[em2vn]

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

[GrandMoM]

....Too bad you didn't post the whole article. I know it was long, but, most people won't go to the site and read the whole article. It really is frightening!!!!!!!

[the_devils_advocate_666]

I think this is the quote that sums up the whole article:

"We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions."

[narses]

Another hatefilled anti-WalMart screed can be found at http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3044wal-mart.html

I'd like my fellow Catholics to sort out the issues and help me relate the actual facts to Catholic doctrine, especially as set forth in Rerum Novarum.

[Fitzcarraldo]

[DouglasKC]

This article sounds like buggy makers complaining that Ford selling cheap cars was costing them jobs. Sure we can buy a cheap car, but what about the people that work for the buggy makers?

Bottom line is that Walmart will succeed as a retailer as long as they keep giving the consumers what they want. If companies that supply them keep supplying them to the point that they go bankrupt, they're idiots.

[VOA]

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

I grew up in a moderately-isolated part of "flyover country".

To even have a POSSIBILITY at a CHOICE of reasonably-priced consumer products,
you spent the weekends driving 100 miles to one of three major metropolitan areas,
each of about 500,000 population.

When Wal-Mart arrived within 20 miles of my home...it was like the falling of an
economic Berlin Wall that local merchants had benefitted from for maybe 50 years.

Those local merchants had grown FAT AND RICH.
They had NOT given us ANY reason to even just LIKE them more than that Wal-Mart 20 miles away.
In fact, they had simply p-ssed us off.

To cut to the chase, we embraced Wal-Mart the same way the Poles finally told the Commies
to Get the Hell OUT of their neighborhood.

Now, with the birth of the Internet and other economic-supply models,
Wal-Mart needs to figure out how to make sure consumers don't find a retailer that
offers even greater convenience and choice in buying NECESSARY and luxury consumer items.

I'm from FlyOver Country. I now live in Southern California. And I honored the
Union picketlines at the local grocery stores (Vons, Albertsons, and until recently,
Ralphs). I learned last Sunday night, via KABC radio (790AM; www.kabc.com) from
union spokesperson, Connie Leyva, that the grocery-store union SUPPORTS
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
I will now BREAK the picket line at will...the Union supports Illegal Immigration,
while Wal-Mart is being SUED by the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT employees that they
"dropped a dime on" and turned into the US Justice Department.

Wal-Mart...they are Satan, if you aren't looking for decent prices...
AND apparently LEGAL IMMIGRATION POLICY.

[ozzymandus]

Wal-Mart is neither a blessing nor a cancer. Nobody is forced to shop there, and no suppliers are forced to do business with Wal-Mart, either. If Wal-Mart won't pay what the supplier wants for his product, he's free not to sell to them, not matter how much he whines.

[SamAdams76]

BTW, Vlasic didn't have to sell gallon jars in Wal-Mart for $2.97. Consumers are willing to pay premium prices for premium products elsewhere. That's why you never see Bose wave radios in Wal-Mart or Godiva chocolates. Those companies prefer to keep their products exclusive and they remain very, very profitable.

If I bought my wife a box of $2.97 chocolates at Wal-Marts for Valentine's Day, I think I'll be sleeping in the shed for a while.

[RaginCajunTrad]

Wal Mart is a predator, pure and simple. They move into small towns (sometimes larger ones, too), low-ball prices to drive out the small-time competition, and then raise prices.

They prey on their employees. They "schedule" the employees for say, 22-28 hours of work a week to keep them out of certain benefit programs and then work them longer.

I remember two jokes employees had about Wal Mart.

1. What do you call someone who makes ten cents more an hour than minimum wage?

answer: department manager

2. Customer: Can you help me with this?

Wal Mart employee: What are you asking me for? I only work here.

Myself, I've said many times that Wal Mart should use for advertising, "Shop at Wal Mart, where the service is non-existent."

I am a CPA in a small town. My wife worked at the local Wal Mart for a couple of years. I have friends that are basic employees there and some are managers.

Wal Mart is a predator. It preys on the towns it locates in and after taking over, it preys on its customers.

Wal Mart is like legalized gambling; the social cost outweighs any financial benefits derived. By destroying the shops on Main Street, Wal Mart destroys communities.

There is becoming a dangerous sameness in American towns. Wal Mart, McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Shoney's, etc.

They all look alike.

[Non-Sequitur]

bump

[Don Corleone]

It used to be called FREE ENTERPRISE!

[Paulus Invictus]

W-M is a metatisizing cancer that cannot be treated, not even with a heavy dose of radiation. W-M is rotting our commercial system, screwing up the trade balance, especially to favor the heinous Chicoms and selling cheap, junky stuff from produce to tools. They pay their workers poorly and generally make US businesses look bad by reflection. Other than these modest statements, I have no string opinions re W-M.

[ServesURight]

BUMP for a later read.

[kempo]

Let me tell you why I love Wal-Mart. I managed to buy 50 shares of Wal-Mart back in 1980. I sold those shares in the year 2000. I paid off my house, my vehicles, I'm debt free with a nice nestegg in the bank. With the salary I make I could never have done that without investing in a growing company like Wal-Mart. I honestly believe that the biggest reason alot of people hate Wal-Mart is because they didn't invest in the company.