Posted on 01/25/2013 9:37:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Once again I am here to sing the praises of Walmart. Over the years I have done so on many occasions.
Many misguided souls take the other side. They blame Walmart for ruining mom and pop grocery stores, mom and pop hardware stores, etc.
Not me, I praise cheaper prices. Moreover, it's what consumers voted for with there hard-earned dollars.
If anyone wants to pay more for stuff, all they have to do is shop at a mom and pop hardware store, grocery store, or pharmacy. Most don't because they want a bargain.
Today, I have good news. Walmart-style competition may be on the way in the healthcare business.
The Orlando Business Journal writes Wal-Mart exploring private health insurance exchange for small biz.
Wal-Mart is exploring the idea of building a private health insurance exchange tailored to offer cheaper health insurance to small businesses, a vice president told Orlando Business Journal Jan. 11.
Marcus Osborne, vice president of health and wellness payer relations for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), spoke to OBJ after his keynote speech at the Foundation of Associated Industries of Florida’s 2013 Health Care Affordability Summit. Osborne said Wal-Mart wants to work with insurers and managed care companies to find new, low-cost health insurance options tailored for small companies, which historically have limited options.
The idea is to offer those products through a health insurance exchange — or as Osborne said, simply a marketplace — that would leverage Wal-Mart’s buying and marketing power to make the exchanges widely available and used. “It would allow small employers to piggyback Wal-Mart,” Osborne said. “We haven’t got it all figured out, but it’s one of the things we’re looking at.”
“The biggest problem today small employers face from a health insurance perspective is they have no alternatives,” Osborne said. “If they find anything, they’ve got to take it. There’s something wrong with that.”
This post is about trade wars, tariffs, health care, and Wal-Mart. I will tie these themes together starting with a look at Wal-Mart and health care.
I have many disagreements with Jim Jubak, but he hits the nail on the head with Let Wal-Mart fix US health care.
I know who can fix our broken health care system -- and who can't:
I say, let Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) do it. Hold your guffaws. Stifle your impulse to scoff. Control those sputters of rage.
Wal-Mart has done more to expand coverage and lower costs in the past year than any government program to come out of Washington in the past 10 years. And I'd bet the new programs that this company -- known for stiffing its own part-time workers on health care benefits -- has announced in the past year will do more to expand coverage and cut costs than anything likely to come out of a McCain, Clinton or Obama first term.
Letting Wal-Mart run the health care system would fix many of those problems. It's a company that understands how low prices can build market share and thus increase profits. Furthermore, it's a company with a culture of cutting costs that has shown no compunction in pushing suppliers to the wall over price. The Wal-Mart motto ought to be, "Make it cheaper, or we'll find someone who can." I'd love to see that attitude brought to bear in health care.
Inquiring minds will want to read the rest of the article. It's surprisingly good.
Jubak makes a compelling case. He never said this explicitly but I will. "We do not need higher wages or higher prices. We need lower prices and a dollar that buys more".
Kinda’ funny, how every four years some FReepers rediscover that big businesses donate to both political parties.
Whenever I visit Walmart,I faintly hear “Dueling Banjos” in the background.....
Some are still mad here, many are not. Sadly, I think only the very top of the line are made here.
***Anyone who loves WalMart must be blind to how they are destroying America.***
Yep. Destroy is what Walmart does best. Back in the 1950s this county was firmly in the economic stranglehold of CHICKEN MEN who paid starvation wages because they were “agriculture”. People were too poor to even leave the area to find better jobs. You worked for the Chicken Men at their wages or starved.
When Sam Walton started his Walmart, wages went up and people saw a chance to make a few bucks more. The Chicken men could no longer keep everyone working for their starvation wages and had to import the first Mexicans into the area.
The local high dollar “Mom and Pop” stores had to close because they could not compete with the “Mom and Pop” store started by Sam Walton. The high dollar grocery stores had to close down for the same reason.
Wal-Mart is the reason that all manufacturing has gone to China and American homes are filled with cheap plastic crap.
Walmart forgot 'ya gotta dance with the ones who brung ya...' If Walmart had to count on Liberal elites keeping them in business they wouldn't last a week.
Walmart needs to remember the Chick fil A protest - almost a million citizens showed up - and not even a few dozen on the other side. Leftist look like a large group because they control the MSM - but when it's sheer numbers - numbers that can't be faked - we win.
It's 10,000 Tea Party people vs 60 "Occupiers' every time... and as for shoppers? Elites don't show Walmart.
I’m with you. I shop where I can buy in bulk at a much lower rate-things like paper products, laundry soap, mouth wash, tooth paste, etc.
Walmart forgot 'ya gotta dance with the ones who brung ya...'
If Walmart had to count on Liberal elites keeping them in business they wouldn't last a week.
Walmart needs to remember the Chick fil A protest - almost a million citizens showed up - and not even a few dozen on the other side. Leftist look like a large group because they control the MSM - but when it's sheer numbers - numbers that can't be faked - we win.
It's 10,000 Tea Party people vs 60 "Occupiers' every time... and as for shoppers? Elites don't shop Walmart.
We do. Oh, and I love the idea of Walmart doing health care - not just 'insuring' but DOING health care.
***They would then price their products to drive that store out of business,****
This is news? We got two feed-hardware stores in our area. Both have signs posted at the door warning “price scouts” from the other store not to enter.
Grocery stores used to send scouts to other stores to sniff out prices so the store could lower prices below what the other had.
It is called COMPETITION, FREE MARKET. Just the opposite of PRICE FIXING, as used to be practiced between mom and pop stores in small towns.
What brand of toothpaste do you buy? Wal-Mart has the same brand of toothpaste you get in any other store. Perhaps you should change your toothpaste.
That said, my beef with Walmart is their meat department. They need to do what Publix did - offer two grades of beef. Both grades can be a better value... Publix goes it by having 'greenwise'... Walmart could do it by offering 'choice'...
***Not by using slave labor to support a Communist China regime!***
All the BIG BOX stores around here use Chinese made goods.
Walmart
Sears
K mart
Hobby Lobby
Ace
True Value
Target
And many, many more.
I buy at a Mom and Pop (franchise) hardware store because if I need twwelve inches of 3/4" PEX tubing the gal at Walmart wouldn't know what the hell I was talking about.
You exactly have it backward. Wal-Mart would be out of business if there wasn't demand for cheap plastic crap.
Frankly, that whole "ebil corporations make me buy their product" shtick is what you hear at an OWS encampment.
Wal-Mart is not the reason that all the manufacturing has gone to China. The Unions are the ones. Also tell me what national store does not sell anything that is made in China. You can’t because they all do. Even AAFES does. At least at Wal-Mart you find items that are made in the US if you take the time to look
Walmart has preemptively surrendered to the regime on the 2nd Amendment. THREE MONTHS AGO (before Sandy Hook), they stopped suppling stores with ammo. It has now grown into “concern” about safety.
I will not shop at Walmart so long as they treat me like a criminal and deprive me of my 2nd Amendment rights. I know, I know it is a business; blah, blah, blah., and they can do what they like. I get it and I can also do what I like and refuse to shop there. Do lower prices and bargains mean more to you than your 2nd Amenedment rights? If so, wear your chains well. If not, then shop elsewhere.
You must be one o’ them thar indeveeduwals I heard ‘bout...
You might want to review your sources, or stop by your local Wal-Mart and buy some ammo.
“All the BIG BOX stores around here use Chinese made goods.”
Correct... And Walmart blazed the trail. When the Clintons opened the door, everyone went for cheap goods.
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