Posted on 02/27/2005 8:30:40 AM PST by COUNTrecount
SAM Walton, the legendary founder of the Wal-Mart chain of discount stores, had 10 rules for success in business.
They served him pretty well because when he died in 1992, only Bill Gates had more personal wealth and Wal-Mart – which began in 1962 as a single store in the backwoods of Arkansas – was well on the road to becoming the world's biggest retailer.
In the US today, Wal-Mart has more than 3600 retail outlets, employs more than 1.2 million people and is responsible for more than 2 per cent of US gross domestic product. In 2005, the company has forecast the creation of 100,000 new jobs, up from 83,000 last year.
When a company is that big and that labour-intensive, it almost always gets what it wants. That's why it was a huge surprise last week when the developer of a new shopping and residential precinct in the New York City burrough of Queens dumped Wal-Mart from the project.
The developer, Vornado Realty Trust, caved in after a concerted campaign by an alliance of little guys – resident actions groups, local small businesses and unions – who wanted the Wal-Mart octopus kept at bay.
For the small businesses involved – most of them family-run shops selling shoes, clothing, hardware and the like – it was do or die. Traditionally it has been businesses such as these that go under when Wal-Mart comes to town.
Extraordinary as it seems, the VRT decision means Wal-Mart still has no store in the free enterprise capital of the world and now, no immediate prospect of getting one.
This has the potential to damage the company, which has identified a need to achieve expansion in New York and the big urban centres of California.
In the past, the Wal-Mart money shot was always Sam Walton's rule No.9 which states: "Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation."
Over the years, Wal-Mart has turned this into an art form, ruthlessly cutting costs in the key areas of wages and purchasing. The wages methodology has been underpinned by a highly aggressive anti-union company philosophy which has managed to keep Wal-Mart's entire US workforce non-unionised.
The company has worn this as a badge of honour and is so determined to keep unions out of its operations that it recently decided to close a Wal-Mart store in Canada where the workforce had voted in favour of union coverage.
But the problem for Wal-Mart, as the New York decision indicates, is that it is a company starting to be seen as too ruthless.
Over the past 12 months, there have been scandals over child labour and the recruitment of illegal Mexican immigrants on miserly wages, along with concerns about the company's treatment of women and the disabled.
On the same day that VRT announced it was ditching Wal-Mart from its Queens project, a former employee with cerebral palsy won a $7.5 million payout in a federal court anti-discrimination suit.
The man had been hired to work in the pharmacy section of a Long Island Wal-Mart store but once his disability was known, he was sent to the carpark to empty bins and collect shopping trolleys.
Stories such as these make the news – and the brand name suffers, a cardinal sin in retailing. They also make it easier for activists in community groups and trade unions to build the kinds of political alliances that succeeded in keeping Wal-Mart out of Queens.
The future success of Wal-Mart may well depend on how quickly it learns that selling the cheapest shirt is no longer enough. Smart companies today go out of their way to understand their people and to treat them fairly.
That means paying fair wages and – as hard as it may be for the custodians of the Sam Walton legacy – allowing employees to be members of trade unions if they want to be.
---HOGWASH---and here goes another Wal-Mart thread---
Shall we do a "good guy / bad guy" routine?
"Over the past 12 months, there have been scandals over child labour and the recruitment of illegal Mexican immigrants on miserly wages, along with concerns about the company's treatment of women and the disabled."
There goes the press. Repeat unfounded charges as if they were true. Go WalMart!
Only a liberal would say such a ridiculous thing. NYC?!!! the "FREE ENTERPRISE" capital of the world? Tell it to the IBEW or the AFT or any one of the hundred or so extortive unions and special interests that use their clout (read payola) with local government to screw anyone who will hold still long enough (usually the taxpayers).
Free enterprise? NYC doesn't know the meaning of the word.
It has nothing to do with treating people fairly. A low price is fair to anyone who needs what they are selling. It has to do with giving the unions and activists their blood money.
Better for Walmart to stay away.
Actually, this pretty well proves that New York City does not believe in free enterprise, as if there were any doubt.
How high is the tax rate there?
No. Selling products cheaper then the next guy seems to be enough. Enough to become the worlds largest retailer from a "backwoods" operation. Enough to go from one store to 3600 in less then 45 years.
But according to the writer, they have been doing it all wrong. So why doesn't the writer put down his number 2 pencil and give it a go? Try, just try to become a successful retailer in America today. If he succeeds, I'll be more willing to give him a listen, but until then just S.T.F.U.
On what?... sales?... 8.75%... income?... for most people in manhattan (even commuters) it nets out at slightly more than 50%.
Let the New Yorkers choke on their "neighborhood stores."
Yes, local businesses can fall prey to an outside vendor with lower prices, but nothing will "innoculate" any given business against competition, incuding Wal Mart.
Now the issue on dealing with "Chinese Quality Goods" burns me to no end and I'll go out of my way to avoid their garbage. Yet there's still going to be a market for Wal Mart as long as they have competative pricing.
Are we forgetting the cat murder?
Let's not forget the cat murder! ;)
Hey they were noted. Didn't you read the part about the "little guys", LOL!
N.Y.C. is capital of taxes
State & local levies here highest in U.S.
By DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
It's official: New Yorkers pay the highest taxes in the nation - by far.
On average, New York state residents pay $141 in state and local taxes for every $1,000 they earn, the most anywhere. The main culprits are local income taxes that are a whopping 72% above the national average.
That's the conclusion of the Citizens Budget Commission, which lays most of the blame for making New York the nation's tax capital on Albany lawmakers who boost spending - then stick cities and towns with the bill.
"Local governments across the state are struggling under the weight of these requirements," commission President Diana Fortuna said yesterday. "It is time for Albany to be more concerned about the burden that it is placing on local taxpayers."
In particular, the privately funded agency pointed to Medicaid, education and pension costs as the driving forces behind higher state and local taxes. All are largely controlled by Albany, where lawmakers have not passed a budget on time in 19 years, the report noted.
The study found that New York state leads the way in almost every category - with income taxes that are five times the national average, a sales tax that is double most other states, and property taxes that are one-third higher than the national average.
But the burden is spread in different ways. In the city, for instance, local income taxes add as much as 4.45% to the state's already high 7.7% income tax rate - combining to make the highest income tax rate in the nation by far.
By contrast, even after a recent 18.5% increase, property taxes remain relatively low in the city compared to other New York communities.
But the bottom line could not be starker: The $141 state residents pay per $1,000 is well above second-place California, where the figure is $121. And it's nearly double the $88 paid in the cheapest states, New Hampshire and Tennessee.
In addition to runaway health and education costs, the report noted New York has a higher ratio of public employees to residents than any other state. And those employees are paid relatively well - $47,532 per year, on average - behind only California and New Jersey workers.
Mayor Bloomberg, who last year pushed through increases in the city's income, property and sales taxes, yesterday reiterated his pledge to try to lower taxes when the city's economy revives.
As he has in the past, he also took issue with the state's practice of passing along 25% of all Medicaid costs to local counties - unlike all other states, which split the bill 50%-50% with the federal government.
"That's a $4 billion cost to New York City, and it's going up, not down," Bloomberg told reporters.
He added City Hall had joined with other counties to try to reduce the Medicaid burden on local governments or see which benefits "we can do without."
"That's going to be a contentious thing," he said.
I'll gladly shop at WalMart as long as it keeps unions out. Too many union dues go to 'rat politicians. James Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO is a staunch socialist. Even public empoyees are compelled to join unions and have to stand by while our hard earned money--and YOUR tax dollars-- are funnelled to play politics. I support the right to work and I shop at WalMart!
--my past experience lets me know that anything that unions say is a lie, and this piece is , yes, union propaganda--
I would also, but they've got me surrounded.
In fact this morning, secreted in my newspaper, was a message from Walmart that stated ... "resistance is futile", and at the very bottom was printed, in very small letters ... "Printed in Mexico, on Indonesian paper, with 50% Japanese ink and 50% Malasian ink".
Don't forget to mention rent controls.
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