The Walmart Saga

[Fatbrit]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

I see that we have the usual WalMart bashers here. Eastgate, I am with you. Enjoy WalMart and don't pay any attention to the bashers. We shop there all the time. Obviously most Americans like WalMart which is why they are so successful.

It's what Walmart does to us as a society rather than because of their success that should give the average Joe a little cause for concern.

[Zoom]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

I see that we have the usual WalMart bashers here. Eastgate, I am with you. Enjoy WalMart and don't pay any attention to the bashers. We shop there all the time. Obviously most Americans like WalMart which is why they are so successful.

"Most American's like Walmart". How do you know they LIKE it? They like the low prices which come at a cost of using Human (mainly Chinese) slaves and paying their workers very low wages and other rip off treatment. If slaves are kosher with you then go save a couple dollars and after you finishing buying all your cheap junk go teach everybody about Jesus - You know, AMERICA, land of faith and the Bible, protecting all the little unborn babies but F you if you want Universal Health Care with your tax money, In God We Trust, all that other empty dribble. I LOVE America, so full of bullsh*t hypocrisy (and SO MANY people that buy into the whole fantasy !!!).

Would Jesus shop at a store that uses slaves so the owners could make a few more MILLION when they already have BILLIONS AND BILLIONS........ would Satan? I think even Satan might find the Walmart concept a bit too upsetting and he's a man of Wealth and Taste (plus, Lucifer likes his CD's uncensored, like all of us, we wanna hear all those nasty vulgar filthy words - turns us on Lad, what can I say. This is where WalMart proves it's RIGHTEOUSNESS (uses/abuses Humans BUT censors words - Yeah, that makes sense) - Do you believe John my boy !?!?!?! Say it, "I Believe in you WalMart, In Sam we trust" - HALLELUJAH !!!! You done good mi amigo..... Slap me FIVE !!

Yo, JohnSoCal, ever think why there's so many WalMart Basher's? Maybe some of us try to be a bit enlightened. Look into ENLIGHTENMENT, might surprise you Mate (might slightly blind you, have sunglasses nearby would be my main word of advice). Zoom

PS "You miss too much these days if you stop to think" - love that U2 song....

[Zoom]

Originally Posted by BellaLuna

Hello Eastgate,

There are many good things about the USA, but Wal-Mart is not one of them. Lots of cheap crap people don't really need anyway. I am glad you like it here, and I'm sure Australia is great too. Please consider spending a little more and buy from a local privately owned store if you can.

The Chinese people are exploited and paid peanuts to make cheap crap for greedy spoiled people in other countries...especially the U.S. And the only ones who profit from it are the government and corporations.

I used to shop there too...not anymore. Anyway, I hope you enjoy yourself here. Be aware!

THIS is ENLIGHTENMENT (see my post above). "Be Aware" - YEP (if America had more of this kind of thinking I wouldn't want to leave so bad) Zoom

PS Good luck on your journey BellaLuna !!

[coloma gold]

Originally Posted by Eastgate

Wal-Mart. It's always open and stuff is so cheap. Australia (where I'm from) is not the most expensive place to live, but wow, the US is another order of magnitude cheaper when it comes to getting ordinary things.

Also, it's cool how there are so many different places in the US. Each state is almost like a whole new country.

Eastgate...
I don't care for Walmart but who cares.. as long as you like it, that's fine.. Don't get too disturbed one of the specific replys..That person is negative on every subject no matter what the subject..

[Zoom]

Coloma Gold, I'm negative on every subject? Shift your eyeballs upward a bit and see what I say about BellaLuna - that's negative bro? Maybe you should cut back on Da Herb (I assume looking at your user name) and clear out that brain, get it sharp again if possible. Amazing how well you know me from a few posts. Enjoy Walmart, and think how many humans suffered when you're buying that next piece of crap to help uglify your mobile home living room even more. Cheers mate, Zoom

BTW, doubt Eastgate would cutback on WM cause of what I say about the place.... It's hard passing up $2 T-shirts, I can feel the pain dude.....

ZOOM'S POSITIVE LIST: Art, Music (U2, Pearl Jam, White Stripes, Dead Weather, All Classic Rock), Photography, Books, Good Films, Travel (except American planes and airports), Female form, Comedy (especially smart ones like Bill Maher, Chris Rock, etc), France (all things French almost), Latin America (especially Argentina), Bali, India, Smart People, Good Homemade Food, Non American Beer, Wine

ZOOM'S NEGATIVE LIST: Stupid People, Military Industrial Complex, Most Giant Multi-National Corporations, American Government (Dems and Repubs are basically the same. Repubs slightly worse), American Sheep, Super Greedy, Religious Nuts (all religions), Hypocrites

See, learn before you spread false info around....

[BellaLuna]

People are gettin' feisty

As they say...you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. I just hope that people look a little deeper and realize that even something as simple as what you choose to buy and where you shop does make a difference. I really doubt that anyone wants to buy an item made by a twelve year old in a sweatshop that gets paid fifty cents a day and lives in a filthy shack, but they don't think about where it comes from, they just want a shiny new thing that will amuse them for a few days. That shiny new thing that costs five cents to make, gets priced at fifteen dollars here, and who keeps the profit? Not the little kid living in a shack who made it. It's wrong to exploit and take advantage of people, there's really no argument there.

We're perfectly capable of making cheap plasitc crap that nobody needs right here in the USA! But the next time you're shopping, ask yourself...do you really need that cheap plastic piece of junk that will get tossed in your closet or storage in a few weeks...or it gets thrown away and sits in a landfill for a thousand years. Next time you're trying to fill the numbing emptyness you feel with material possessions, consider eating a box of Ho-Ho's or Ding Dongs. At least they are biodegradable. Just make sure you recylce the box.

[JohnSoCal]

The WalMart bashers have absolutely no understanding of economics and business. They moan and whine about the poor exploited workers in China. Well I have news for them. These poor exploited workers and their families are much better off today then before they were manufacturing products for export. It is China that has to protect their workers, not American companies. Prior to the American and other foreign businesses in China, these people didn't have jobs or if they did it was under much worse conditions than today. The economy and the standard of living in China has improved drastically from where it was. This is a result of China embracing Capitalism.

WalMart sells a lot more products than junk from China. They offer many brand name products of all types at low prices. There us nothing wrong with that as it benefits the consumer. As far as WalMart employees go, any issues they may have is between them and WalMart. Nobody forces anybody to work there. In reality the majority of WalMart employees are happy with their jobs. It is true that many small businesses can't compete with them. But that is simply evolution and not a bad thing. One can say the same thing about the supermarket chains etc. In many cases WalMart has benefited many small cities and rural areas by providing higher paying jobs than were previously available and providing lower prices for the locals.

So let the WalMart bashers wail away but in the meantime enjoy shopping wherever you want.

By the way, I have absolutly no connection with WalMart or any retailer.

[coloma gold]

Originally Posted by Zoom

Coloma Gold, I'm negative on every subject? Shift your eyeballs upward a bit and see what I say about BellaLuna - that's negative bro? Maybe you should cut back on Da Herb (I assume looking at your user name) and clear out that brain, get it sharp again if possible. Amazing how well you know me from a few posts. Enjoy Walmart, and think how many humans suffered when you're buying that next piece of crap to help uglify your mobile home living room even more. Cheers mate, Zoom

BTW, doubt Eastgate would cutback on WM cause of what I say about the place.... It's hard passing up $2 T-shirts, I can feel the pain dude.....

ZOOM'S POSITIVE LIST: Art, Music (U2, Pearl Jam, White Stripes, Dead Weather, All Classic Rock), Photography, Books, Good Films, Travel (except American planes and airports), Female form, Comedy (especially smart ones like Bill Maher, Chris Rock, etc), France (all things French almost), Latin America (especially Argentina), Bali, India, Smart People, Good Homemade Food, Non American Beer, Wine

ZOOM'S NEGATIVE LIST: Stupid People, Military Industrial Complex, Most Giant Multi-National Corporations, American Government (Dems and Repubs are basically the same. Repubs slightly worse), American Sheep, Super Greedy, Religious Nuts (all religions), Hypocrites

See, learn before you spread false info around....

Gee, Zoom... Did you take it that I was speaking about you?? I guess the shoe must fit?

[Voodoo]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

The WalMart bashers have absolutely no understanding of economics and business. They moan and whine about the poor exploited workers in China. Well I have news for them. These poor exploited workers and their families are much better off today then before they were manufacturing products for export.

That's 100% true.

It is China that has to protect their workers, not American companies. Prior to the American and other foreign businesses in China, these people didn't have jobs or if they did it was under much worse conditions than today. The economy and the standard of living in China has improved drastically from where it was. This is a result of China embracing Capitalism.

It's also a result of the Chinese manipulating their currency exchange rate to keep the yuan artificially low against the US dollar. More money that gets spent on Chinese made goods therefore goes into China and stays there as a result than comes back out again.

In a truly fair system, money would cycle virtually equally. This happens do to the fact that as money pours into a country, that country's currency becomes worth more, allowing for more trade and trade imbalances to equalize as the poorer country's purchasing power grows and it takes in more exports.

China is not embracing capitalism it is exploiting this weakness and Walmart exec's are aiding that exploitation in exchange for taking a small percentage cut.

WalMart sells a lot more products than junk from China.

That's also true. Walmart exploits Canada and Mexico as well and really any country which has a weaker currency than the dollar.

They offer many brand name products of all types at low prices.

This is also true. How they do this is go to suppliers and tell them the number of items they want to purchase and the price they are willing to pay. Since Walmart deals in such large volume the figures for the entire transaction can be very large, but on a per item basis, often times causes the product maker to have difficulties. They are such a big player though they can bully others relatively easily into meeting their terms.

Google "Frontline: is Wal-Mart good for America?" to see what I mean.

There us nothing wrong with that as it benefits the consumer.

It takes the US dollar and sends it into the Chinese money pit. This does enable some Chinese to get richer but since China has three times the population as the US, those that do get richer as a percentage of the Chinese population are far fewer than those that get poorer in the US do to the exportation of manufacturing that goes along with the exportation of wealth.

It might not affect you now, but unless and until the job you do can be done overseas, you really have no clue as to what is actually going on. With China and India combined, there are six times the number of people competing for every exportable job in the US and all of them have a lower standard of living due to them having a less valuable currency.

If you think what's going on can continue you are sadly mistaken. Many in the US have already been forced into using the credit cards for life support as a result of the wealth that's been exported and not returning. And this is only going to continue for the foreseeable future until the cost of exporting reaches parity with that of maintain jobs/production here.

As far as WalMart employees go, any issues they may have is between them and WalMart. Nobody forces anybody to work there.

That's absolutely true.

In reality the majority of WalMart employees are happy with their jobs.

That's because Walmart, to its credit, employs many who could not or would not be able to get work elsewhere. They are happy to have any job.

It is true that many small businesses can't compete with them. But that is simply evolution and not a bad thing.

Yes it is. In the past it was called becoming a monopoly and very rightly looked down upon. One large organization stifles innovation by keeping competitors from the taking the field and innovations they may have brought with them or created to compete with Walmart.

It would be like banning all home cookbooks and recipes and replacing them with just those from say Bettie Crocker because Bettie Crocker recipes are simplest and cheapest to utilize and thus more efficient.

That's not better in my opinion, just more efficient.

One can say the same thing about the supermarket chains etc.

You can, but the two although in some cases utilize the same tactics, Walmart operates in an entirely different league than most of those chains.

In many cases WalMart has benefited many small cities and rural areas by providing higher paying jobs than were previously available and providing lower prices for the locals.

Yes they do. They are robbing from Peter to pay Paul, but if you are Paul what Walmart does is very appealing.

So let the WalMart bashers wail away but in the meantime enjoy shopping wherever you want.

It has to be said Walmart isn't the only company that does this. There was an expose about a company in the UK using child labor in India to make shirts for the UK market, and to Walmart's credit it doesn't go to that length to make a profit (and I've heard Walmart actually helps some places build things like schools and fitness facilities for employees) but that doesn't mean Walmart should be beyond being criticized.

By the way, I have absolutly no connection with WalMart or any retailer.

Nor do I.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

Walmart exploits Canada and Mexico as well and really any country which has a weaker currency than the dollar.

I would sure like to know how WalMart exploits Canada. Contrary to what you believe, the Canadian dollar is much stronger than the US dollar and getting stronger. In fact the strong Canadian dollar is causing a big problem with their exports as it is pricing their manufactured goods out of competition. Canada has gone from running a constant trade surplus to now having a trade deficit. Ford is considering closing all their manufacturing there because the labor cost of building vehicles is higher than anywhere in the world.

There aren't very many countries in the world, especially the developed world, that has a weaker currency than the United States.