You nailed it. That's the script.
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.
Sounds like they are just anti-business. Period.
Good point!
Great point!
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.
Puhleez, stop this working class hero stuff.
I don't know where you live, but WalMart is two minutes from my house (20-cents worth of gas), as is Kmart, Target, Sams, and a half dozen other discount places.
Target never has lines, although their aisles are as packed with people as Walmart.
Kmart likewise averages about five minute lines, as does BigBuy, or whatever their name is.
In case you need further proof, the Walmart CEO (or CFO), I forget exactly which one, was on CNBC about three weeks ago and, to my astonishment, admitted that the company specificially keeps a running tally of how many abandoned FULL shopping carts they find at each store each week.
He confessed that it was one of the company's growing problems, and that he was working diligently to aleviate the situation.
Like I said, I have no beef against Walmart other than they are too cheap to hire enough cashiers.
Where are all the hate against staples?
and how they cheat their employees from real full time work.
I used to work at walmart. Explain how this works to me.
It is a fair question to ask why these employees don't find other work. The answer is fairly simple: the majority of Walmart emplyees are single mothers with minimal education or immigrants having either or both poor language skills or minimal education and job skills; all of which equate to necessitious employees with very limited employment opportunities and bargining leverage. Thus, when told that he or she must stay in the store all night for unpaid inventory work or shelf stocking and can't leave except by the grace of the manager, that employee is more likely to meekly submit and comply than you or I or someone who can go out job hunting tomorrow and is likely to find another job quickly. It's simply a matter of status and necessity that Walmart skillfully and shamelessly exploits and profits from.
You nailed it. That's the script.
Rush is both an ill-intentioned and malicious ally of the Walmart philosophy of abuse and exploitation that contributes to the bottom line irrespective of the business ethics - or lack thereof. In addition, he is just basically a malicious moron.
I was serious. I myself have a handicapped sticker, always check the handicapped slots and always use one if any are available. I never see an empty space at the Wal-Marts in my area.
Uhhh... Okay.
That, sir or madam, is non sequitur, relative wrongful conduct excuses neither.
Maybe the problem is too many handicapped stickers in your area. ;)
Wal-Mart is very popular and the entire lot tends to be more full than other stores like Target, KMart, Sears, etc. So if they have the same lot size, and the same% of handicapped stalls, but the Wal-Mart lot is 80% full and the Target lot is 20% full then the handicapped stalls at Wal-Mart would fill up faster.
SEE #86
One thing to consider is how long do sales clerks remain sales clerks? What is the promotion rate at Wal-Mart compared to Costco or Target? If Wal-Mart hires people who are only worth a hair above minimum wage, but gives them a chance to prove themselves and rise higher (70% of it's management staff is taken from the ranks of people who started working on the floor) then over the long haul, they are treating their employees rather well. Also, an important part of being employed full-time is that you are eligible for benefits. Finally, with so many double-income families around, you shouldn't assume that Wal-Mart families are below poverty line; for many, that $13,861 will be half or less than half of their income.
SEE #36
Have you ever considered a few sessions of anger management in conjunction with a course or two in factual history? Perhaps actually learning a thing or even two about the history of unions and industry, "elitist" (whatever the hell that is) lawyers and the competitive environemt might enlighten you and temper your fervent anger that is apparently founded in blatant ignorance. Or, alternatively, a Rx for Zoloft might be in order.
As far as I can tell, all the slots, handicapped or not, fill up faster at Wal-Mart. That's because shoppers are smarter than critics :-)
Funny, in my town the slots at Target and Meijer fill up faster.
That's because shoppers are smarter than Wal-Mart cheerleaders! :-)
I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW! ME FIRST!
Because the bourgeoisie is keeping the proletariat in da chains? /sarc
discuss...
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