Ben Stein: Wal-Mart

Ben Stein ^ | 01/09/2005 | Ben Stein

[Semolina Pilchard]

Er... did you happen to notice that I'm not the one who introduced my personal profile into the conversation? It was started here, and not by me.

(Incidentally, my my little blog is little because there are a gazillion blogs out there! Mine's no more special or important than any of the rest -- how would I expect to ride another site's coattails?! You think I'd actually presume that my little website is of the same caliber or influence as Free Republic?)

[discostu]

It's simply calling it like it is. A business has an obligation to lower costs as much as possible, here's a tool to lower costs, every city council in America is willing to condemn buildings under eminent domain to lure business, why should a business not take advantage of this money saving opportunity? There is no entry for principles on the annual P&L statement, raising costs for no apparent reason is bad on the bottom line and gives your competition a legup. Like I said, show me a business that's never gotten land through eminent domain, go ahead, I mean a business that's large enough for cities to want them in place, I'm sure most small businesses never have, but Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Ace Hardware, Sears, JCPenneys, IBM, Motorola and everybody else that brings serious money into a town has done it. If you're going to stop dealing with businesses because they've done this I recommend your final purchase be Jeremiah Johnson, you'll need the primer because the mountain man lifestyle is the only one that avoids everybody that does thing you don't agree with.

[Reo]

"I wanna get rich enough to become a snowbird!

Good goal! Full Disclosure II: I spent a lot winters up in the North Country "where the wind hits heavy on the borderline" and now find the MN-AZ combo ideal. We see quite a few "Work Hard...Succeed...Irritate a Liberal" bumper stickers in Tucson in the winter.

[Redwood71]

I left the military in 1995, and went to work for WalMart. I was one of the higher paid associates on the floor with a guarentee of $x a year. They figured it into an hourly scale to keep within their computing capacity at Bentonville.

During an ice storm in the winter of 1995, I watched their secret shoppers, that go to other stores, buy all the propane in household sized containers from all the other competing stores in the area, to take a loss so they could sell heater and camp stoves at increased prices due to the danger of the area.

In January of 96, my hours were cut, therefore they were falling behind in the comittment they made to me. When I brought it to their attention, I was told to take them to court. I put in my notice of one week to assist their people so as not to have a one week payroll to me. The manager put on my paperwork he would not rehire me because I didn't give him two weeks. I told his rep I was leaving right now, and considering reporting WalMart to the labor board for problems they had and kept under wraps unless he changed that phrase that would stick out on my future dealings. He removed it and changed it to "would rehire."

I have seen intances where if they get an employee that they consider a problem, they won't terminate them, just not schedule them so they don't have to pay employment money while the employee gets nothing. Their front end staff at the registers were making minimum wage, and their immediate working supervisors were really no better. You can buy stock, but it is not prime and if you leave the company, they will charge you a fee to handle it that normally is higher than the imterest you can get from it. In other words, you lose money in the transaction on a monthly basis. You are forced to sell the stock at cost to break even. And hopefully it is break even. At the end of 1995, we were told that even though the company profits of $92 million were better than double our nearest competitor, and would take three of them to equal us, the profits had not reached the promised $100 million mark and it was the fault of the store associates because we just didn't do enough. It was at that point, I left the company.

There are many misunderstandings about WalMart, but one isn't that I wil never work for or suggest same for anyone, anywhere. They lie and cheat and do nor care who they take advantage of, or harm, for the almighty buck. If this is the definition of Capitalism and not carpetbagging, then I must be completely confused.

Red

[Semolina Pilchard]

Ask, and ye shall receive.

[freedumb2003]

LOL!!!

You're all set, Laz!

[SedVictaCatoni]

Using eminent domain to condemn property to give to private businesses for higher tax receipts? Before Wal-Mart was invented? I don't think so.

Think whatever you like, but the seminal legal battle over the use of eminent domain for private business was Poletown Neighborhood Council v. City of Detroit, 304 NW.2d 455 (1981), and it involved a seizure of land by Detroit so that General Motors could build a Cadillac plant. Only the ignorant and the paranoid believe that this practice is some special evil invented by the howling demons at Wal-Mart.

[bert]

Cajuns?

[shellshocked]

"the mountain man lifestyle is the only one that avoids everybody that does thing you don't agree with."

So, your advice is to give in, have no standards, let anarchy rule? Just quit giving a damn because it is hopeless?

[PoorMuttly]

Great Wall of Mart has best Winchester ammunition prices.

Milk is cheaper too.

[Chinese milk?]

[Non-Sequitur]

Total lies. I've been in enough across America and have never ever seen one dirty store or unfriendly employee.

Well you missed the ones near me then.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Wal-Mart is the worst of the worst. There is no employer in America that is worst (at least no major employer)."

Educate yourself at this site. There are many employers that are worse than Wal-Mart, when you consider the big picture of how various employers treat their employees, the lawsuits filed against them, whose fingers are in what pies, how they treat the environment, still support child labor overseas, etc.

After reading here, you'll probably change most of your shopping/investing habits and Wal-Mart will be the least of your worries. ;)

http://www.responsibleshopper.org

[Mad Dawgg]

"Henry Ford paid his workers generous wages not because he was acting philanthropically but because he knew that well paid workers were more productive and could buy his own product. Today, I fear that we have an executive culture that puts short term pops in the stock price above long term sustainability and the interest of the community and nation."

Maybe you missed the part of Ford's history where they broke a wage strike by busting heads using scabs and thugs.

I admire Henry Ford for his accomplishments but he was no angel when it came to business.

[SedVictaCatoni]

There's no way a American worker can compete with a $.28 an hour worker. It's Labor Arbitrage, plain and simple.

It is possible, depending upon what the labor component of the product is. Here is a hypothetical example:

Plastic toy in China:
Labor cost: 1/4 hour ($0.40 / 4 = $0.10)
Material cost: $0.08.
Transportation cost: $1.10
Total cost: $1.28

Plastic toy in the United States:
Labor cost: 1/4 hour ($16.00/ 4 = $4.00)
Material cost: $0.08
Transportation cost: $0.25
Total cost: $4.33

Conclusion: make in China. Whether or not an hour of labor costs $0.40 or $16.00 makes a huge difference.

So how can America companies compete? By decreasing the labor input.

Steel valve in China:
Labor cost: 1/2 hour ($0.40 / 2 = $0.20)
Automated machinery cost: none
Material cost: $0.20
Transportation cost: $1.50
Total cost: $1.90

Steel valve in the United States:
Labor cost: 1/60 hour ($16.00/25 = $0.64)
Automated machinery cost: $0.25
Material cost: $0.20
Transportation cost: $0.30
Total cost: $1.39

Conclusion: make in America. Using modern technology and machinery to decrease the amount of labor required can make American companies competitive. This means flexible automation, robotics, computer-assisted scheduling, etc. You're not going to employe thousands of workers anymore - more like hundreds - but you're not going to shut your doors either.

[investigateworld]

Thank you for illustrating my point so clearly. With the $16.00 p/h cost of the American worker, who is going to invest/upgrade/modernize in the good ole USA? Plus one gets the guarantees provided by the various gov't agencies I.E Export/Import Bank.
The fact that we're hearing of layoffs in China is a clue they're moving ahead of the curve.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Conclusion: make in America. Using modern technology and machinery to decrease the amount of labor required can make American companies competitive."

And the government regulation men come by and say, do this this and this and we will give you your permits to use your new technology. And then the Union drops by and says we love your new technology but you will employ 4 people to run that machine (which only takes one to operate) or we will strike.

You put a call into China and they say we got room for your factory right over here and here are thousands of people ready to work and they could care about a union.

Boom, right back to square one.

[conservative cat]

LMAO. That sounds about right!

[discostu]

My advice is to pick your battles. If you make a stand against WalMart because they use this tool but not every other mass market retailer on the planet then you're being a hypocrite. If you make a stand against every single business that uses this tool you will have a really hard time functioning in our world. On the other hand you can work with your city council and county board to make them remove the tool from your area.

[SunnySide]

"Oh my gosh, I hope you haven't unpacked your bags yet, because I have a feeling you will only be passing through. IMO, you'd be more successful promoting your little blog somewhere else instead of riding the FR coattails."

I must say this paragraph made me laugh because it's a gripe about a competing blog/board within a thread about retail competition. LOL!

[gimme1ibertee]

I love his show on GSN, "Win Ben Stein's Money". Funny as hell.