Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

PBS ^ | 11/8/2004 | Press Release

[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.

[trashcanbred]

I do to. I don't buy IKEA and most of my furniture was made in North Carolina. That said I do buy oil, filters, and the occasional video game for from Walmart if the price is right.

In addition I do not mock anyone who does buy their furniture from walmart or any other store cause I was the poorest kid in my neighborhood and I discovered that people should "mind their own business" when it comes to an individual's economic situation.

[Outraged]

What is bad for labor unions is good for America.

[Phantom Lord]

If I go to Walmart it is only on Black Friday or at 7am when they first open.

Aren't most Wal-Marts open 24/7?

[bert]

Thomson Consumer Electronics....... A French company masquerading as an american Company..... I think so.

The question should be was the American TV producer good for America? The answer is no if they continued to operate in and unprofitable manner incurring all kinds of undesirable conditions typical of bankrupt companies.

Who is responsible for the losses their bankers? their creditors? Should the workers of such a company paid with the money of others give it back?

[Nick Danger]

I thought we had settled this issue by deciding that people should spend their own money however they like, and that those who insisted that people were shopping in the Wrong Places out of ignorance and stupidity should be sent to New York or Hollywood to live among the rest of the Really Smart People(tm) who know what everyone else should do.

[Tax-chick]

We had a local Albertson's in Oklahoma that was great ... prices were a little higher than other stores, but the selection was excellent, the store was well run, the employees were cheerful and helpful ... I probably told the manager about two dozen employees and situations that kept me shopping there. They must have had a great regional management staff, because other Albertson's in the area were good, too.

The lesson is that retailers live or die by how happy the customers are, and that's how it should be.

[sinkspur]

"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?"

Nah. Let's let sociologists and environmentalists tell us what we can buy, and at what price.

Sheesh!!! What inane idiocy!

[Sybeck1]

I buy groceries at Kroger, since Walmart is always packed, for convenience sake.

But Friday while Christmas shopping I bought 3 DVD player for $125! Can't do that anywhere else.

[Phantom Lord]

Why do some still long for the days of the $600 VCR?

I wish I had archived this article. I read about 1.5 years an article answering to all the Wal-Mart and China bashing. I showed how if you want "100% American Made" a DVD player would be over $1,000!

Myself, I'll take my $39 Apex DVD player.

[dljordan]

Well, if they're that expensive I guess I just don't need one. Sorry, I'm just not going to get on board with the trashing of America. A country which can't produce it's own goods is doomed because at some point this wonderful Globalism that everyone finds so appealing is going to fail. If we sell our country out for cheap goods then what does that make us? When millions of your countrymen are in the souplines because they can't get a job at Walmart what will you say? I know, I know, they should have gone back to school and tried to snag a job before an H1B worker gets it. Darn those lazy Americans.

[unspun]

Is Wal-Mart good for America?

No, not especially.

What do I win?

[Getsmart64]

I'm not saying it's right...I'm just saying that you get what you pay for and when it comes to supporting you're own economy...Americans are cheap....

[annyokie]

I happen to love Target, too. Great deals on household items and kids clothes. Plus, they donate part of their procedes to my old parish's Catholic school when I use my credit card.

[trashcanbred]

My Costco executive membership has been shredded and sent back to them... they are big Dem supporters and I am not giving them my money any more.

Also the prices aren't that good anyway compared to other places around here.... but I never told them that.

[Phantom Lord]

We have a great K-Mart close to home that I hope NEVER closes. Clean, neat, well-stocked, good prices.

Must be the only one like it in America.

[Pondman88]

Why doesn't Walmart try to move into the older, abandoned city centers? Here in Ct Walmart was recently shot down near the highway.....but a short mile from this site is a perfectly good, older downtown setting. In my view were Walmart to open at these sites (some, at least) they would engender good will from a whole host of people and attract good crowds to revitalize these areas.

But hey, WTF do I know????

[jas3]

YES, that's a nice little bit of irony, eh?

Thompson Consumer Electronics **IS** a French company. It is a divison of Thompson Multimedia.

Thompson also owns the GE consumer electronics brand and RCA. Nip and little Nipper now speak french. Le Woof.

So those were not "American jobs" which were lost in the first place...they were "French jobs"...as if jobs belong in one nation or another.

Jobs go where people work hard and work cheap. They go where governments don't regulate companies to death. They go where the trial lawyers don't run the justic system.

That is not only good for America but good for everybody except Willie Green and his band of overpaid/underworked trade unionists who will be out collecting unemployment and moaning about how unfair the world is.

And right now...that means unskilled high paying jobs will go to China where they become unskilled low paying jobs.

jas3

[Tax-chick]

We go to both Wal-mart and Target, depending on our other destinations (Mecklenburg library is near the Target :-). Target has been "gentrifying," and it's harder to find really cheap stuff, like $2 shower curtains and tableclothes, there. But for boys' clothes, it's better than Target.

[Doctor Stochastic]

"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?"

If you're in retail: The Customer is Always Right.

[sittnick]

As a manufacturing engineer, you probably no more about the cost margins than I do, but when I often see no difference in price between high-end non-Chinese goods and the Communist slave-produced version.

I can get a portable Japanese-made Panasonic MP3-cd player for under $50. My American-made Red Wing shoes cost $120, but you can pay just as much for Chinese-made shoes that sport a name-brand (e.g. Florsheim). My American made New Balance sneakers cost $80 (and in size 11eeeeee!) No worse than slave-labour Nikes. Puma's shoes cost about the same regardless of Chicom origin.

Children's shoes are among the hardest thing to find "Not Made in Red China," but my wife came upon some made in Spain, and they cost the same as their Chinese counterparts. The Stride-Rite store carries very few non-Chicom shoes. But again, no price difference.

Many times, companies hide the fact that the goods are made in Red China through missing, obscure or misleading label. The DVD burner I bought that was labeled "Assembled in USA" in fact was a Red Chinese drive with a Red Chinese IDE cable that happened to be thrown in the box in the USA.

It is foolish to fund an evil regime to the extent that our own industries are incapable of providing for the national defense without relying on their materials.

I gladly pay more for non-Chicom goods. However, businesses can only sell what they are given, and too many do not undertstand the issue. Earlier in the year, I bought some eyeglasses (two pair, regular and sun)from a chain store. The frames there were not cheap, but they were nearly all made in China. I wound up having to order "Safety Glasses" because they were made in Korea. I picked up the glasses that day. I did not use the sunglasses for six months. When I finally took them out, I noticed that the style was different. I looked at the arm, and the store had scratched off the "Made in China" tag.

And of course, we are all in a tizzy about getting drugs from Canada when the Red Chinese were caught making fake powdered milk that resulted in the deaths of 13 children. I do not argue generally on the basis of the quality of the products. However, I do maintain that the Red Chinese, and those who cooperate with them tend to be immoral, and will lie in order to make money.

I'd rather get my imports from Korea, Singapore, Taiwan (the REAL China), Brazil or anywheer else. I might modify my position when Chinese citizens have no restrictions against having families and Roman Catholicism can be openly practiced legally.