Five myths about Wal-Mart

[longknife]

By Rebekah Peeples Massengill, Published: July 12

Rebekah Peeples Massengill, author of “Wal-Mart Wars: Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century,” teaches writing and sociology at Princeton University.

Wal-Mart has attracted controversy for decades: Its supporters laud its low prices and market efficiencies, while its opponents charge that the company exploits workers, destroys local economies and pollutes the environment. Now, despite warnings from the retailer that it would reconsider its plans to open three stores in Washington, the D.C. Council has passed a living-wage bill that would require Wal-Mart to pay its workers here at least $12.50 per hour. Let’s examine a few of these impressions about the world’s largest retailer.

Here's the five:

1. Only lower-income people shop at Wal-Mar
2. 2. Critics just want to unionize Wal-Mart workers.
3. Wal-Mart is great for low-income Americans.
4. Wal-Mart is bad for the environment.
5. Washington’s living-wage bill shows that communities can stand up to Wal-Mart.

My wife and I frequently shop at Wal-Mart and think this anti-Wal-Mart stuff is stupid and purely leftist politics. Read more at this enlightening article @ Five myths about Wal-Mart - The Washington Post

 

[Moonglow]

Wal Mart in Jane, Missouri was built upon wetlands, they destroyed the ecological area but built another one, but they did disturb an organic home for many animals and killed many more building the Wal-Mart. They could have built the Wal Mart in a different location, but insisted on that spot. It is a rural area and there were many more locations.
Even microscopic creatures are animals.

 

[Moonglow]

Dollar stores are beating Wal-Mart as is other discount grocery chains in the area. They are not the cheapest, they just have the one-stop shopping advantage.
Only poor people shop at Wal-Mart? Hardly, unless you can afford the membership dues at Sam's. Neighborhood markets of Wal-Mart are not the cheapest either. Wal-Mart pushes the 10 cent discount for fuel to lure people into Wal-Mart since you have to load the card for the discount in the store unless you have a pay card or a Wal Mart credit card.
great marketing ploy.

 

[Leweman]

I'm a Meijer fan myself. Sam's club does have a lot of good stuff if you can handle it in bulk. Best strawberries I've gotten this year so far. They are probably local this time of year though.

 

[PredFan]

I've been going to Walmart a lot lately. just because I know my support is pissing some assholes off.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Walmart increases our standard of living with lower prices. We use the savings from WalMart to buy other things we previously could not afford. This new spending stimulates the economy and creates jobs.

 

[Mr Natural]

I don't find the prices at Wal Mart to be significantly less than other stores.

Pennies at best and certainly not worth the drive or the aggrivation.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

I don't find the prices at Wal Mart to be significantly less than other stores.

Pennies at best and certainly not worth the drive or the aggrivation.

1) if that was true WalMart would be doomed. That's the beauty of capitalism. If you don't please your customers you're out.

Imagine that, we live in a society where you must please other people to survive in business, and least, that is, as long as conservatives and libertarians have their way.

 

[Whereisup]

The lower prices at Walmart are only part of what a customer pays.

When Walmart imports most of the products it sells, that reduces jobs in the United States. That produces high unemployment, which then causes some people to become unemployed as a hidden cost of purchasing the Walmart products. In addition, high unemployment has a downward effect on wages in general, so another hidden cost of the products at Walmart is lower incomes later on for the Americans who buy the products.

Then, the imports are paid for in large part by loans from foreign lenders. So another hidden cost of the Walmart products is the interest which the United States has to pay on those loans, which in the end reduces the incomes of all Americans. In addition, after the customer has paid for the product, there is still the loan there which has to be repaid by the United States, by either the government, or by other entities such as bank customers, at a future date. So the product has to be paid for twice. First by the customer. Then for the loan from a foreign lender used to import the product. The loans from foreign lenders ultimately have to be paid for by all Americans.

Thus, the hidden costs of products at Walmart raises their real costs for customers far above the sticker prices.

Jim

 

[BlueGin]

I've been going to Walmart a lot lately. just because I know my support is pissing some assholes off.

Me too. I don't particularly like the way the store is set up since they revamped the one near me and turned it into a super Walmart...however...I have noticed a definite difference in price for certain things I buy weekly. One item in particular a huge price difference of about $1.11.

Plus... they now sell bistro salad pks in their deli section that you can't find anywhere else...and since my kids request those instead of junk food for snacks and lunches, I'm all for going out of my way to get them.

 

[BlueGin]

Walmart increases our standard of living with lower prices. We use the savings from WalMart to buy other things we previously could not afford. This new spending stimulates the economy and creates jobs.

Found that out recently when I had to restock my fridge/freezer due to mine going out and needing to be replaced (ruined food had to be thrown out etc...). Saved my butt big time.

 

[Whereisup]

The schools don't teach Americans that the economy is highly complex with everything linked to everything else. Also, the media doesn't tell people that the economy is complex and internally interdependent.

Therefore, most Americans seriously fail to understand the economy, and it's not their fault. It is the fault of the schools and the media.

In this case, for example, even if you don't work for Walmart, what Walmart does affects what you are paid.

Over several decades, Walmart and other big box stores have pushed manufacturing companies to export jobs to low wage nations, because the stores wouldn't carry the products of the manufacturing companies on their shelves if the companies didn't do what Walmart and the other big box stores told them to do. Those store shelves are where the companies have to sell their products.

So Wallmart and the other big box stores brought about the export of millions of j0bs to foreign nations.

That has created a situation in which there aren't enough jobs for all Americans, so people are forced to fight for jobs.

Notice that when workers have to fight one another for jobs, that puts them in a terrible bargaining position, so wages decline. If Walmart and the big box stores had instead encouraged manufacturing companies to keep jobs in the United States, you and others would have much higher wages now.

You may not remember the time before jobs began to be exported.

There were small recessions from time to time but also periods of strong growth where businesses fought for good workers. If we correct for inflation, products cost a bit more (not all that much) but people had more income so overall, everyone had a higher standard of living than they do now - at each level of society. The middle class had more then than the middle class now. The working poor had more than the working poor now.

Even business was better off. Businesses were growing at a good rate, and there weren't as many financial crises and bankruptcies as there are now.

So everybody was better off before Walmart and the big box stores got the export of jobs into motion.

Jim