[gas0linealley]

Nice story about the baseball gloves. How many other American manufacturers received similar treatment from Walmart, I wonder.

That case highlights one problem with giant retailers like Walmart, their purchase orders are so large that only large manufacturers can supply them. And if a manufacturer raises output to fill their needs, then that manufacturer is placed in the position of relying on more orders to keep the increased plant and workforce busy. At that point, Walmarts' got them just where they want them.

[night reader]

Eventually, it became common knowledge that he drove a pickup truck, loved to hunt out in the fields with his beloved dogs, and that he was a devoted family man and deacon in his local Methodist church.

IIRC, Methodists have Stewards; Baptists (and several others) have Deacons. But I never heard of a Methodist Deacon.

[SmoothTalker]

I can not think of Pat anymore without thinking of his ill-fated heavy metal album!

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

Nice op-ed by one of America's nicest people. But I still can't get over his heavy-metal album and especially "Stairway to Heaven" which might be one of the funniest things in history. At first, I thought it was Tom Jones, which was hillarious, but then learned it was Pat, which made it insanely funny...

[Petronski]

Note the "real story" about the -0.1% at Walmart.

[showme_the_Glory]

"and make good products available to the folks at bargain prices."....... I halfway agree.

[woofie]

I pointed out that Wal-Mart's online sales were up a reported 42 percent, so of course that might diminish store sales somewhat, but that online and store sales figured together added up to a whopping increase over previous years and any published projections! What "slump"?

[Kirkwood]

The last Ford I bought needed a complete engine rebuid after 700 miles... turned out they didn't tighten the harmonic damper and when it slipped, the entire crankshaft tried to leave the engine block. It took 6 weeks to get it repaired. I then tried a GM car next and it had constant electrical problems. After many times being stranded with no lights or dead batteries or burned up alternators, I then a Mazda and it was a great car that lasted many years until I simply outgrew it and needed a bigger vehicle (I wish I had kept it). I then went to a Lexus SUV and even after 7 years of daily driving, it is as good as the day I first drove it. American car manufacturers have no one to blame but themselves for building crappy, throw-away products.

[Hildy]

I don't know...all the stories about Walton just being a regular Joe...you don't get to where Sam did by being a mensch...