Wal-Mart Is The Devil

[G27]

Oh dear....a corporation thats out for profit?? Imagine that. Of all the nerve.

When, like I said, a company cares only about the bottom dollar (above all else) there will always be problems. If this weren't the case, we wouldn't require the plethora of regulatory laws that are on the books.

And they buy from China too?? Oh heavens.....I better start shopping at all those other retail giants who sell nothing made in China. Another challenge. Name ONE retail giant that sells no products made in China. Just one.

Please look up 'straw an argument'.

I don't care if people shop at Wal-Mart or not, truly. But the same ole stories of woe year after year (this video is in FACT 3 years old) gets so tiresome. They need to at least come up with a new claim of demonism. The China hangup and the "they are anti-union and treat employees like crap" has been used to death. Personally, I think unions suck too, but thats a whole other thread topic.

Nowhere did I suggest these are the reasons I refuse to give them my money - my reasons are based on personal experiences where I have been privy to the 'negotiation' that Chinamart goes through with US businesses in order to get what they want how they want it.

You can argue from emotion all you wish, but it won't change the fact that they are a filthy company that truly strive to be a monopoly. The don't care about giving you good products, just cheap products, and they don't care how they get them.

Now if that's who you wish to support, go for it. I prefer supporting my local small businesses which supports my local economy, and also getting service worthy of my money.

[G27]

My greatest problem with the World of Wallace is how they have totally forsaken their "Made in the USA" campaign, which was a major advertising/merchanding issue for them not so many years ago.

An industry leader such as WM could lead to a greater emphasis for all companies to spotlight items made in our country. But the need to make a profit and enrich China overwhelms the need to help the US.

Bingo, great point.

[saintsfanbrian]

I believe Penn and Teller showed the other side of this argument.

Fact is Wal-Mart and Fed-Ex are two of the LARGEST EMPLOYERS in America.

If they were to go "belly up" because people stopped shopping there then a lot of people would be out of jobs and the economy would be in even worse shape.

Wal-Mart fills a niche and fills it quite nicely. Do I like shopping there? Nope, but I do because I can find many of the products that I use on a daily basis cheaper than I can get them at the grocery store. Pampers are less expensive at Wal-Mart than at Kroger usually.

To that end, Wal-Mart also affords the small business owner the opportunity to "specialize." You get better service when you go to the local mom and pop bakery than you do to Wal-Mart and you get a better, fresher product.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGb9OLqsvV8[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7glLZCJ13Pg[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqp5KTygcog[/ame]

So, like them on a personal level or hate them. Wal-Mart definitely fills a void in America's economy. Could they get back to Buy American? Sure, but then again, lots of the American Made products cost too much because of the unions that drive the industry.

[Guest TNDixieGirl]

"Please look up 'straw an argument'"

LOLOLOL...how funny. When you can't answer the question, try to turn it into a "straw argument". I needed a laugh this AM, thanks!

[G27]

"Please look up 'straw an argument'"

LOLOLOL...how funny. When you can't answer the question, try to turn it into a "straw argument". I needed a laugh this AM, thanks!

Haha, nice. The question was silly - no where did I say that Chinamart was the only one selling Chinese made goods, you pulled that out of thin air then proceeded to act as if that was a point of my argument - it wasn't.

Straw man, deflection - whatever. You can choose to ignore what was said and try to change the discussion if you wish - my point stands.

[Marswolf]

Bottom line is that Wal-mart provides products at a price people want to pay. They do that by keeping unions out and twisting the arm of suppliers to cut their profit to a minimum and then pass those savings on to their customers.

Does it put mom & pops out of business? Yep. But the customers generally get the same items at a lower price. That's competition and one of the main principles this country was founded on.

Municipalities stepping in to stifle competition by not allowing anyone to build a store reminds me of a local story. One little town decided they didn't want to allow beer sales. Guess they were afraid their citizens would sin. They only had one decent grocery store and it supplied much of the city taxes. The store requested that they be allowed to sell beer, as the profit on the place was pretty minimal without alcohol sales. The town said no. So the store closed and they built another store two or three miles away in the next little town. The store sells beer and the new town gets the taxes. Meantime, those in the original town just drove a little to buy the beer they would have bought more locally. The original town now allows beer sales, but they have nothing left but convenience stores. The duh factor is alive and well in east Tennessee. Sounds like it is in other places that chase away Wal-mart.

[Guest superslacker]

Has anyone here lived in a little town that didn't have a walmart and was forced to shop at the little mom and pop stores? Well I used to, and it sucked!! Mom and pop stores are more expensive with less selection, and that crap about them having better customer service is garbage as well. The bottom line is that this is a free market, and if someone could come up with something better, then people would shop there instead of walmart. This movie is more of the same "rich man is bringing down" stuff that hollyweird wants us to believe as the gospel truth.

[Guest EasilyObsessed]

Here's a challenge for ya....go look up Wal-Mart's Healthcare package. If you aren't amazed at the choices they get, I'll kiss your a$$. And guess what....NO INSURANCE IS FREE!!!!!!!!! I can only WISH mine was only $70/week. ANd I'd love to have those $4 prescription choices they have.

That's just a scratch at the surface.

Okay...the $4 preception thing is just smoke and mirrors. They are offering OVER THE COUNTER medications at $4.

From Wal-Marts Website:

New $4 OTC offering – Wal-Mart Stores and Neighborhood Markets today began a new $4 OTC program, offering customers more than 1,000 OTC items priced at $4 or less without a prescription. Wal-Mart has rolled back prices on key OTC items to ensure that almost one-third of its OTC medicines are now $4 or lower. Now, many commonly used OTC medicines such as the Equate-brand versions of popular drugs like Zantac®, Pepcid® and Claritin® are priced at $4, approximately 50 percent lower than many national chain drugstores and grocers based on Wal-Mart’s internal research.

Women’s health products like Wal-Mart’s Spring Valley-branded prenatal vitamins were also lowered to $4 as part of the $4 OTC program now available at Wal-Mart Stores and Neighborhood Markets.

This same program offers generic medications at $10 for 90 days....which is the same as every other insurance I have ever had. The page also has a full paragraph where they try to spin new generic products hitting the market as their own effort to save people money.

And wait....the best part:

Certain drugs are priced higher than $4 (for up to 30-day supplies) and $10 (for 90-day supplies) in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

I was unable to find the health plans they offer anywhere online, but in 2005 25% of the 37,000 Tennessee employees were on TennCare which is coming out of the taxpayers pockets. It looks like WalMart has tried to reverse this trend with several press releases talking about their "great" healthcare over the past couple years and I would love to see new numbers.

70/week sounds high for insurance? I pay less than that for an entire month.

[Guest jackdog]

Guess i'm not into buying crap made by the red Chinese or crap from Viet nam. (Still a bunch of mia/pows from that little excursion that are unaccounted for but profit margin certainly out ways American service mens lives now don't it. As far as mom and pop stores being higher that is true to a certain extent. But if I want a fresh cut of meat I can just ask my butcher at piggly wiggly and get it. I ran a test and for thirty days we shopped locally only. for the next thiry days we shopped at wally world and koger in clarksville. Guess what we spent more in Clarksville. Add almost 4.00 a gallom gas and old wally and kroger cannot compete. Besides my hardware/gun store only charges me ten dollars for ffl service.

[Smith]

I believe Penn and Teller showed the other side of this argument.

Fact is Wal-Mart and Fed-Ex are two of the LARGEST EMPLOYERS in America.

If they were to go "belly up" because people stopped shopping there then a lot of people would be out of jobs and the economy would be in even worse shape.

Wal-Mart fills a niche and fills it quite nicely. Do I like shopping there? Nope, but I do because I can find many of the products that I use on a daily basis cheaper than I can get them at the grocery store. Pampers are less expensive at Wal-Mart than at Kroger usually.

To that end, Wal-Mart also affords the small business owner the opportunity to "specialize." You get better service when you go to the local mom and pop bakery than you do to Wal-Mart and you get a better, fresher product.

So, like them on a personal level or hate them. Wal-Mart definitely fills a void in America's economy. Could they get back to Buy American? Sure, but then again, lots of the American Made products cost too much because of the unions that drive the industry.

Good post. Statistically for every store Walmart forces close, 2 more open. Walmart actually creates more "specialty" small business than they destroy. They force out inefficient business and make room for more opportunity. Like it or not they are great stimulators of small buisness.

[Marswolf]

Guess i'm not into buying crap made by the red Chinese or crap from Viet nam.

Like Black Hawk gear?

Add almost 4.00 a gallom gas and old wally and kroger cannot compete.

That's why you need a local Wally-world.

Oddly enough, Kroger has been having the best deals lately on groceries, especially their specials.

BTW, you may notice that I'm pretty big on the POW/MIA situation. We've actually done much better on that front with Vietnam since they have some economic reasons to make us happy.

[saintsfanbrian]

Amazingly, whenever a Wal-Mart opens around here there is a strip mall that opens right next to it and it is usually filled with several shops selling many items that you could buy in Wal-Mart yet they don't go out of business.

Many restaurants open near Wal-Mart to be able to feed the employees and the customers.

[Guest TNDixieGirl]

"70/week sounds high for insurance? I pay less than that for an entire month."

Well I don't. I pay MORE than that per week.

To see Wal-Mart's insurance plans, you have to go to the Employment portion of their website (if I remember correctly). Their employess get more $4 prescriptions (more choices that is) than the general public. And they get a very large number of plans to choose from. Plus, I got some of my information from some family members that actually work for Wal-Mart, so you may not find it all (what I've stated) on the website. But some of it is there for sure.

As I said before, I don't care one way or the other if anyone shops there or not. To each his own. But "Wal-Mart The Big Bad Monster" is an old tale thats pretty much been beaten to death.

[Guest TNDixieGirl]

BTW, you may notice that I'm pretty big on the POW/MIA situation. We've actually done much better on that front with Vietnam since they have some economic reasons to make us happy.

Mars, did you see the article last week about the remains of that MIA soldier that finally got sent home after 30 years? He had died in a plane crash. It gave me goosbumps. I'm about halfway through reading "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young". Next I'm going to watch the movie.

[Guest db99wj]

"70/week sounds high for insurance? I pay less than that for an entire month."

Well I don't. I pay MORE than that per week.

To see Wal-Mart's insurance plans, you have to go to the Employment portion of their website (if I remember correctly). Their employess get more $4 prescriptions (more choices that is) than the general public. And they get a very large number of plans to choose from. Plus, I got some of my information from some family members that actually work for Wal-Mart, so you may not find it all (what I've stated) on the website. But some of it is there for sure.

As I said before, I don't care one way or the other if anyone shops there or not. To each his own. But "Wal-Mart The Big Bad Monster" is an old tale thats pretty much been beaten to death.

I pay $160/week for my great insurance. it is good but expensive. My employer, small, only pays for 90% of mine. I pay the rest, family coverage. That is suppose to change in October. Hopefully that $696/month will go down by half. then Pay off bills, then buy guns. Unfortunately in that order.

[Marswolf]

Mars, did you see the article last week about the remains of that MIA soldier that finally got sent home after 30 years? He had died in a plane crash. It gave me goosbumps. I'm about halfway through reading "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young". Next I'm going to watch the movie.

I'm not sure about that one. I know about a WWII guy who crashed his plane in Croatia and just came home.

I see very few movies in the theater but did go to see We Were Soldiers. I already had the book and have since listened to tapes of the reading of the book several times. I like the picture a lot. I have quite a few props that were used in the movie. Slowly selling them off though. I have way too much clutter.

[Guest EasilyObsessed]

I pay $160/week for my great insurance. it is good but expensive. My employer, small, only pays for 90% of mine. I pay the rest, family coverage. That is suppose to change in October. Hopefully that $696/month will go down by half. then Pay off bills, then buy guns. Unfortunately in that order.

Wow, I never knew insurance was that expensive. Mine is $61/mo for medical, and that was opting for the most expensive option.

[Guest GLOCKGUY]

Yep. Seen it. Still shop there. I live paycheck to paycheck, saving money takes precedence over my conscience.

i have 3 kids my wife and i trid to shop other stores but it cost way to much to do that. when you live paycheck to paycheck every penny counts

[Smith]

Wow, I never knew insurance was that expensive. Mine is $61/mo for medical, and that was opting for the most expensive option.

That's because of your age and I presume single. You add a woman (lots of Doctor bill!) and kids and yes it is very high. That is why i use an HSA. I couldn't have made it through my wreck without it. I found out after the fact that only 3 company's cover auto accidents. Without the HSA cash I had put away I would have never made it. Cost me $70 a month for me and $190 for the family with a $5000 deductible and I can put away as little as I want into the account. Very good option for young people and families.

[Guest GLOCKGUY]

Wow, I never knew insurance was that expensive. Mine is $61/mo for medical, and that was opting for the most expensive option.

mine is $500.00 a month and it sucks and i have $30.00 and $50.00 co pays

[Guest db99wj]

Wow, I never knew insurance was that expensive. Mine is $61/mo for medical, and that was opting for the most expensive option.

Yes, wife and 4 kids. Also one is only 7 months old. Women and young kids make insurance go higher.

[Guest GLOCKGUY]

Yes, wife and 4 kids. Also one is only 7 months old. Women and young kids make insurance go higher.

that ant no lie

[edellson]

I would like to suggest support the small guy when you can. Let walmart be the last choice instead of the first. Your local buisness will beat WM if they can, most of the time if you will just ask.

[Guest nraforlife]

But going to Wal-Mart is kind of entertaining especially at 2am. Land whales during the day and zombies at night.

[TripleDigitRide]

But going to Wal-Mart is kind of entertaining especially at 2am. Land whales during the day and zombies at night.

WOW! All the fat jokes. Now I know better than to show up at one of these TGO meets.