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The Wal-Mart Model
usnews ^ | 1 9 06 issue | Michael Barone

Posted on 01/01/2006 3:06:28 PM PST by flixxx

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To: Mrs. Shawnlaw

Karl made Bush make it happen on purpose.


81 posted on 01/02/2006 7:48:18 AM PST by showme_the_Glory (No more rhyming, and I mean it! ..Anybody got a peanut.....)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Why should I pay $5 bucks for a brand of toothpaste that I can easily buy the Ultrabrite brand at Wal-Mart for less than a buck. Are the razor blades I buy at Wal-Mart of an inferior quality than if I'd ran my ass all over town and bought them elsewhere? What about the gallon of milk? Is it missing the calcium that's why its cheaper at Wal-Mart?

I'd feel like a total fool if I didn't shop at Wal-Mart. The exact same toilet paper costs 50% more at my grocery shop than buying it two doors down at Wal-Mart. That would just be stoopid.

82 posted on 01/02/2006 7:49:07 AM PST by wouldntbprudent
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To: wouldntbprudent

And th eother good point you bring up--at WM, I can buy most everything at once. This should make the enviros happy, not sad!


83 posted on 01/02/2006 7:50:45 AM PST by wouldntbprudent
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To: durasell

Nice, but not everyone wants or needs a salesman's help in purchasing a MP3 player.

When I want help, I go to Circuit City or Best Buy.

If I know what I want and just want to pick it up cheap, I go to WM.

Sometimes I go to Circuit City and talk to the salesmen and THEN go to WM and pick up the same product for cheaper! HA!


84 posted on 01/02/2006 7:52:19 AM PST by wouldntbprudent
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To: wouldntbprudent

I agree with letting the market decide.......I don't really care where anyone shops.....I shop for price and convenience.........in fact I'm heading to WalMart in a few minutes.

And no, Target is not a French company.


85 posted on 01/02/2006 7:52:45 AM PST by Gabz
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To: Last Dakotan

"So the question is - would the American economy be better off if GM imports all of its cars from China?"

GM makes awful cars, period. They suck beyond belief. Only Chrysler rivals them for poor quality. Nobody but GM is responsible for their impending demise.

Hey GM! Your cars suck! If you don't do something about it right away, you will be gone.


86 posted on 01/02/2006 8:01:10 AM PST by Poser (Willing to fight for oil)
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To: durasell
All I can do is offer this example, which I posted before -- I go into Circuit City to by this MP3 player. It's a chore, okay? An obligation.

This young black kid (maybe 19 or 20) waits on me. The kid is full of energy. Speaks perfect english to me (old white guy in a suit). We go over to the case with the players and he runs through five or six in my price range -- this many hours, this many songs etc. Twenty bucks more, you get this much more...the kid, absolutely, had the whole sales thing down. It took about five minutes and he's got me enthusiastic about buying the thing -- and I'm not an easy mark.

Long story made marginally shorter -- I bought one for forty bucks over what I intended to spend. Then he writes his name down on a piece of paper, if the kid I'm buying it for wants to return it, see him.

As I'm walking away, he turns to wait on a rapper type guy and his whole speech, body language changes and he's off selling the guy a flat panel TV, running through all the specs and features from memory.

I have no doubt that at some point, someone somewhere is going to recognize this kid's sales talents and give him an opportunity to make a great deal of money.

Try reading the first few chapters of this book:

John F. Lawhon, The Selling Bible

(ISBN 1-57178-007-6)

This kid had it down pat, I agree, he's going places!

Cheers!

Full Disclosure: No, I'm not in sales.

87 posted on 01/02/2006 8:02:23 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Gabz
Good morning Gabz and Happy New Year.

I am a little late to the party.LOL.
88 posted on 01/02/2006 8:07:59 AM PST by Mrs.Nooseman
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To: wouldntbprudent
Only this: an employer who doesn't grow a good work force won't be in business for long. These are market forces to account for, period.

Employers have begun looking at employees differently. A good work force is an asset only until such time as savings have to be made. Then the workforce is disposable, generally in direct proportion to the salary. The higher the salary the more disposable a person is. Wal-Mart had embraced this big time, according to company documents.

Wal-Mart doesn't care about it's employees. It doesn't particularly care about its customers. It knows that so long as it sells cheap stuff in high volume then somebody out there will buy it.

89 posted on 01/02/2006 8:40:44 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
Um,I am a seven year employee of WalMart and I don't see me going anywhere.

In 7 years I missed 5 days of work, because of illness and I have gotten two merit raises.

So don't go telling me I am a liability.

I am still as productive as I was as a new Hire and I have seen new Hires being lazy and not even lasting the probation period.
90 posted on 01/02/2006 9:05:31 AM PST by Mrs.Nooseman
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To: Non-Sequitur

Again, why does WM have to "care" about its employees? It has to make good business decisions, including business decisions regarding employees and employee relations, period.

Employees have ALWAYS been the place to look when a company needs to make savings. The higher paid employees have ALWAYS been in jeopardy when the accountants come and say the company needs to save x amount by year's end. (Fire one engineer, save $100K.)

This is not new. This is business.


91 posted on 01/02/2006 9:10:46 AM PST by wouldntbprudent
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To: flixxx
This is a remarkable performance and owes something surely to the Bush tax cuts and to Alan Greenspan's stewardship at the Federal Reserve.

Why does Michael Barone insist on kissing butt, especially Greenspan's? First, it took a few tries for GWB to get the tax cuts right. He finally left the details to Congressman Bill Thomas, who rejected GWB's Keynesian strategy that made the first couple of tax cuts failures. And as far as Greenspan is concerned, for everything he giveth, he taketh away. We are left with a government bubble, an oil bubble, and a housing bubble. Yes, the economy is growing, but not with the greatest fundamentals.

Credit as usual should be given to the American people, not the government leaders. We are going to have to rely on them more than ever when those bubbles give way.

92 posted on 01/02/2006 9:26:14 AM PST by Moonman62 (Federal creed: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it)
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To: flixxx
They failed to foresee that more nimble firms like Wal-Mart would rise and would supply the amazing resilience that has enabled the American economy to thrive, as Greenspan has observed, even when hit by calamities like September 11 and Katrina.

Those disasters were nothing compared to Greenspan's godlike desire to control the economy, the Clinton/Rubin strong dollar, and GWB's early antiquated economic policies.

93 posted on 01/02/2006 9:28:26 AM PST by Moonman62 (Federal creed: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it)
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To: Non-Sequitur
It talks about reducing employee costs all over the spectrum including discouraging long term employees and reducing the 401K contributions. The business plan is to make an already profitable company even more profitable at the expense of the employees.

Employers have been doing this for years. Since the company in question is Wal-Mart, then it suddenly becomes newsworthy.

I guess to you corporations aren't allowed to make money.

94 posted on 01/02/2006 10:47:40 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (None genuine without my signature)
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To: Mrs.Nooseman
I know some workers at Wal-Mart who have been there for years, doing cashiering, working the service counter, CSM, etc. Their nametags clearly state that they've been with the company for an x-number of years.
95 posted on 01/02/2006 10:56:23 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (None genuine without my signature)
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To: wouldntbprudent

so how about walmart demanding their customers have their check filled out before reaching the cashier, or get back in the end of the line?

like I said, their vendors choose to comply. too bad if there is traffic, or something else happens. and too bad for all their other deliveries too.


96 posted on 01/02/2006 11:34:02 AM PST by KneelBeforeZod (Someday a real rain will come and wipe this scum off the streets.)
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To: Mrs.Nooseman
So don't go telling me I am a liability.

I'm not. Your Executive Vice President for Benefits is.

97 posted on 01/02/2006 11:52:24 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
I guess to you corporations aren't allowed to make money.

Now you're jumping to the ridiculous. Wal-Mart makes a lot of money. They want to make more money. They're free to do that. Some of the ways that they have looking at to make part of that additional income is by slashing the benefits they offer their existing employees and encouraging turn over. Again, they are free to do that. But why do you insist that that is not part of their business model in the face of all the evidence to the contrary?

98 posted on 01/02/2006 11:55:42 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: flixxx

bttt


99 posted on 01/02/2006 11:56:53 AM PST by petercooper (Win the war. Confirm the judges. Cut the taxes. Control the spending. Seal the borders.)
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To: wouldntbprudent
Again, why does WM have to "care" about its employees? It has to make good business decisions, including business decisions regarding employees and employee relations, period.

Wal-Mart doesn't have to care about it's employees. And it's pretty evident that they don't care all that much about their employees, hokey commercials to the contrary notwithstanding. That's the way Wal-Mart chooses to do business and there is absolutely nothing illegal or unethical about it. Other companies choose to do business other ways. That doesn't mean that they are smarter than Wal-Mart or better than Wal-Mart, they just have a different way of looking at their employees.

Employees have ALWAYS been the place to look when a company needs to make savings. The higher paid employees have ALWAYS been in jeopardy when the accountants come and say the company needs to save x amount by year's end. (Fire one engineer, save $100K.)

You don't have to tell me that, I've learned it from past experience. And Wal-Mart obviously embraces that strategy. Employees are dollar figures only, and money is worth more than loyalty. Again, there is nothing illegal about Wal-Mart feeling that way. It is evidently part of their business model, and the only question about it is why so many people deny that it is.

100 posted on 01/02/2006 12:01:56 PM PST by Non-Sequitur
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