- to 107.2 in another sample."
According to CNN, Wal-Mart's product contains about 9 times the 15 microgram limit for lead content. These Christmas lights are so dangerous, CNN reports, that gloves are required while handling them. Additionally, the lights should be kept out of the reach of children.
If you think something is wrong here, you're not alone. We have spent this holiday season campaigning for Wal-Mart to take responsibility for their their part in America's product safety crisis. Already, our supporters are well on their way toward 10,000 letters to the US Senate, all calling for hearings on Wal-Mart's negative effect on product safety in America.
Let's make stories like this one history. Hold Wal-Mart responsible for the unsafe products they sell by signing our letter to the US Senate.
http://letters.wakeupwalmart.com/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2034
So, now that you're sweating like a faggot at a weenie roast over those Wal-Mart lights you bought, it's clear the lead has caused memory loss because you forgot where to point your moral compass!
;)
Well Pimpage, i see that you share your Dad's point of view. What do ya'll do, sit around and see who can get their head further up their ass?
All of you information is coming from an "I Hate Wal-Mart" website. Is there lead in the lights? Hell i don't know. Your Dad and myself grew up with lead based paint all around us and it didn't stunt our growth or make our weenies fall off. Maybe it isn't as bad as people try to make it out. Out of all the makers of the lights you listed Wal-Mart had the highest lead content. All of them were over the limits yet you focus on Wal-Mart lights. They are just number 1. Don't be hatin.
As for my Moral Compass, remember that if you live in a glass house you shouldn't throw rocks. I remember not that long ago when you took me to Wal-Mart and we bought a bunch of food from the Fema Money. Your exact quote was that you were "Nigger Rich". You and your Dad bash me for being a Wal-Mart supporter yet your Dad goes to Wal-Mart to work on their equipment. The very people who are destroying the fabric of America is putting food on your table and buying your Christmas presents. Pimpage, i think you need to return all the presents your Dad gave you for the simple fact they were purchased with money made from a company getting rich off the backs of the little guy while destroying the local community. Stand up and show me that you are not a hypocrit. Impress me.
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