Posted on 11/09/2004 1:11:34 PM PST by Willie Green
In Circleville, Ohio, population 13,000, the local RCA television manufacturing plant was once a source of good jobs with good pay and benefits. But in late 2003, RCA's owner, Thomson Consumer Electronics, lost a sizeable portion of its production orders and six months later shut the plant down, throwing 1,000 people out of work.
Thomson's jobs have moved to China, where cheap labor manufactures what the American consumer desires--from clothing to electronics--and can buy at "everyday low prices" at the local Wal-Mart.
On Tuesday, November 16, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE® explores the relationship between U.S. job losses and the American consumer's insatiable desire for bargains in "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Through interviews with retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts, correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the growing controversy over the Wal-Mart way of doing business and asks whether a single retail giant has changed the American economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
What about Target? Is Target good for America??
This is old news. I understand Walmart is cheap. But, as my grandmother used to say, "your wish has been granted, now you have to pay for it." People want the low prices, the schlocky goods and they don't care about slave labor in China so long as they can buy a lot for less. I guess there are people who don't care that the neighborhood stores are shuttered and that they have to drive from mega-parking lot to mega-parking lot. But, you can't stop progress or consumer choice. If it's not Walmart, it's K Mart, Target---Maybe I am the old news.
The real point of this thread should be "Is PBS good for America?".
"Would Americans prefer to buy a DVD player for $200 or $70? Or a TV for $200 or $400. "
You can start a great argument with that question....you wanna buy a $70 DVD player every couple of years or do you want to buy a $500 dollar DVD player every 10 years....you buy from Wal-Mart...you'll keep replacing your goods as it breaks every couple of years....if you go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap Souder entertainemnt center...how long will it last???...you'd better not move it or touch it after you set it up....or it will start falling apart..
Target is a far leftist shopping center. I avoid them. At least W-M backed Bush.
I'd shop Wal-Mart even if they were 20% more expensive (but don't tell them that). I hate wasting time driving around town to 5 different stores. I hate looking for parking.
At Wal-Mart I can get all the necessities (and while crowded most of the time, since it's only a mile away I go early morning and avoid the rush) without having to make 3 stops or go out of my way. They have milk at almost commissary prices (really saying something in Hawaii), toiletries, fabric, most of the crafting stuff I do, and lots of locally made Hawaii products for gifts and the like.
The convenience is worth almost whatever the store wanted to charge.
Is PBS good for America?
I guess it's a negative in that it's tough for the Mom and Pop's to compete with Wal Mart prices. But wage and price fixing by the state are much larger negatives.
Actually, France will only allow French-made goods to be sold in France by French manufacturers e.g. Izod and Facconnable can sell clothes made in China or Brazil or anywhere else in the US (or the world except in France - in France all the clothing made by these manufacturers will have been made in France - not efficient nor cheap for the French consumer but it works for them.
Low prices come at a cost, she and other speakers insisted, arguing, for instance, that Wal-Mart encouraged overconsumption and overdevelopment, which place strains on natural resources and the environment.
"Everything is based on the consumer first," said Edna Bonacich, a sociology professor at the University of California, Riverside. "Is this the way we want to live?"
To Ms. Bonacich, a hopeful sign that at least some people would answer no came just days before the conference. On April 6 in Inglewood, Calif., a largely black and Hispanic suburb of Los Angeles, voters rejected a ballot initiative allowing Wal-Mart to build a store there, with many saying they were unhappy with its wage levels, fierce anti-unionism and efforts to circumvent land-use regulations.
FYI"
See post 47... I sent it before I got yours. Great minds...
I will not buy meat from WalMart, sorry, I just don't trust them on that issue. Aside from that, I shop at both WalMart and Costco.
I see this difference in grocery stores in my area. What costs me $3.29 at Safeway, Albertsons, or QFC, costs me $2.50 at Fred Myers.
Funny, when a new grocery store came to an area we used to live in, we were happy because they were so much cheaper than the rest. We told an older friend of ours how good the new store was and she responded with, "I've been going to A&P every Thursday morning for 25 years and I ain't about to stop now."
Let the people shop where they want.
Exactly.
Agent 99 has observed that Japanese tourists in the U.S. will stay in Japanese hotels. Just an example to bolster your point.
Bull! I find the same stuff at Wal-Mart I do at other retailers, for less. Carries same warranties.
It's a matter of economics. I can buy a Gillette Mach-3 razor for $8.00 at Albertson's, or $6 at Wal-Mart. And, I can get groceries there, auto supplies there, garden supplies there...I shop almost nowhere else BUT Wal-Mart for the basics.
Wal-Mart is what the free market begets.
If Wal-Mart is not good for America, that indicts capitalism, and we should elect Comrade Hillary to protect us from it.
"What about Target? Is Target good for America??"
Dude...Target is a Fench owned company..it's not Target...it's Tar-jay...
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