The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

FastCompany.com ^ | December, 2003 | Charles Fishman

[Interesting Times]

Food for thought.

[CWOJackson]

It's already been served at least once.

[EggsAckley]

Already posted Here.

[Chi-townChief]

'And the Milwaukee employees of Master Lock who shopped at Wal-Mart to save money helped that hand shove their own jobs right to Nogales. Not consciously, not directly, but inevitably. "Do we as consumers appreciate what we're doing?" Larrimore asks. "I don't think so. But even if we do, I think we say, Here's a Master Lock for $9, here's another lock for $6--let the other guy pay $9."

I've tried to make this point countless times and generally get burned for it.

[ClintonBeGone]

Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?

You can say the same thing about GM and those that supply it. Yet you don't hear the union goons complaining about the automaker. I say more power to Walmart. A retailer that has only the best interests of its customers at heart.

[kellynla]

Wasn't this article posted earlier this week??? bottom line: if you can't make a profit dealing with a particular retailer, don't do business with them...for over 25 years there are particlular retailers that I will not sell to for many reasons...and my experience is that those who beat you to death on your prices are the slowest to pay you...Walmart? thanks but no thanks...

[Interesting Times]

Aiiiee!

Sorry about that.

[joesnuffy]

Dont forget the numbers of illegal alien pickle pickers in cucumber territory..
and they dont seem to go home...still a bunch hanging around during the winter..here

[CWOJackson]

We must be missing out here in Washington state. I keep hearing where Wal-Marts don't carry American made products, they only sell underpriced Chinese products, etc.

Here in Washington our Wal-Marts carry the exact same merchandise as Fred Myers, K-Mart, Target, etc. Here you can get the master lock or the $6 lock at all of the above. Sometimes Wal-Mart have the better price, sometimes they don't.

Darn...I feel cheated.

[Aquinasfan]

There is also no question that doing business with Wal-Mart can give a supplier a fast, heady jolt of sales and market share. But that fix can come with long-term consequences for the health of a brand and a business.

Interesting article.

[Walkin Man]

But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. 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.

One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market.

The Great Wall-Mart is Red China's first beachhead on American soil.

The Red Chinese communists are winning the economic war on America, can a hot war be far behind?

[discostu]

Don't bother them with facts. WalMart's an evil Chinese company and nothing with change their mind on that. So then they go to Pennys and buy the same American made product you and I are buying only they'll pay more, but they'll feel good about themselves.

[gcruse]

I'm with you. Articles like this conjure up an image of a squalling toddler being towed in his Radio Flyer against his wishes all the way to prosperity. If there are enough 'fair traders' and WalMart-haters anxious to pay more for their goods at mom-and-pop stores, then it will happen and they will get what they want. Letting the other guy do it gets what we got.

[Revelation 911]

We are shopping ourselves out of jobs."

and handing the communist chinese our hard earned dollars to strengthen them into a economic world power

[nightdriver]

"In the end, of course, it is we as shoppers who have the power, and who have given that power to Wal-Mart."

Wal-Mart used to promise that they believed in America and bought American. I hold them to that promise. If they can't keep it, they are a bunch of liars, just using temporary prosperity to bring on an eventual crash of American industry.

Let 'em sell their chinese stuff to China. I refuse to darken their door.

[elli1]

My brother was working for a sub-contractor on construction of a new Wal-Mart store. I don't recall the details, but somehow my brother ended up not getting paid. He hounded the sub-contractor to no avail. One of those shiester type companies that folded, reorganized type of deals. A year or so went by. He also owns & operates a mom & pop motel. Wal-Mart employee happens to check into his motel on Wal-Mart business (instead of the pricey chain operation out on the interstate.) My brother casually mentions his experience to the WMT guy, who says he'll "look into it." Within two weeks, my brother had his money.

Personal experience. I wrote a check for $20 over the amount. Typically scatterbrained, I forgot to make sure I got the cash. Didn't remember it until a couple of days later when I needed some cash. Well, I just wrote it off as my stupid mistake, "Don't do it again" sort of thing, thinking going back to WMT at that late date would be futile. The phone # on my check was an old one; I had changed my # to a private, unlisted one, so I couldn't expect a call from WMT. Forgot the whole thing...

UNTIL, approx. 6 months later when I get a letter in the mail from Wal-Mart. Inside was a $20 bill. Could have knocked me over with a feather.

[y2k_free_radical]

WALLY WORLD also tries to use as many part time people toexclude benefits and the benefits it does offer,such as health, are lousy

[elli1]

Specifically, how are the health benefits "lousey"?

WMT, like MacDonald's, offers part-time employment to a lot of people who don't want to work full-time. My local WMT hires a lot of college students. College students and seniors are two groups of people who don't want a full-time job. Same thing w/ many housewives.

[cmak9]

Walmart is turning us into a nation of cynics, who know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

[arjay]

I am not disagreeing, but I am asking a question. Is it possible that China can be so dependent on our dollars that they will never go to war against us because it would not be in their best interest?

I realize there are multitudes of factors in this, but I am not entirely sure that buying from China is entirely bad.

I also know that Wal Mart has adopted some of our troops in Iraq and are sending them things like baby wipes. They do some very good things.

I also thought it was interesting that this article pointed out that Wal Mart's business practices force their suppliers to innovate and develop new products. That surely cannot be all bad.

Yes, I do shop at Sam's and Wal Mart. I have no intention of being an apologist for WM. They do some very unwholesome things. However, they have saved me a lot of money over the years.