WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE

NY Post ^

[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.

[Erik Latranyi]

Lacey:

I am the same. I was not a fan of Wal-Mart in the past, mostly due to the pressures they place on suppliers.

However, since the liberal attacks have ramped up I shop more and more at Wal-Mart.

[american spirit]

If no-one complains how many more large corporations with a legion of highly paid lobbyists will employ the same methodology to increase their bottom line? Hey, I'm all for making $ but in no way should our tax $ go to employees of corps. making huge profits.

[discostu]

But the corporations didn't put the system in place. Even if no corporations were using it to their advantage there would still be this idiotic socialism. Our tax dollars should NEVER go for "personal assistance" regardless of who employs them or if they're employed or not, the system itself is at fault.

[DannyTN]

"Couldn't we find some dry goods, shoes, tools and hardware that aren't ALL made in China Vietnam or Burma?"

Walmart is going to go to the cheapest source of supply because doing so insures the survival of Wal-mart. If you want the trade to shift, don't look to Wal-mart to shift it. Look to government to disincent dealing with our enemies or incent dealing with our friends.

The company that goes unilaterally against market forces is suiciding. But Government can change the market forces.

[realist4ever]

According to that "logic": would you jump off a bridge just because liberals didn't?

[mlc9852]

Wal-Mart is the only place around here that hires "older workers". I hope to one day be a greeter.

[pageonetoo]

I don't find anything conservative about taxpayers being forced to supplement their employee's living expenses

So, do you think that employee benefits are a right?

[mlc9852]

Why single out Wal-Mart? Why not pass laws forcing employers to provide benefits for employees? Last I checked, no one forced employees to stay with Wal-Mart.

[american spirit]

Don't disagree......the welfare system is a major factor in our march to bankruptcy as a nation. But, given the fact that untold #'s of corporations besides WM are playing the system DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT! Why should these corporate fatcats be allowed to make a dime off the backs of hard working people already being taxed to death across the board?

[Jess Kitting]

When is someone going to make a movie that exposes the hypocrisy and lies of the left?

[american spirit]

Of course not......does WM have a right to send their employees to the welfare office?

[sitetest]

Perhaps folks might want to base their arguments for or against Wal-Mart on some facts.

In 2004:

- Wal-Mart had sales of about $285 billion, and net income of about $10 billion. That works out to about a 3.5% net profit margin, which is actually pretty good for retail.

- Wal-Mart's average wage is $9.68 per hour.

- Most Wal-Mart employees are full-time and eligible for benefits.

- Of the approximately $219 billion of stuff that Wal-Mart bought in 2004 (fiscal year ending Jan 31, 2005), about $150 billion was sourced in the United States. That's about 68%.

- Wal-Mart provides health insurance policies that have monthly premiums starting at $40 for individuals and $155 for families. Wal-Mart pays about 2/3 of the cost of premiums for those workers who elect for coverage.

- Wal-Mart contributes, typically, 4% of each worker's wages to each worker's 401(K) plan each year.

- Wal-Mart purchased, directly or indirectly, about $18 billion of Chinese goods in 2004 (fiscal year ending Jan 31 2005), out of about $219 billion cost of goods sold, or about 8.5%.

[Auntie Dem]

In the end, Wal Mart is huirting its own shareholders by getting a horrible reputation.

Isn't that a lot like calling your ex-girlfriend a slut and a whore because she wouldn't sleep with you--but you said she did?

[Big Horn]

The massive retailer has far more to worry about from press reports last week.
Yeh,how to build larger parking lots.

[pageonetoo]

...does WM have a right to send their employees to the welfare office?

your arguments are against WalMart, but apply across the board to every retail establishment in the country, except maybe Starbucks. Yes, I think their employees have the same rights as anyone else. I don't agree with welfare, in general, but with the changes wrought in the 90's, there are lots of low income single parents on the job. They are not just at Wally World, but country wide. the LAW mandates that they be off the welfare rolls, for income, but changed nothing for many other low income programs. It seems responsible to me, to help your employees.

Your arguments don't stand against that reality. It is indeed the gum't's fault, not Wallys...

[realist4ever]

Most Wal-Mart employees are full-time and eligible for benefits.

- Wal-Mart provides health insurance policies that have monthly premiums starting at $40 for individuals and $155 for families. Wal-Mart pays about 2/3 of the cost of premiums for those workers who elect for coverage.

Very nice commercial. I especially like the use of "eligible" and "elect" which allows you to give a certain impression without actually telling the FACTS about how many Wal-Mart employees really pay for their healthcare and how many are welfare queens.

[razorback-bert]

Do you really think any employer pays for insurance?

If so name them.

[discostu]

Yeah it does. Corporations have one job in this world: make money. They have no morality other than the balance statement. They are supposed to use every legal means available to be in the black, that is the purpose of their existence, that is why they are created. This is perfectly legal, they didn't make the system they're just using it, which is exactly what they're supposed to do. These "corporate fatcats" (socialism keywords) are making money on the system, nothing they're doing is increasing the taxes, nothing they've done made the system. If you don't like how they're making money CHANGE THE SYSTEM, and do it without using liberal code words.

[sitetest]

Dear realist4ever,

"Very nice commercial..."

I'm sorry that you think that basic statistical data represent a "commercial." However, I'm glad you thought it was at least a nice commerical.

"I especially like the use of 'eligible' and 'elect'..."

As a business owner and an employer, my concern is with ACCESS to health care, not with whether individuals elect to get health care through me.

I try to keep health insurance affordable for folks, but I can't force folks to buy what they don't want.

As for Wal-Mart, out of about 1.2 million employees, about 570,000 take Wal-Mart's health care, or a bit under half. It's likely that some of these workers get coverage through their spouses' coverage.

I don't know what percentage of Wal-Mart workers get insurance through Medicaid.

I also don't know what percentage of other workers getting an average of $10 per hour have company health insurance, or use state Medicaid, either.


sitetest

[L98Fiero]

Awesome, thanks.