Posted on 12/04/2005 3:43:27 AM PST by beaversmom
IF you're among the 100 million Americans who shop at Wal-Mart weekly, it probably never occurred to you that you're supporting a malevolent institution described by critics as a new "Evil Empire." The retail colossus remains so popular and so powerful (its 1.2 million workers make it the nation's biggest private employer) that the persistent sniping about Wal-Mart's business practices inevitably sounds like irrelevant sour grapes.
Nevertheless, filmmaker Robert Greenwald has just unleashed a bitter documentary ("Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price") that has been shown in November in some 3,000 private homes, union halls and churches across the United States before its general DVD release. Produced with support from labor organizations (which resent their inability to unionize Wal-Mart), and endorsed by Hollywood comedian-activists Al Franken and Jeaneane Garofolo, Greenwald's film accuses the company of exploiting employees, despoiling the environment, destroying small businesses, and flooding the United States with sweatshop merchandise from abroad.
Neither Greenwald nor his backers expect to connect with an eager mass audience; it's safe to say more people will visit Wal-Mart stores in any single day than will watch the film over the next 10 years. In fact, all the angry debates over Sam Walton's legacy occupy an elitist, abstract atmosphere utterly disconnected from the real world of shopping and spending.
"Progressive" activists may hate Wal-Mart, but they must recognize that if the company closed tomorrow it would throw hundreds of thousands out of work and make the lives of millions of customers vastly less convenient.
Critics insist they don't want the retail giant to fail: They merely want better salaries and benefits for workers. But even the most rudimentary understanding of economics indicates that paying more for employees leads inevitably to higher prices, leading in turn to less business, less growth and fewer new jobs — particularly the entry-level jobs our economy so desperately needs.
If critics challenge Wal-Mart's business model as woefully misguided, they should be able to press rival companies to deploy their more enlightened notions, thereby displacing the Bentonville behemoth from its position of dominance.
At Arkansas headquarters, corporate leaders aren't exactly holding their breath, but they do seem annoyed by the latest attempt to discredit their brand name. Their public-relations firm has researched Greenwald's filmmaking background and focused new attention on his long-ago creative triumphs such as "Portrait of a Stripper" and "Beach Girls," along with Greenwald's one big budget film, "Xanadu" (which made the dishonor roll in my own 1986 bad-movies book, "Son of Golden Turkey Awards").
More recently, Greenwald has focused on unabashedly left-wing documentaries, including last year's "Outfoxed," an angry "exposé" of Fox News Channel — another profoundly profitable institution that has earned enthusiastic support from the American heartland.
In fact, a consistent contempt for ordinary Americans seems to connect both poles of Greenwald's career: In his earlier, populist "Portrait of a Stripper" phase, he attempted to connect with a mass audience by insulting its intelligence; in his more-recent work as a high-minded documentarian, he has portrayed the people as helpless boobs manipulated by evil corporations, and unable to make appropriate decisions about their own long-term welfare.
One of the sponsors of the new film's premiere, Liza Featherstone of The Nation magazine, begins one of her frequent diatribes against her least-favorite company by sniffing: "Wal-Mart is an unadorned eyesore surrounded by a parking lot, even its logo aggressively devoid of flourish." Of course, most middle-class shoppers will care far more about getting decent value for their money than a logo's flourish or a store's architectural amenities.
Intellectuals have always despised the "bourgeoisie" (In the '20s, H.L. Mencken ceaselessly derided the "boob-oisie") for its hard-headed practicality, refusing to recognize that most people simply don't have the luxury to look beyond narrow notions of self-interest and affordability.
It's true that thousands of (mostly well-heeled) liberals may find hours and dollars to sponsor showings of a new documentary looking down on Wal-Mart, but few of their fellow citizens have the inclination to join them. Most of us work too hard and save too little, struggling to pay credit-card minimums and hoping, some day, to finance braces for the kids.
In this context, it's still possible to walk into a vast, bustling sanctuary of a Wal-Mart store and feel dazzled by the startling array of products, reassured by the clockwork efficiency of the whole operation and, yes, unapologetically gratified by the low prices. Michael Medved hosts a nationally syndicated daily radio talk show, broadcast in Seattle on KTTH-AM (770), noon to 3 p.m.
Let's assume that everything you've said there is true. Are you going to make the case that none of Wal-Mart's competitors engage in these kinds of practices?
The leftest cannibals on these boards that pose as "real conservatives" will be in an uproar.
Robert Greenwald does NOT pay my bills. He does not provide this household with:
Toilet paper
Paper towels
Ziplock bags
Coca Cola
Bread
cookies
Paperback books (for cold days I cannot go outside long)
Anti Freeze for my vehicles
Oil/filters for same
Soaps of all kinds:Dish, laundry,face,body,& Downey
Coffee Groc store: $9.99 W/M: $4.98 that's 1/2 price!!
Scotch tape
I get all of the above and lots more from Wal-Mart for a serious amount less than many other stores.
Since I am far from the only one on a fixed income, I have to spend my money wisely.
I do not know Mr Greenwald's income, but I'll bet a McDonald's cheeseburger combo that it is more than the $892/month I get after working since I was 16 years old.
He can pound sand.
When he and his ilk get over a million workers out on the unemployment lines, what will be his litany then????
The sales taxes will dry up. The property will decline and property taxes will do so also. The economy will take a serious hit, as I cannot double my income to spend in the expensive stores. I can only spend what I take in. Therefore, I will live at a lower level of comfort, as will others.
What right does Robert Greenwald to hold power over my level of comfort????
The unions have their undies in a bunch over the fact that they cannot "organize" Wal-Mart workers.
I cannot for a minute believe that NO UNION WORKERS EVER SHOP at Wal Mart. I'm sure that they do.
I cannot control the cost of power or propane to run my house. I cannot control the cost of gasoline. I dropped my driving to less than a third with the cost of gas. and made big lists to do all my shopping on one trip at a time. Wal-Mart gives me a level of purchasing I need to have a decent level of retirement.
He can pound sand. Leave Wal-Mart alone.
shopped at Walton's 5 & 10 on the square in Bentonville years ago and have no reason to change stores now because some Elitist says they are BAD-BAD-bad. ""
With this kind of history, one could argue that Wal-Mart is exactly a MOM & POP store----They just got real big..
Maybe that is the real problem with the lefties. They cannot stand someone who is very successful.
Horse feces and you know it
The only problem that I have with Wal-Mart is that they do not provide ecough handicap spaces.""
Most communities use a percentage of total spaces to designate handicapped parking. The store I go to uses 2 full aisles, and I think that is about 20+ spaces. Now you have my curiosity up- I will count them this week.
If your store has a higher than average handicapped customers, talk to your W/M manager. They might address your concerns more easily than you think.
If you are trying to support a family of three on $8.23 an hour, then you are responsible for one or more of the following, IMO:
You didn't get enough education, which is shameful in a country which offers you a free ride thru high school, and lots of scholarships for college classes.
You had more children than you could afford.
You made poor choices of a marriage partner and are now a single parent.
You lack the ambition to at least get some classes to improve your education and your worthiness in a capitalistic society.
Many of the freepers posting here have done all of that and more.
You have made poor choices in other areas of life, including health issues and criminal issues.
If you make $8.23 an hour in 20054, that is all your skills are worth in 2005.
If you are trying to support a family of three on $8.23 an hour, then you are responsible for one or more of the following, IMO:
You didn't get enough education, which is shameful in a country which offers you a free ride thru high school, and lots of scholarships for college classes.
You had more children than you could afford.
You made poor choices of a marriage partner and are now a single parent.
You lack the ambition to at least get some classes to improve your education and your worthiness in a capitalistic society.
Many of the freepers posting here have done all of that and more.
You have made poor choices in other areas of life, including health issues and criminal issues.
If you make $8.23 an hour in 2005, that is all your skills are worth in 2005.
I can't count the number of times I've simply left my full shopping cart at the WalMart cashier line because I refuse to stand there 45 minutes just to buy cheap toilet paper.""
Unless your shopping cart was full of JUST toiler paper, you cheated yourself, IMO.
You had spent the gas and time to go to Wal-Mart in the first place.
You spent the time to park, walk the aisles and find your choices of goods.
You got to the check-out line and then wanted instant service? OK, Paris Hilton, whatever.
But you still needed toilet paper and then went thru the same drill all over again at another store with more gas.
Don't tell me that you don't wait in the checkout line at the grocery store, because we all know that is not true.
My Dad would say you are exhibiting more money than brains.
Our Wal-Mart did that twice. They went outside the city limits to build first a regular store and then a Super Center. It was either that are get our city council to use eminent domain to find enough land inside the city to build. Our city, then simply expanded the city limits to incorporate them. When Wal-Mart moved out of town again for the new Super Center, the city just sucked them in again. I think that's how grown ups do business.
(they bank their profits for 1 night, then transfer them to Bentonville -- that doesn't help the local economy one bit).""
If you think that doesn't happen with funds from other stores, you are sorely mistaken.
Besides, general checking funds cannot be touched for loans out by the bank, I think. Only the savings and CD accounts can be used for loans out.
Thanks!!!!!!
NO!!
When Sam Walton was alive, the "Made in USA" was solid.
When he passed, the suits changed to the best prices they could get wherever.
I stand corrected.. Thank You..
We have enough "revisionist" history already, no need for me to contribute to the confusion.. ;o)
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