Posted on 01/29/2005 9:23:51 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Here’s a shocker. I love Wal-Mart. I know it’s almost always on the receiving end of bad press. It ruins neighborhoods. It puts small businesses out of business. It wrecks the balance of trade. It pays its workers poorly and treats them mean. It makes overseas workers into slaves. That's what the news says. The truth is that Wal-Mart is a major blessing for most Americans who live close enough to one to shop there and for the people who work at them. My smart friend C.L. Werner in Omaha made the point really clearly. When a Wal-Mart opens in a town, he said, it's as if everyone in the town got a raise. That's because the stuff at Wal-Mart is so much cheaper than that same merchandise was anywhere else. This is not a trivial thing. Now, don't get me wrong. Target and Sears and K-Mart and J.C. Penney and Brooks Brothers also sell good stuff usually at bargain prices, but they do not have the same reach of stores, the same astounding prices that Wal-Mart offers every day. This makes the people who shop there richer. Price matters a lot to most people. I am sure Wal-Mart is stiff competition for the stores and supermarkets across America. I feel bad for the people who lose their stores because of Wal-Mart. But not everyone is a store owner. Everyone is a consumer, and Wal-Mart is about as good a friend as the consumer ever had.Is Wal-Mart ruining the balance of trade? Well, let me put it like this: I buy American whenever I can find it.
But there are a lot of things that are just not usually made in the USA any longer. Toasters. Hot pots. Color televisions. Underwear. Since the goods are almost always made overseas, why not buy them at the best possible price? By the way, if someone knows of a good American made toaster, please stand up and shout.
Is Wal-Mart wrecking small towns? Not the ones I see, which are mostly in North Idaho. Those towns are booming. And the closest you get to a town square is the Wal-Mart, where neighbors visit with neighbors in the aisles all day and all night, in air conditioning, out of the rain.
Is Wal-Mart impoverishing third world workers in sweat shops? Heck, no. Conditions in those places are far from ideal. But they are far better than working on the farm or begging in the streets or selling themselves into prostitution or whatever they were doing before they came to work for foreign suppliers of US stores. The gains in prosperity in the developing countries because their people can sell to America through Wal-Mart are astounding. As to the people who work at Wal-Mart, they seem to me to be bright, alert men and women who work there because it's the best they can do in their town or at their age. Plus, they seem happy. The usual clerk at Wal-Mart gives a lot better service than the clerk at Tiffany. I would like it if they were paid more, but they are in a competitive labor market. And what about those greedy stockholders? A lot of them are those same Wal-Mart clerks, many of whom got rich from their stock.
In the real world, Wal-Mart is as much of a boon to the American shopper as the Sears catalogue was long ago.
Jeer at it all you want, all you cool people, but, it's progress, big time.
Why didn't you use the self check-out?
Of course, it's possible, even, that you simply don't have a sense of humor.
And though I've been around long enough to remember when the phrase first emerged, no, I've never been "zotted." In fact, just minutes before I signed up with the new handle last night, I was still making posts with the old name. If you search around a bit, maybe you'll find something a**hole-ish enough to make you go, "Ah-ha!"
Or maybe, more aptly, "harumph."
See comment 35.
You're lucky.
I have 4 relatives that work for Walmart and have for years. They seem pretty happy with it for the most part. I don't recall my cousin working off the clock, however they don't want employees to work overtime. Her insurance is also better than her husbands. They defend Walmart all the way.
You forgot the BARF alert!
Wally-World is THE REASON you cannot find an American made toaster.
I recently attempted to get some tooling made to produce a simple part for one of my products.
In talking with injection molding companies I heard the same story over and over.
Most are considering closing up, they cannot pay U.S. wages, materials, or energy cost and compete with China on price.
Many of them have helped manufacturers get off the ground, then lost the production work to China!
They also told me that they know many people who have tried to market their products to Wally-World.
Every time anyone approaches W-M with a product W-M demands that they shift production to China. If they do not, W-M will not contract with them for their goods.
W-M is all about price, quality comes last, virtually everything they sell is Chinese junk.
Maybe the author likes having to replace everything he buys after one or two uses, I prefer goods that last.
If we allow too much of our basic manufacturing infrastructure to be shipped out we will be reduced to a client state of the Chinese communist, with little real chance of getting our independence back.
"I owe my soul to the company store...."
I apologize for the "a-hole" comment. It's not my usual comment.
Post #29 - Questioning my intelligence by your phrasing and spacing is not humorous.
I think you need to move to Georgia. My closest Walmart is nothing like that...lol
"Why didn't you use the self check-out?"
I wish we had them... it takes at least 10 minutes to get through the WalMart line and all I ever buy is soap, shampoo, shaving cream and stuff like that. The 15 item line is usually 20 shoppers deep! The only store that has self checkout around here now is a Home Depot. A few other stores around here had it but stopped because people were walking out without paying.
I'm Catholic. We aren't allowed to "check ourselves out".
We shop at the same place!
You mean at Tiffany's? I thought you sounded familiar! Hey, did they really engrave that Cracker Jack toy ring for you?
Yes, and returned it in a red leather box, too!
Well, I'd apologize for post #29, except that I wasn't questioning your intelligence.
Sorry you took it that way -- that much I can offer.
On the wall in the Customer Service Center is posted the District Manager's phone number. Call him and complain about the lack of checkers. He will listen. Ask him for the name and number of the district vice president if that isn't also posted.
Long lines are a result of a decision made by the individual store managers to not hire enough checkers. He/she does it to increase store profits - Nothing wrong with increasing profits as long as it's not totally at the inconveinence of the customers.
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