Posted on 11/04/2005 1:27:52 PM PST by frogjerk
Running time: 108 minutes. Not rated (nothing offensive). At the Village East, Second Avenue and West 12th Street.
HAVING failed to take down President Bush ("Uncovered") and the Fox News Channel ("Outfoxed") with his cinematic screeds last year, schlockumentarian Robert Greenwald trains his sights on the nation's largest private employer in "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."
Wal-Mart's home office in Bentonville, Ark., can rest easy: Greenwald, as usual, is hysterically preaching to the choir. The massive retailer has far more to worry about from press reports last week quoting internal company documents showing 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's employees have no medical insurance or are on Medicaid.
Greenwald treats this issue with trademark superficiality in his wide-ranging and overbearing attack, which relies heavily on TV clips and softball interviews with disgruntled employees to attack Wal-Mart on a number of other fronts. These include the retailer's supposed threat to mom-and-pop businesses, union-busting activities, and its reliance on cheap Chinese labor - valid lines of inquiry that have been far more extensively and fairly covered elsewhere.
Instead of a response from the retailer, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" (which is receiving a vanity booking in theaters before hitting DVD on Nov. 14) edits in promotional footage of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott in a way that holds him up to ridicule - a low-blow technique that would bring a smile to Joseph Goebbels.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
In the end, Wal Mart is huirting its own shareholders by getting a horrible reputation.
http://www.google.com/search?oi=stock&q=stocks:WMT&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwmt%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
Dear realist4ever,
Okay.
But even "an awful lot of" has to be put in context that about 91.5% of the stuff that Wal-Mart sells is NOT from China.
sitetest
I'm sick of all this contrived Walmart bashing. They are brilliant retailers who offer real value, quite unlike the retarded mainstream retailers.
Target has a similar model as they do, and yet I challenge anyone to show that Target has much higher wages.
"Look at the groups hosting screenings. need you say more?"
Oooo, in my city they have seating for {{GASP}} 15 whole people!!
From what I've read WM had 10 billion in profits for '04 and I find it reprehensible that taxpayers are being forced to supplement the living expenses for employees of a corporation making money hand over fist. WM is just playing the system......the real blame lies with these scumbag bureaucrats and politicans who nothing more than lapdogs for big money lobbyists.
That is why I buy Snap-On tools, Tener's and Red Wing boots, Browning/Springfield/Jarret/Barret/Remington etc firearms, PMC, Winchester, Remington and Cor-Bon ammunition, Shaw carpet, Cooper tires, "American" cars....
Get it?
Poor performance is remembered long after the low price is forgotten.
"I find it reprehensible that taxpayers are being forced to supplement the living expenses for employees of a corporation making money hand over fist."
Huh? The market determines wages. If you don't like capitalism, there are plenty of socialist countries in Europe you could move to. Just how much do you think someone who stands in one spot and passes items over a scanner all day ought to make? Seriously, working at McDonalds takes more skill.
Target removed the Salvation Army kettles from their front doors. WalMart gave them millions for Katrina victims, plus the family added some millions...
I have been shopping at Wally World, since they came to town. I will continue to shop there, because it's MY money that I have to SPEND!
I appreciate the people that work there. I make more in a week, than their employees make in a year, or more. As an employer, I know what it takes to get people to work. I see the same faces there every time I show up at their doors, so they must be doing something right...
They hired a young man to greet folks at the Martinsburg store. He has Cerebral Palsy, and sits in a wheelchair. I don't know many companies that would do that, but I know that he appreciates it. I asked him. He told me he had looked for a job, but nobody wanted a spaz (his word).
"Welcome to WalMart works" for him! It works for me, too!
"But even "an awful lot of" has to be put in context that about 91.5% of the stuff that Wal-Mart sells is NOT from China."
If you have a source for that, I would like to see it. Thanks.
WalMart is not guilty of your charge, which is reprehensible to any consistent conservative. I hope WM makes 11 billion this year!
Oh I see, this is the new style capitalism......make billions in profits while sticking the taxpayer with supplementing the living expenses of minimally paid employees.....whattadeal!....this is the true definition of socialism! Are you so dumb that you have no problem with seeing your hard earned tax dollars being used to assist employees of a company so rich it's ridiculous. Hey, if WM doesn't want to offer health insurance so be it.......but NOT one of their employees should be eligible for public assistance.
You are missing the point. The taxpayer is financing Walmart's profit. I realy don't like paying the medical bills for WalFart's employees.
Megadittos.
Therer shouldn't be any such thing as public assistance, that would end the problem. As it is WalMart is just using an existing system they didn't create as a method to lower their own costs. Of course if we got rid of these stupid socialized systems then the taxes could go down so even though WalMart had to pay their employees more it would still be a wash to the bottom line.
Complain where it's proper, about the encroaching socialism; not where it's silly, a company using the system to their advantage.
Dear L98Fiero,
I got it from www.walmart.com, looking first at their "Walmart Facts" section, where they state the amount of Chinese stuff they sell, and then looking at their basic financial results, which record total sales and cost of goods sold.
I assumed the worst case, that the $18 billion in Chinese goods reported is Wal-Mart's cost, rather than at retail. If I'd have assumed that the $18 billion was at retail, the percentage would have been about 6.5% of total sales.
sitetest
Could care less what WM makes.....more the merrier but I don't find anything conservative about taxpayers being forced to supplement their employee's living expenses.....anyone that has no problem with this scenario is anything but a conservative.
We recently moved close to a Wal-Mart. The first night we went there my husband and I spent 3 hours looking around. We could not believe the prices, especially the groceries. It is no wonder people like to shop there, especially low-income families. You can actually afford things at Wal-Mart that you could not normally buy.
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