NC Penguin

I think PBS recently broadcast a documentary about Walmart and here's an interview with an academic about the economic power of Walmart.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...s/gereffi.html

Any thoughts about Walmart?

Do you shop there? If so, why? If you don't, why?

As a consumer, are you concerned that the manufacture of so many of Walmart's products are in China (and overseas), not the US?

Bringing up shopping habits now seems so appropriate since it's nearly Thanksgiving and the shopping madness starts soon.




NC Penguin

Lion in Winter

They've opened a Walmart near by the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico.

Says it all really.

Pimpbot

I had my eyes tested there and bought glasses. Main reason was the value for money. We have also bought a vaccum from them, but choose to do our grocery shopping elsewhere. Thats not a slight on Walmart, but we have two or three closer grocery stores.

I am not sure if it's all part of Americans laziness in not wanting to drive too far to get to a store. But where I live, it seems like Walmart have a store in just about every neighbourhood. I pass by two on the way to work in less than a 10 mile stretch of freeway and I know of many more around the valley. The mom and pop shops don't seem to appeal to the average consumer anymore. Its all about one stop shopping now with Walmart, Target and the new Sears/Kmart hookup.

Pimpbot

I've climbed those pyramids. What a beautiful area. Shame they now have a megamart in full view.

AdobePinon

It's because Wal-Mart's tactics are to swamp the competition and put them out of business. Then they can close a few of their own stores too and move the investment somewhere else. It seems that their objective is to put so many people out of business that the only place affordable to everyone will be Wal-Mart. And thus the cycle continues...

rincewind

Whats the big deal? Who cares if Wal-Mart have economic dominance?

After all, it's the people that shop there that cause it to be dominant in the first place.

Yosser

I've put my daughters xmas presents on layaway at Walmart! bloody good idea if you ask me, that way I don't have to go shopping all over the place.

Target is my fav though, we get our groceries from there, if they had layaway I would of got it all from Target.

Still I feel sorry for the smaller retail stores that just can't keep up with the super giants pricing, but for familys on tight budgets, what else can you do?

elfman

I refuse to step inside a Wal-Mart or give them a cent of my money.

Henry Ford may not have been the world's nicest or most tolerant bloke but his attitude that his workers should be paid enough to be able to afford the cars they themselves made still has a lot to be said for it. Wal-Mart's attitude seems to be that their workers should be paid so little that they can't afford to shop anywhere else. Wal-Mart has a shocking record of sexism, aggressive anti-unionism and exploitation of their workers: they also expoit illegal immigrants and have a practice of illegally locking their staff inside their warehouses/distribution centres overnight.

Wal-Mart brings ruin both to the communities they move into and to other sectors of the retail market, not to mention their suppliers. Wal-Mart's practice when they open a new store is to undercut every local competitor, wait for them to go out of business, and then jack the prices back up. As shown on the PBS documentary, they actively coerce their suppliers to move their manufacturing to places like China and throw American workers on the dole (and this is done not so much to bring low prices to consumers but to boost their own profit margins - the PBS documentary showed that Wal-Mart's prices aren't even necessarily the cheapest in town). Wal-Mart likes to boast that they bring jobs to a community, but they generally have zero benefits and end up costing taxpayers money: People who used to work in Wal-Mart's competitors with benefits such as healthcare end up having to work for Wal-Mart and relying on medicaid and other taxpayer funded services just to survive.

Wal-Mart is very, very bad for America.

VFRpilot

I absloutley agree. They will never get any of my money

NC Penguin

The big deal is that Walmart is a prime suspect in the huge amounts of imports arriving every day from China and other cheap labor manufacturing countries.

Of course, the consumers themselves have only theirselves to blame. More so if those same consumers moan about the fact that they are being laid off, are losing their benefits, getting lower wages, in order for their employer to remain competitive against the imported products.

It's a vicious cycle though. The working poor, for example, probably flock to places like Walmart because that's all they can afford. They can't choose to shop anywhere else 'cos of the lack of disposable income.

I have been boycotting shopping at Walmart for a while now. I'm fortunate that I can choose where I shop and I don't care for cheap quality tat even if it's at low prices. Service sucks at Walmart too (regardless of the portrayal of the staff in the TV adverts).

Is Walmart good for the US? No, in my opinion. It's only good for Walmart and their bottom line.





NC Penguin

rincewind

Better tell relatives back in Blighty to boycott Asda too. Same company.

NC Penguin

Funnily enough, my best friend's husband back in the UK has been boycotting ASDA because of the Walmart connection for at least the last four years!

rincewind

Come to think of it. Better boycott all supermarkets as this is what they do. They all squeeze suppliers to ensure lower costs. All of them are the same.

Tescos in the UK has almost destroyed the farming industry by buying out farmers and leaving smaller farms to struggle to stay alive.

I'm not keen on the practice either, but that's not for me to control. Trading methods should be policed more efficiently. I'm not going to stop shopping at a store just because of the way it does business.

Let's all boycott medicines while we're at it due to the way in which that business is run.

The key thing here is to find a better a solution to the trading practices used.

Russ&Jayne

I agree too. We also don't shop there cos it's shite

Thydney

It's lazyness 180 million shop there every week after all where else can you get your food, your shotgun and your anti depressants in one trip?