Wallmart: High Cost of Low Prices

What are you talking about.... if its good for the economy then its good. You cant divide local economy from entire economy. If it is good for the "entire economy" then it is best for everybody including your so caled "local economy".
And your least ethical comment????? lets hear something to back that up, istead of spewing garbo out of your computer.

i also watched this documentary on Wal-Mark for marketing...its a really, really interesting company to analyze and weight the pros and cons with

oh crap, wait, this was just reported on CNN. You know that Earth 2 that was just found.... Walmart has plans already of building a store on there. They are taking over the Universe!

you know the likeliness if you getting shot at or anything in a ghetto isnt that great i drive through one all the time and theres a bunch of sick skatespots in a ghetto like 20 min away from my house and nothing has ever happened to me exept get offered like tons of weird drugs

Well, I watched it. Not the greatest documentary, could have been a lot stronger. Still, its a interesting viewpoint, and really illustrates the power that corporations can extend. Check it out, 4 out of 5 stars.

In case you didn't notice, Wal-Marts are fucking huge. They don't have a Wal-Mart next to a bunch of mom and pop stores. They have them next to other big-box stores, Malls, Power Centres, or even Business Parks or Industrial areas. The land around them goes up in value.

And yes, I realize that Wal-Mart does damage some small businesses. Sorry, that's life. It's survival of the fittest. Change your business and adapt or face the consequences. Wal-Mart always made out to be the bad guy when Home Depot and Lowe's hurt hardware stores, Safeway, Whole Foods, etc hurt small grocers, and clothing chains (I could name a billion here) hurt boutique shops. Either come up with an original product or marketing strategy or move on. Sorry, its the way shit works.

Wal-Mart is not the worst company in the world ethics-wise. Because of their massive size they can dictate the sort of some products in the marketplace. Wal-Mart has, or will be very soon, halting the sale of farmed fish from their supercentres, and as a result you'll see a lot less fish farms in the world. It's also making changes to make their store operation more environmentally friendly. As many Vancouverites know, the proposed Wal-Mart in South Vancouver will have skylights to increase natural light and cut energy costs, have solar panels on the roof, built to a LEED Silver standard or higher, have solar, and collect and filter all waste water on site before it is sent into storm drains or the city system. Let's see any other retailer be even prepared to try that.

Oh, and the reason why Wal-Mart is so successful is not because they apparently treat their employees like shit, its because of their supply chain.

Supplies they pay foreign workers shit for.


Basically, take home message - if you want to pay a bit more to keep large inhuman corporations like Wal-Mart and Safeway out of your small town, you'll have to pay a little bit more up front. Otherwise, you'll just end up paying for the reduced prices in lower land values and increased crime.

i would say the ethics part he may be talking about is how they override small businesses and can even take control of their suppliers because Walmart buys such a big part of a suppliers product if walmart demands that they lower their prices the supplier will sometimes have to do it in order to stay in business at all.

haha, its not them paying the foreign... its their suppliers that have the factories in china.
walmart basically told their suppliers, if you want to be competative this is how you do it. and the way they do it is by moving their factories(the suppliers) over to china or wherever.
and as far as the increased crime and crap.... read Veterans post and you might learn a thing or two,

i hate to shop at walmart for stuff. i always try to support the local businesses, thats why i will buy at local towns then offline most of the time...

I'm not saying that Wal-Mart is the nicest corporation in the world, but most major corporations, especially in manufacturing or retail operate very similarly. Wal-Mart just does it better.

I know, but my point is Wal-Mart and other large corporations can directly influence the way their suppliers treat their workers and such. Its true they arent responsible for whatever their suppliers do, but lets face it, the suppliers of Wal-Mart will do whatever they are told to do in order to keep their business with the most 'successful' American company.

And as for the environmentally healthy and conscious effort - fuck them. Cutting farmed fish means they are now buying what they do sell from open ocean fishing. Fish stocks are at 90% of what they were at the beginning of this century, worldwide. I'm sure that they'll make a nice few stores to showoff the environmentally nice side of their company, but the vast majority of locations will go untouched and unmodified. They're not as bad as other companies and conglomerates in terms of environmental harm, but they certainly dont rank high among environmentally conscious companies.

the main reason walmart is successful is because the dont keep any stock on site, as soon as you buy somthing conveyer belts are loading it onto a truck to ship another one to the store. they arnt successful because they are bad to there employees and not having a union is i very smart idea buisness wise.

the reason it's the only place you have to buy the shit you need is because it put the rest of the smaller, locally owned businessess out of business.

Definitely. Its one of those companies, like Phillip-Morris, that I would just feel awful to work for.

Of course its personal man. There have been many instances that a certain album or movie has a very liberal political slant and walmart decided not to stock it. Its true, they are their own business and should be allowed to stock what they want. But that's exactly fucking why you can't let them take over because its going to be just one mass conglomerate deciding whats good for us to hear, watch, and read.

Personally, iv never been in a walmart, mainly cause there's not one anywhere near me. Even if there was one, id never go to it. I refuse to walk into some place with a hayseed mindset deciding whats good to sell and not good. Iv been to a few record shops in Brooklyn and iv seen some of the worst of the worst when it came to music. Things like Nazi death metal, but I don't demand it removed, why? Because its their free will and taste. Why everyone doesn't have this aversion to massive corporations controlling everything you are consuming escapes me.

they aren't deciding for you what you should or shouldn't hear. They have a business decision to make and if they think that certain products will either not sell or else alienate their customers or their suppliers, such that the cost:benefit ratio is too high, then it is a very good business decision not to stock that product. Maybe that's why record shops in Brooklyn that sell Nazi death metal aren't developing into successful businesses. It's common sense and simple economics.

how is what you explained personal? If the majority of their customers dont want that music on the shelf, or dont see it as appropriate, then it makes perfect business sence to not carry it.
It is not personal at all. if you want the CD or movie then you can buy it somewhere else. its why we have competition.

i hate fucking wallmart they charged me $200 because i was with somebody who got caught steeling something

if by with u mean helping then thats correct.

For some hayseed town down south that one big walmart is their mecca. They have nowhere else to buy their goods, so whatever walmart stocks, they buy. Doesn't that count as them making a judgment call on what we are allowed to have? What kind of a culture is that? Where you have nowhere to shop except some massive conglomerate so whatever art or view of the world they give you, is the one you have to take. And if whatever artist or production company goes against them, they can just strike down with threats? You think walmart stocks any great underground bands? Or do you think they stock any great independent films? They destroy culture and the local flavor of any town. How would you like it if every fucking town was just this big sprawl and everyone was going to walmart to shop, and Applebees to eat. I don't understand even for lower prices, how would anyone want that. Ill take walking an extra block or two so I can actually have a local flavor and a soul in a city.

Maybe its because you guys grew up in suburban towns where there's no real true soul or culture, but in the cities, thats all there is. And its so deep and sprawling, every block has a different story and group of people. I just don't understand why you don't hold your towns culture up in higher respect. Cause once a place like walmart comes, all those businesses that you take for granted that contribute to your culture, will be gone. So keep ordering domino's instead of that italian place down the road, or go to dunkin doughnuts instead of the local coffee shop. See what happens to your town in ten years. Its going to be a town of strip malls and franchises before you even know what happened.

Thats a nice pretty picture you painted for us there. the fact is most families are trying to get by with what income they have and feeding the family, sorry if the"local flavor" isnt tops on their list.

Bingo.

America is a free enterprise economy. This means that the people decide what they want and provide the demand while the business supplies that demand whatever it may be. Wall-Mart is so big because most people like this guy said are trying to scrape by with the little income they have. They don’t care if Wall-Mart doesn’t have unique items; all they want is what they need to live at the lowest price possible.

You people can’t blame Wall-Mart for being so big. Blame America for making them so big.

that is true
i only wish that it wasn't so