The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

Fast Company magazine ^ | november 2003 | charles fishman

[em2vn]

A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.

[em2vn]

You decide if Wal-Mart is a cancer or blessing.

[mewzilla]

Doesn't matter. It's here. Adapt or die.

[Cogadh na Sith]

What!? You don't like pickles?

[The_Eaglet]

"Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States."

I used to think Wal-Mart was great because of its "Buy American" philosophy. Now I have to go to other stores to buy American products.

[cashion]

I used to think Wal-Mart was great because of its "Buy American" philosophy. Now I have to go to other stores to buy American products.

What other stores don't carry the same percentage of foreign goods as Wal-Mart?

[Willie Green]

The automotive cartel has been squeezing the lifeblood out of its suppliers for years, never passing along ssvings to consumers, just stuffing the difference in their own pockets. Of greater importance than pickels, they're the ones who are subverting our domestic steel industry, and jeopardizing our national security in the process.

The self-serving agenda of multi-national corporations don't coincide with what's in the best interest of our nation.

The National Interest versus Corporate Interest

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."

--Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

--Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816. FE 10:69

[The_Eaglet]

I don't know the ratios for national chain stores. It is a hit-and-miss process of going to local stores and other chains with different stock.

[StatesEnemy]

I was reading on some anti-WM blog about a group purposely spreading cold and flu virus in WM's by wiping phlegm on the merchandise...

Had to say I laughed!

[tysont]

If you think a monopoly is bad, you'll find the Wal-Mart monopsony is worse. A monopsony leads to price deflation just as a monopoly leads to price inflation.

[July 4th]

What other stores don't carry the same percentage of foreign goods as Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart carries a particularly high percentage, if I remember correctly. But here's the deal. It's all a trade-off. Today, our living standards are as high as they have every been. Part of this is due to the fact that even the dirt-poor can afford goods that were once considered "luxury." When Wal-Mart offers an air-conditioner for less than $100, DVD players for $30, and 20" TV's for less than $100, a much wider segment of the population can afford these goods than would be able to if all of the goods were US produced.

Then the issue becomes whether there are enough jobs at the "dirt-poor" level to provide income to purchase anything at all. Wal-Mart is the boon of the non-manufacturing based middle class who can purchase pretty much everything they want, while remaining somewhat secure in their own employment. They aren't purchasing away their jobs.

[G.Mason]

130,000,000 + shoppers a day file in and out of Wal-Mart.

Go buy a gallon of pickles.

[GatekeeperBookman]

Good shot Willie-but you have had pratice.

[KellyAdmirer]

Wal-mart is an excellent argument for tariffs, which I otherwise oppose on principle. And that's all I'll say on that.

[GatekeeperBookman]

REMOVE the criminal aliens who invade & pay no taxes & 10 million of the dirt poor would disrepear. So too would our high taxes disrepear. So too would our unemployment-all but perhaps 1-2%. So too would our prisons shrink. So too might some very dangerous terror cells disrepear. Wal AMrt could still prosper-& we could enjoy life a great deal more. & W would be a much better man for it-the forced disrepearrance of criminal aliens from our land.

[Richard Kimball]

This article doesn't reveal anything new. Sam Walton talked extensively about his battles with suppliers in his autobiography. He refused to pay for the cooperative advertising programs, the cardboard placards, etc. He also refused to allow suppliers to dictate where and how their merchandise would be displayed. He refused to sign contracts that guaranteed a floor price for a product (a minimum product price that he wouldn't go below to keep the product price artificially high). He never made any secret about this. He refused to hire "stars" to advertise his store (remember how well Penny Marshall and Rosie O'Donnell did for Kmart) and broke a lot of other "rules" about retailing and merchandising.

Walmart's tough to do business with. Too bad, so sad. Don't do business with them. If you're losing your *ss selling product to them, quit selling the product to them. If they actually are forcing you to sell below what you can sell the product for, don't sell the product to them.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

It's all a trade-off. Today, our living standards are as high as they have every been. Part of this is due to the fact that even the dirt-poor can afford goods that were once considered "luxury." When Wal-Mart offers an air-conditioner for less than $100, DVD players for $30, and 20" TV's for less than $100, a much wider segment of the population can afford these goods than would be able to if all of the goods were US produced.

Which would seem to be the basis for the statement someone made in the article, "they've done thousands of times as much good for America as they have harm."

[dakine]

Bravo! I've been a big fan of WMT since mid-80's!

[Viva Le Dissention]

Who says all monopolies are bad?

Monopolies are only bad when they are coercive monopolies; that is, gov't granted monopolies, like the phone service, water service, or whatnot.

If a company, through superior ideas and execution--through lowering the cost of production, has gained a single-supplier status, it's nothing to worry about. It's capitalism hard at work. Everyone wins.

[Mamzelle]

Fast Company is a magazine for the wealthy, urban, uber-consumer who probably wears sunglasses and a hat when he goes to WalMart.

Major snob alert.

[Free ThinkerNY]

Excellent points.