WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE

NY Post ^

[frogjerk]

Running time: 108 minutes. Not rated (nothing offensive). At the Village East, Second Avenue and West 12th Street.

HAVING failed to take down President Bush ("Uncovered") and the Fox News Channel ("Outfoxed") with his cinematic screeds last year, schlockumentarian Robert Greenwald trains his sights on the nation's largest private employer in "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."

Wal-Mart's home office in Bentonville, Ark., can rest easy: Greenwald, as usual, is hysterically preaching to the choir. The massive retailer has far more to worry about from press reports last week quoting internal company documents showing 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's employees have no medical insurance or are on Medicaid.

Greenwald treats this issue with trademark superficiality in his wide-ranging and overbearing attack, which relies heavily on TV clips and softball interviews with disgruntled employees to attack Wal-Mart on a number of other fronts. These include the retailer's supposed threat to mom-and-pop businesses, union-busting activities, and its reliance on cheap Chinese labor - valid lines of inquiry that have been far more extensively and fairly covered elsewhere.

Instead of a response from the retailer, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" (which is receiving a vanity booking in theaters before hitting DVD on Nov. 14) edits in promotional footage of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott in a way that holds him up to ridicule - a low-blow technique that would bring a smile to Joseph Goebbels.

[hsalaw]

Aaah, another crocumentary from the left.

[dhs12345]

Wonder what percentage of Liberals buy from Walmart? 80%, 90%? Just a guess.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What Does the War on Wal-Mart Mean?

[newgeezer]

Not rated (nothing offensive).

Yes, there's generally nothing offensive about bald-faced lies anymore, let alone half-truths.

[mlc9852]

"The massive retailer has far more to worry about from press reports last week quoting internal company documents showing 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's employees have no medical insurance or are on Medicaid."

Single moms, perhaps? And what was the education of those employees? And if they receive Medicaid, what are they complaining about? I wish I could qualify for Medicaid but I happen to work full-time at a firm that doesn't offer any benefits and of course, make too much to qualify for any assistance but not enough to afford medical care. It certainly isn't a Wal-Mart phenomenon.

[Callahan]

Can the Left criticize anything without resorting hyperbole?

[Lunatic Fringe]

http://www.walmartmovie.com/find.php

Look at the groups hosting screenings. need you say more?

[Lacey]

Well I've said it before but the more the left attacks WalMart, the more I go shop there. And I wasn't necessarily a fan but they made me one.

[308MBR]

I'm far from a leftist, and I agree with Wal Mart's stand on unions and their goal of low pricing while ensuring decent quality and a profitable corporation.

BUT....Jeez O Pete!!!! Couldn't we find some dry goods, shoes, tools and hardware that aren't ALL made in China Vietnam or Burma? Taiwan would be a much better place for suppliers, as well as South Korea, Mexico, or any other place that isn't filled to the brim with communists that are either going to try to destroy the USA in the future or simply practice destroying their own people.

[metesky]

Study: Wal-Mart saved shoppers $263B

[B-Chan]

I despise Wal-Mart, but I despise this filmmaker's sort of smirky film-skool propaganda in equal measure. I hope the film is a commercial and critical failure.

[pepperhead]

Wonder what percentage of Liberals buy from Walmart? 80%, 90%? Just a guess.

I know a liberal that wouldn't shop there for years. They shop there now since they save so much money. And I have seen plenty of Kerry bumper stickers on cars out in Wal-mart parking lots.

[realist4ever]

So you eagerly support making the trade deficit and debt to Communist China worse (Wal-Mart sells mostly Chinese crap) and putting more and more of the working Americans too on socialized medicine and other tax-sucking welfare, just because some liberal accidentally opposes it in this case? Nuts.

[wideawake]

Couldn't we find some dry goods, shoes, tools and hardware that aren't ALL made in China Vietnam or Burma?

If you want to pay more, sure.

[Minnesocold]

Always high taxes. Always.

[Clemenza]

Let's see, I have shoes that were made in Italy, towels made in Portugal, and knives made in Germany. I had to pay more for them, but they were easy to find.

[sitetest]

Dear realist4ever,

"Wal-Mart sells mostly Chinese crap..."

Wal-Mart states that in 2004, it purchased $18 billion in Chinese goods, half directly from Chinese sources, half indirectly. On sales of about $285 billion with a cost of good sold of around $215 billion (working from memory, here), that works out to around 8.5% of sales.

That's a lot of Chinese stuff, but not MOSTLY Chinese stuff.


sitetest

[proud_yank]

CheMart.com has to be one of the best websites I have ever seen in my life. Too friggin' funny!

[realist4ever]

I admit my mistakes. Consider the word "mostly" in my post as changed into "an awful lot of". The rest of it still stands.