Posted on 10/07/2005 6:39:59 PM PDT by voletti
That's what one hears as the giant retailer sops up the vitality from middle-class families, local communities, and the national economy . This happens in three different but related ways. First, there's the clobbering of Main Street: Wal-Mart moves in on the edges of towns, and the much smaller downtown merchants, unable to match its prices, soon go under. Second, there's the miserable wage and benefits package offered by Sam Walton's creation. And third, there's Wal-Mart's purchasing strategy, which seems to be about buying American-made products only as a last resort -- to the point that today Wal-Mart, by itself, is China's eighth-largest trading partner!
You could make the case that we are well on our way to becoming "Wal-Mart Nation." But maybe we don't have to be. Consider Costco (COST ), Wal-Mart's most notable competitor –- whose much more sensitive and noble business model actually serves as a boost to the national economy and to its shareholders.
Costco's pay scale begins at around $10 per hour and averages $16. After four years, a Costco cashier can earn $44,000 (counting bonuses), which is significant purchasing power. In comparison, Wal-Mart's average hourly wage is a miserly $9.68. To appreciate the impact of this 65% difference in average wages, University of California at Berkeley researchers recently concluded that in 2003 Wal-Mart's low wages and benefits for its employees in California compelled taxpayers there to give these employees $86 million in food stamps, health-care, and housing subsidies just to stay above water.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Are they averaging wages across the entire country? Let Costco try to do business in rural America like Wal-Mart does, and we'll see what happens to their pay scale.
Do these people think Mom & Pop were offering health plans and pensions? Our main street bookstore lost out to chain stores in the mall. Same for our old downtown music store. It aint all about WalMart, much as they try to make it seem that way.
Downtown merchants were on their way out 20 years before Walmart.
Did K-Mart get this much grief 30 years ago?
Isn't Costco like Target, big lib owners supporting dem causes? Wow that sounds like Business Week magazine...
The author of that article is ignorant about business and economics. Everything he wrote is absolutely wrong.
yeah, someone once said that when Walmart moves in everyone gets a raise. Not everyone is a small business owner but everyone is a consumer.
Costco pays more and offers better benefits to it's employees. The result is lower turn over, less employee theft and greater employee loyalty. Those savings offset the race to the bottom model Wal-Mart uses. As a result, prices are roughly the same between the two. It just shows that different business models can give the same result. Wal-Mart isn't all that dominant on the retail scene. Wal-Mart has lots of competitors who are successful. I don't shop there because I can't stand the condition of the stores, the poor selection for what I'm looking for and the quality level. I think they could do better for their employees, but that's just my opinion and I don't run Wal-Mart. They are free to operate as they wish.
Wal-Mart is becoming the one of the world's most hated companies. Funny, because I love it. Good prices, just about anything you could want.
And 9.68/hr is hardly "miserly." It's more money than I've ever made before.
What is the whole purpose of this articel ? Walmart- bad Costco - good?
Not this much, but they weren't nearly as dominant as Walmart has become. You did hear the same lament, though. In fact, that was when the small town merchant really went down - they lost out to the "malls". Russell Baker wrote a column about how "mallism" was the real threat to American, when everybody thought it was communism. Now the malls are in the role of main street.
I walked into an office supplies store in a small town, their downtown district, heavily subsidized by tax-based improvements. The owner was sitting at his desk, smoking a cigarette. He did not even get up. I asked about some printer ink. He did not have it and showed no interest in any alternative. I left and got it in the big city. Local merchants kept asking in the small town, "Why don't you buy here?" That's why.
Let's not forget that Wal-Mart started as a small mom and pop 5 & 10 cent store on the west side of the square in Bentonville, Ark.
On the NW side of the square was another 5& dime store that could have gotten big if they had wanted to but they didn't take the chance to buy some Ben Franklin stores as Walton did.
I was at Wal-Mart the other day and after I parked my car and was walking toward the store I noticed a car that had a "Wal-Mart is a bad neighbor" bumper sticker on it parked right in front of the store. People who complain about Wal-Mart still shop there because it is a good deal for middle-class America.
My Mom used to drive 50 miles to go to the mall and K-Mart. Usually once a month or so.
I still can taste those subs they made.
You're right. I used to do my grocery shopping at a little store around the corner. When Hannaford came in to the city, it put my little grocery store out of business. When I was a kid, my mom used to drive me to the small city I now live in to shop for clothes, but then the mall came and all the clothing stores in the city were forced out of business.
Our problem is space. There is very little room left for new buildings inside the city limits and the major chains don't want to locate in the older buildings.
I would die for a good bookstore. There used to be one in the mall, but now even that is gone, as the major bookstores put up their own buildings. I have to travel 15 miles to get to a bookstore.
Whatever else one might say about Wal-Mart, the company does not have the power to compel taxpayers to do anything. Only government has that power, and governments are not shy about using it.
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