The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

Fast Company magazine ^ | november 2003 | charles fishman

[FITZ]

I don't buy new cars --- and I prefer used cars with a lot of miles --- I think that most likely shows they were used for highway driving which is much better for cars than city driving. Plus if someone bought a lemon, likely they weren't going to take it on some cross country trip or use it for inter-city travel. If a car is running great at over 100,000 miles it's a good car.

[_Jim]

That musta been some kind of luv-taxi

At twelve years of age? Doubtful at THAT point boy ...

(IS this idiot EVEN paying attention to what's been put down in writing before him here on the board?)

[bwteim]

"They store just fine in the pantry and should be eaten a room temperature."

This is not on topic of wal-mart, but you will probably still need to go find that large refrigerator after the pickles have been opened.

Here is a link from Mt. Olive below on subject.
http://www.mtolivepickles.com/News/News2.shtml

Here is Clemson U on home made pickles:
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC3380.htm
"Fully fermented pickles may be stored in the original container for about 4 to 6 months, provided they are refrigerated and surface scum and molds are removed regularly."

[_Jim]

I don't buy new cars

I bought several used cars and trucks at city auctions - the cars around here are serviced regularly and usually have between 50 and 80 K miles. I bought one 'beater' pickup that had *no* paint in the bed or on the sides - or on the door where the workers rested their arms with the windows open!

GREAT work truck for hauling anything - no worry 'bout scrapes, parking ... never washed it ...

[Willie Green]

No -- not yet but I do try to stick with more primitive technology for many things.

I don't know that I'd call it more "primitive", but I used to routinely replace the automatic chokes on my carbs with a manually operated one. Simply liked the greater control it gave me. But I can understand why the OEMs went with the automatics -- it probably saved them at least 25¢ per vehicle in labor and material.

I also prefer manual transmissions to automatic.

[FITZ]

Sounds like a good truck --- I admire brand new Lincoln Navigators but they seem like a perfect waste of money --- all that potential --- but you're just not going to take them out 4-wheeling, or pull a pop-up camper and take them off road, they've got a lot of room but they wouldn't look right with a luggage rack. I'd rather keep the $45,000 and buy some real estate or something else.

[FITZ]

no worry 'bout scrapes, parking ... never washed it ...

My neighbor bought a 82 olds 3 years ago for $300. It looks a mess but he's driven it for 3 years --- on a daily basis and could sell it today for at least $300, it came with a lot of scrapes and dents --- so a few more didn't hurt it --- and you can almost get a perverse pleasure out of going someplace in a car like that --- parking it right next to some new Lexus or BMW. I knew a doctor that drove an old beater and did just that --- drove it to work and parked it in the doctor's lot right in there with the luxury cars.

[Willie Green]

At twelve years of age? Doubtful at THAT point boy ...

Well if you were only twelve, you better watch out who you're calling "inexperienced"
When you were tinkering with 8-tracks, I was already installing cassette-decks and graphic equalizers.
12-years-old... Sheeeesh... no wonder you were excessively impressed with the bass.
I bet it made Michael Jackson, Donny Osmond and David Cassidy sound like they had really deep voices, as if they had already reached puberty!

[_Jim]

I bet it made Michael Jackson, Donny Osmond and David Cassidy

THERE you go 'projecting' again.

Give it up - you're not winning this ... ever ...

[_Jim]

When you were tinkering with 8-tracks, I was already installing cassette-decks and graphic equalizers.

Oh - low dollar consumer sh*t. I was into radio (as in SW) and television ...

[_Jim]

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE: I preceeded 'graphic equalizers' and consumer 'cassettes' by a number of years ... (dude - ya gotta STOP projecting)

[_Jim]

Truth be told - about the time you were futzing with low-dollar consumer sh*t I was on a project at TI where we were developing for delivery MLS (Microwave Landing System) to replace ILS for the FAA ...

[Willie Green]

Pretty heady stuff for a 12-year-old, _Jimbo...
Which of my arrows hit the raw nerve, Jackson or Cassidy???

[RaginCajunTrad]

"you defame a million of hard-working honest people who provide a valuable service to this country."

Your analogy has me defaming a million WM workers simply because I am critical of WM corporate strategy.

I am also critical of President Bush's Iraqi strategy. Does that mean that I am defaming our soldiers over there?

I am critical of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Does that mean I am defaming all the teachers in this country?

I am critical of the potential passage of the Medicare prescription drug proposed legislation. Does that mean I defame Medicare recipients?

You jump to conclusions way too fast.

BTW, I don't believe in an income tax, personal or corporate. I do believe in the abolishment of the federal Dept of Energy, Dept of Education, and many other federal agencies. So don't dare think of me as a liberal. I prefer jawboning these corps into social responsibility rather than having the government mandate it.

[narses]

"As always, God's will be done. "

I agree. Also, thank you for your detailed and thoughful reply.

"Capitalism will reach a breaking point, just as did socialism. "

Socialism has yet to do so in most places. That it will, I agree. But the data is not all in yet.

"With the destruction of the medieval guild-artisan economy and the duty-based feudal system that created it, labor became a commodity — and in a world of six billion people the commodity price of labor inexorably trends toward zero."

I am less a fan of Feudalism and Manorialism than you appear to be. They were forms of oligarchic socialism as far as I’m concerned. The BEST of them extracted a siegnorage of 25%, most 50% and some more. As for the trend of labor towards zero, I don’t see that. If anything, the trend seems to be upward based on the wealth that people are able to accumulate based on both their physical labor and their intellectual labors. If being able to EAT matters, more people eat better now than at any time in human history. If mortality matters, more people live LONGER than at any time in human history.

"This trend is accelerated by the ever-growing sophistication of automatic manufacturing and service systems, which offer the ultimate in low-wage labor — mechanical "slave" labor.

Mechanical, or automated labor is neither "free" nor "slave".

"Thanks to the ever-cheapening price of labor, there will in time be no opportunity for employment left in the United States: all manufacturing jobs will be done by electronic/mechanical "slave labor", or by disposable Third World workers cheaper (in terms of money) than robots. "

Why would the third world labor be seen as "cheaper" than "free" "electronic/mechanical" "slave labor"?

"All knowledge jobs (banking, accounting, customer service, sales, etc.) will be similarly outsourced to developing nations or performed by electronics. "

Will YOU allow a third world CPA to do the books for your firm? I won’t. Will you hire a Pakistani stock broker? I won’t. How will that third world customer service type get to your local Sears Customer Service window?

"Everyone else's job will be done by a robot, or by a "bio-robot" from some reeking hellhole."

You have a romantic view of robots, perhaps too many of Asimov’s books? As for those "reeking hellhole(s)", they are becoming wealthier and less reeking with every passing dollar. Have you no love of your fellow man? Would you deny them their just wages?

"From now on, no matter how many new "jobs" are created, it will always be cheaper to have a robot or a Third World quasi-slave do them; the days of working for a living are drawing to a close."

So you say, but you provide no evidence for these claims.

I’ll end by asking you to beef up your arguments with facts. Visiting the rest of your polemic without these points being answered is bootless. I look forward to your thoughts.

[cashion]

They pay their workers poorly

Wal-Mart pays their workers what their workers are worth. How much are you willing to pay (mostly) unskilled retail laborers?

[G.Mason]

"Narrow aisles, poor lighting for starters. There's lots of other places to shop if you live in a big city area. I do a lot of shopping via the web/mailorder."

I use the web and mail order a lot more also. To my surprise, the service from those I have dealt with on-line has been exellent.

[SLB]

We bought a 62oz jar of sweet pickle relish at Wal Mart for $1.50 this past Saturday. An 8oz jar at Kroger is about $1.48. Even the commissary at Ft Knox cannot compete with this.

[Paulus Invictus]

You obviously have never talked to a W-M employee. They all think of themselves as trained customer sevice experts, and deserving, but not getting good salaries and bennies. Many W-M people I know have two jobs just to make a modest go of it.

At the other end of the W-M salary spectrum are the prez and numerous high officials, all of whom get the real salaries and bennies. The prez gets a mere $17.7 million a year plus bonuses etc. The Walton family members are all billionnaires.

[Dead Dog]

"that it is wrong in principle to look to corporate management to provide moral leadership"

Not so much that we look to them to provide moral leadership, but leadership that is moral. In reality, with out morals and ethics, you can not be effective in business. Morals and ethics are critical to (Long Term) success. Companies that are not run ethically generally do not produce wealth, but leverage their position to aquire wealth. Their position is almost always one that had been achieved by ethical business practiced by past management.

There is something wrong when a corporation puts a communist on their Board of Directors. These are people who believe in a zero sum game, that wealth is only owned at the expense of others. They don't see transactions as mutal benefit, but someone getting screwed. check this out (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/710433/posts)

That is a signal that the corporation does not value free market capitalism. It is as much a moral position as free will and property rights. The third world is the third world because people don't understand that wealth creation is inherently good and moral, and that property rights are the foundation of that process. If we lose sight of the role morality plays in business, we will lose the market, private property and our own free will.

The social change being driven in business schools doesn't seem to be based in the morals that founded this country. Like you said, we live in dangerous times indeed.