Posted on 01/25/2013 9:37:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Once again I am here to sing the praises of Walmart. Over the years I have done so on many occasions.
Many misguided souls take the other side. They blame Walmart for ruining mom and pop grocery stores, mom and pop hardware stores, etc.
Not me, I praise cheaper prices. Moreover, it's what consumers voted for with there hard-earned dollars.
If anyone wants to pay more for stuff, all they have to do is shop at a mom and pop hardware store, grocery store, or pharmacy. Most don't because they want a bargain.
Today, I have good news. Walmart-style competition may be on the way in the healthcare business.
The Orlando Business Journal writes Wal-Mart exploring private health insurance exchange for small biz.
Wal-Mart is exploring the idea of building a private health insurance exchange tailored to offer cheaper health insurance to small businesses, a vice president told Orlando Business Journal Jan. 11.
Marcus Osborne, vice president of health and wellness payer relations for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), spoke to OBJ after his keynote speech at the Foundation of Associated Industries of Florida’s 2013 Health Care Affordability Summit. Osborne said Wal-Mart wants to work with insurers and managed care companies to find new, low-cost health insurance options tailored for small companies, which historically have limited options.
The idea is to offer those products through a health insurance exchange — or as Osborne said, simply a marketplace — that would leverage Wal-Mart’s buying and marketing power to make the exchanges widely available and used. “It would allow small employers to piggyback Wal-Mart,” Osborne said. “We haven’t got it all figured out, but it’s one of the things we’re looking at.”
“The biggest problem today small employers face from a health insurance perspective is they have no alternatives,” Osborne said. “If they find anything, they’ve got to take it. There’s something wrong with that.”
This post is about trade wars, tariffs, health care, and Wal-Mart. I will tie these themes together starting with a look at Wal-Mart and health care.
I have many disagreements with Jim Jubak, but he hits the nail on the head with Let Wal-Mart fix US health care.
I know who can fix our broken health care system -- and who can't:
I say, let Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) do it. Hold your guffaws. Stifle your impulse to scoff. Control those sputters of rage.
Wal-Mart has done more to expand coverage and lower costs in the past year than any government program to come out of Washington in the past 10 years. And I'd bet the new programs that this company -- known for stiffing its own part-time workers on health care benefits -- has announced in the past year will do more to expand coverage and cut costs than anything likely to come out of a McCain, Clinton or Obama first term.
Letting Wal-Mart run the health care system would fix many of those problems. It's a company that understands how low prices can build market share and thus increase profits. Furthermore, it's a company with a culture of cutting costs that has shown no compunction in pushing suppliers to the wall over price. The Wal-Mart motto ought to be, "Make it cheaper, or we'll find someone who can." I'd love to see that attitude brought to bear in health care.
Inquiring minds will want to read the rest of the article. It's surprisingly good.
Jubak makes a compelling case. He never said this explicitly but I will. "We do not need higher wages or higher prices. We need lower prices and a dollar that buys more".
WalMart might be a good move. They are an extremely tough company to deal with from the supplier (healthcare operations) side.
nah, they’ll buckle to government and end up supporting Obama Care - because they have so many Obama phone customers, if you get my drift...
They gave Obama $1 million last election.
Wal-Mart is dead to me.
They managed to sell some prescription drugs cheap. I’m sure HHS would have to put a stop to this just to avoid the embarrassment of private enterprise doing what they cannot do efficiently.
That’s the challenge of being a FReeper.
If you boycott all the stores that have been ruled out on FR, there’s no place left.
I don’t get your drift, Walmart is known as the store for the people the elites and GOPe despise, working people, suburban people, gun owners, rural people, conservatives, Christians. Blue enclaves and many big cities and urban centers don’t even allow Walmart to sell groceries.
When I looked it up a few years ago Walmart was not even allowed to build grocery stores in place like Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego.
Living in a city is what made me such a late comer to discovering that Walmart was going to become my favorite grocery store, they have been largely forbidden to urban people, who are forced to shop in union stores.
A former classmate of mine from Stanford actually met with a Walmart “liaison” in Arkanasas (everyone does if they want to deal with Walmart) as he wanted to sell well-designed cooking utensils, as he had connections in China. The liaisons from Walmart are pretty much trained to knock the wholesale price down to almost non-profitable rates but you really, really have got to have impeccable business haggling skills for if you don’t, these guys will walk all over you.
Anyone who loves WalMart must be blind to how they are destroying America.
Remember, Hillary Clinton was on the Board of Directors of WalMart and WalMart flew Bill Clinton around to the primaries in their corporate jets.
Walmart is the reason that Charlie Trie and all the other illegal campaign contributions came into Clinton’s campaign and were never prosecuted.
Walmart is not out for you, they are out for themselves by playing an unlevel playing field. They have cost this country far more jobs than they created.
You need to read the book, how Walmart is destroying America.
A friend of mine quit as a regional Walmart manager. She said that Walmart would actually take pictures of their competitors in an area and put the pic on their office bulletin board. They would then price their products to drive that store out of business, raising their own prices when it closed. She said they would put a huge red “X” over the picture on their office bulletin board as they drove them out.
After closing the competing stores in a community, they would close their own store to open a regional Super Walmart, forcing the elderly to find transportation to the regional store. When Walmart enters a community, there is a net loss of jobs.
I’m for free tade on a level playing field. Not by using slave labor to support a Communist China regime!
“.....cheaper prices..” There is a difference between “cheap” and “value”. The author is correct in that if you want something cheap you go to Walmart. If you want value for your purchase you go someplace else.
I can buy four pairs of work boots at Walmart for what I pay at Redwing. Redwings are made in the USA, by US workers, and are made of premium leather. Mine are four years old and still look new. The cheap boots are made in foreign shops, by foreign workers, paid slave wages, at companies that get to ignore safety and environmental regulation and they may not last six months in line of work. They are then thrown away, like most junk, continuing the cycle of waste.
If Walmart is able to bring competition to the medical market place, well good for them and us. If they want to bring “cheap” then we need to be careful what we wish for.
nd if you did half the things that freepers say you should, you’d probably be dead, or at least very miserable...
That’s one of the reasons I don’t refer ANYBODY to FR anymore, there are way to many crackpot ideas that don’t get contested.
Well I can tell ya as far as jobs and businesses go in our area your entire premise about Wal-Mart is Bullshit.
When Wal-mart opened in our county there was a few grocery stores and no stores that sold things like Computers and craft goods etc.
Wal-mart has been here over 20 years and now we have more grocery stores and more other stores like crafts and computers etc in the area and many more jobs. One store went out of business and that was Big Bear and they closed all over the state (My SIL worked for them) because they were badly run. Krogers built a bigger store just blocks from Wal-mart and is going strong.
My town is 8 miles away from the town the has the Wal-Mart. Its been slowly dying for 30 years. When Wal-mart proposed a new store in our town the anti-Wal-Mart idiots stormed in filling our council meetings with Big Union supporters claiming 400 jobs would be lost in our town. Wal-mart guaranteed 200 Jobs on the day they opened and another 100-200 after operation of 2 years. Sadly the anti-Wal-mart idiots won.
3 years later 8 businesses have closed and our town can't even afford Salt for the roads and need to alternate sending power to the street lights because they can't afford the electric bill. Our city attorney tells me that the taxes from the jobs and the sales tax from Wal-mart would have paid for all of the stuff we can't afford now and much more using half of the figures Wal-Mart promised based on their expected income from the store.
Walmart has to play ball with Obama and they know it. At any time he could send investigators into stores and find dozens of missed timecard punches from minimum-wage nitwits. Each of these can be interpreted as “wage theft” subject to a large fine. Not to mention what the EPA could do to them.
My prediction....Walmart voluntarily accepts unionization before the end of this decade.
WalMart good, WalMart bad? I shop at the store that best serves my needs, at the moment it’s a local WalMart. If someone does a better overall job I’ll shop there.
Walmart is making (heard) 29 million dollars an hour. How? Getting you to buy less in quantity and quality for the same price you paid yesterday, by lowering quality because they force manufacturers to lower their prices. Even my toothpaste has air bubbles in it. I never had air bubbles in my toothpaste while growing up or we would have been making fart jokes about it. Ever notice how a new product is good but by the next season it is garbage? obviously I have shopped there.
First, Walmart is a study in contradictions.
Second, I would submit that you formed an opinon of Walmart about five years ago and quit observing. They gave a ton of money to Obama, and are signing up with Obama on guns to help manage gun sales (and also to screw the indepdent gun shops) and I guarantee their medical program will accomodate Obama Care, not fight against it. Wake up, this ain’t the Walmart of even 3 years ago. They’re “down for the struggle” now.
Biased drivel
Sure thing, the massive Christmas worker strike worked out so well for the union stooges that tried to organize it. sarc.
Kinda’ funny, how every four years some FReepers rediscover that big businesses donate to both political parties.
Whenever I visit Walmart,I faintly hear “Dueling Banjos” in the background.....
Some are still mad here, many are not. Sadly, I think only the very top of the line are made here.
***Anyone who loves WalMart must be blind to how they are destroying America.***
Yep. Destroy is what Walmart does best. Back in the 1950s this county was firmly in the economic stranglehold of CHICKEN MEN who paid starvation wages because they were “agriculture”. People were too poor to even leave the area to find better jobs. You worked for the Chicken Men at their wages or starved.
When Sam Walton started his Walmart, wages went up and people saw a chance to make a few bucks more. The Chicken men could no longer keep everyone working for their starvation wages and had to import the first Mexicans into the area.
The local high dollar “Mom and Pop” stores had to close because they could not compete with the “Mom and Pop” store started by Sam Walton. The high dollar grocery stores had to close down for the same reason.
Wal-Mart is the reason that all manufacturing has gone to China and American homes are filled with cheap plastic crap.
Walmart forgot 'ya gotta dance with the ones who brung ya...' If Walmart had to count on Liberal elites keeping them in business they wouldn't last a week.
Walmart needs to remember the Chick fil A protest - almost a million citizens showed up - and not even a few dozen on the other side. Leftist look like a large group because they control the MSM - but when it's sheer numbers - numbers that can't be faked - we win.
It's 10,000 Tea Party people vs 60 "Occupiers' every time... and as for shoppers? Elites don't show Walmart.
I’m with you. I shop where I can buy in bulk at a much lower rate-things like paper products, laundry soap, mouth wash, tooth paste, etc.
Walmart forgot 'ya gotta dance with the ones who brung ya...'
If Walmart had to count on Liberal elites keeping them in business they wouldn't last a week.
Walmart needs to remember the Chick fil A protest - almost a million citizens showed up - and not even a few dozen on the other side. Leftist look like a large group because they control the MSM - but when it's sheer numbers - numbers that can't be faked - we win.
It's 10,000 Tea Party people vs 60 "Occupiers' every time... and as for shoppers? Elites don't shop Walmart.
We do. Oh, and I love the idea of Walmart doing health care - not just 'insuring' but DOING health care.
***They would then price their products to drive that store out of business,****
This is news? We got two feed-hardware stores in our area. Both have signs posted at the door warning “price scouts” from the other store not to enter.
Grocery stores used to send scouts to other stores to sniff out prices so the store could lower prices below what the other had.
It is called COMPETITION, FREE MARKET. Just the opposite of PRICE FIXING, as used to be practiced between mom and pop stores in small towns.
What brand of toothpaste do you buy? Wal-Mart has the same brand of toothpaste you get in any other store. Perhaps you should change your toothpaste.
That said, my beef with Walmart is their meat department. They need to do what Publix did - offer two grades of beef. Both grades can be a better value... Publix goes it by having 'greenwise'... Walmart could do it by offering 'choice'...
***Not by using slave labor to support a Communist China regime!***
All the BIG BOX stores around here use Chinese made goods.
Walmart
Sears
K mart
Hobby Lobby
Ace
True Value
Target
And many, many more.
I buy at a Mom and Pop (franchise) hardware store because if I need twwelve inches of 3/4" PEX tubing the gal at Walmart wouldn't know what the hell I was talking about.
You exactly have it backward. Wal-Mart would be out of business if there wasn't demand for cheap plastic crap.
Frankly, that whole "ebil corporations make me buy their product" shtick is what you hear at an OWS encampment.
Wal-Mart is not the reason that all the manufacturing has gone to China. The Unions are the ones. Also tell me what national store does not sell anything that is made in China. You can’t because they all do. Even AAFES does. At least at Wal-Mart you find items that are made in the US if you take the time to look
Walmart has preemptively surrendered to the regime on the 2nd Amendment. THREE MONTHS AGO (before Sandy Hook), they stopped suppling stores with ammo. It has now grown into “concern” about safety.
I will not shop at Walmart so long as they treat me like a criminal and deprive me of my 2nd Amendment rights. I know, I know it is a business; blah, blah, blah., and they can do what they like. I get it and I can also do what I like and refuse to shop there. Do lower prices and bargains mean more to you than your 2nd Amenedment rights? If so, wear your chains well. If not, then shop elsewhere.
You must be one o’ them thar indeveeduwals I heard ‘bout...
You might want to review your sources, or stop by your local Wal-Mart and buy some ammo.
“All the BIG BOX stores around here use Chinese made goods.”
Correct... And Walmart blazed the trail. When the Clintons opened the door, everyone went for cheap goods.
No, I still pay attention to my favorite grocery store, the store lefties and liberals hate, and smear with false stories about guns and such.
Where do you shop?
Well, I largely don’t shop - but when I have to, I don’t avoid Walmart nor do I seek it out. What I do participate in however is a constant study of which businesses are conservative friendly, and Walmart used to be one of the very best in that regard, but they are not now. Feel free to ignore that if you want to. Yes, I realize they are smeared by the left (duh) - but what I also realize is that they live in fear of that, and instead of fighting back, they are joining up. Awaken yourself. They are Obamites.
The WalMarts in my area still sell ammunition and they are the best price for a new long gun anywhere around here.
Do you pro-left, union people think that the left created that site because the Americans who shop at Walmart don’t shop at the union stores, or lefty Costco, or are unique somehow to Walmart?
Walmart has been hated by the left because it’s clientele are mostly red counties people, gun owners, republicans.
Do you think that New Yorkers and Los Angeles people are buying their beans and bullets at Walmart, or Texans and red county people?
So tell me the national grocery stores and box stores that are more conservative than Walmart, and what was that gun stuff about that you were claiming?
I remember them, long before I ever shopped in a Walmart.
Leftists and union goons hate WalMart. That’s good enough for me.
Ever been to a Dollar Store?
You are lucky because I called their corporate office and they said no guns or ammo. See my post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2978689/posts
My experiences in shopping at Wal-Mart have been varied. Some OK but some; well not so good.
IMO, Wal-Mart is good as far as prices if you are buying well known and popular name brands but you need to do some research.
For example, I recently bought a rug steam cleaner. After doing a lot of research on-line and going to many stores to compare brands and prices, I decided on Bissel model and Wal-Mart had it $10 cheaper than anyone else so I bought it at Wal-Mart.
OTOH, when I was shopping for a flat screen HD TV and Wal-Mart had some really low prices but then TV’s they had were on the really low end of the consumer satisfaction scale, IMO, cheap in price and cheap in quality. After much research, I bought the TV I wanted on sale at Best Buy for a very good price – a much better TV at the same price that Wal–Mart had for much lesser quality TV’s.
A few years ago I bought some clothes at Wal-Mart, a pair of Capri jeans and a cotton top, very cute and at a very good price. That was at least until the first time I washed them and they literally both fell apart at the seams. Sure they were inexpensive but considering I only wore them twice, they were actually very expensive.
I also tried doing my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Some items were definitely a bargain – things like laundry detergent and boxed foods but produce? Not so much. I bought a bag of apples that looked nice on the outside but were all rotten on the inside, the same with the onions, nice on the outside but rotten on the inside. I also bought some frozen foods that were all freezer burned and funky tasting. Another time I bought a set of salt and pepper shakers, they looked nice from the picture and description on the box but when I got them home and opened the box, what from the picture and description seemed to be glass with metal lids, it was all plastic and very cheaply made, not all worth what I paid for them. FWIW, Target, like them or not, has better prices on many groceries items and many other name brand products than Wal-Mart.
OTHO, I recently bought a set of tires for my car at Wal-Mart for a very good price. But then I had to wait nearly 6 hours to have them put on and they lost three out of my four valve stems. : (
I bought a pair of glasses from Wal-Mart a few years ago. The frames fell apart in less than a year. I would never buy eye glass frames from them again.
The other bad experience I had was when I needed to buy a battery for a wrist watch. I went to the jewelry counter to buy the battery but didn’t know the size and needed to have the back taken off the watch, something that required a tool that I didn’t have. When I asked for assistance, the gal at the jewelry counter asked me if I had bought the watch at Wal-Mart and when I said no, she told me something along the lines of “I ain’t touching no watch you didn’t buy here, u gotta go back to where u got it, I ain’t touching that shit.” :( !
I’m not anti Wal-Mart but I’m not pro Wal-Mart either. I try to do a lot of research when buying a big ticket name brand product and if Wal-Mart has the best price for what I want, I will buy from them. But as for doing my regular shopping there; I can do better elsewhere in most cases as far as quality and customer service. Just my opinion.
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