Walmart

[DocHeb]

<font color="blue">Is </font>
<font color="black">Is not. </font>

<font color="blue">Yes, it is. </font>
<font color="black">No, its not. </font>

<font color="blue">It really is. </font>
<font color="black">No, ITS NOT! </font>

<font color="blue">etc., </font> etc., <font color="blue">etc., </font> etc.

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Please tell me again why we're using Muhammad's tractor forum bandwidth and server storage for this? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[CJDave]

/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Reading through this entire thread has been interesting; HOWEVER; in the attention given to determining what exactly is the problem with Wal-Mart; and more broadly the US economy; the posters have missed seeing the forest because there were trees in the way. THE AWFUL TRUTH IS, that ENTRY-LEVEL manufacturing jobs are.....and have traditionally been....the pipeline through which people achieve middle class status. ENTRY LEVEL MANUFACTURING JOBS are what is being drained out of the United States; in every industry that you can think of; and added to that peril is the HEAP of govm't regulations that are further contributing to the demise of our basic resource industries (food, timber, mining, oil, steel, etc.). Overseas manufacturers don't have those regulatory problems so they can be much more competitive and drive US companies out of business. What is going to happen is that the US will LOSE THE MIDDLE CLASS. We will eventually be a nation of Wal-Mart-level employees....... ........on a level field with the rest of the coolies in the "global economy" ...........just scratching to survive. In the 1980's the UAW didn't do squat when their union membership drove Toyotas to work at GM; and they gave Clinton millions of dollars even though he signed NAFTA. I just cannot believe that these people whose jobs were at stake stood by and let that happen, but there it is. I saw this coming in the late 80's and I gave a keynote address about it at a trade convention in 1989. That speech is PROPHECY now. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Working at a union job for 30 bucks an hour and then shopping at Wal-Mart or some other import-loaded joint and buying stuff that you KNOW is cutting someone else......maybe your next-door neighbor......out of his job is VERY SHORT TERM THINKING, and our leadership in this country has been way too quiet about how unpatriotic that is. Call me a nut case if you want to, but the fact is that the shrinking middle class will not be buying many more motor homes and other high-dollar recreational toys. The heyday of the good-paying job is over; and as those jobs disappear, Wal-Mart will become stronger than ever since they are geared to the low end consumer who has no choice but to buy the chinese junk that they sell.....for less of course......I can't forget to include the slogan. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Chuck52]

So....on the way home, I stopped at <font color="red">Walmart </font> to buy that food dehydrator I mentioned in one of the fairly civil notes above. It says Made in the USA of USA and foreign components. Walmart sells the same brands found in various other stores, as well as their own brands. Most of the stuff I buy there I could buy at Target, Kmart, the local Ace Hardware (if they had it), or various other places. Same brands, but Walmart is often cheaper, and if it isn't and I know a place where I can buy it at a better price, I'll go there if I don't have to blow more on time and gas than I save.

This is not a hot button issue for me, and as far as I can see, hypocrisy must be in the eye of the beholder. I didn't buy this particular food dehydrator because it says Made in the USA, but because I had one and knew it worked pretty well. On the other hand, I can certainly understand the desire to buy American in the hope that what you buy really is American and the further hope that your purchase might help support the American economy. Clearly, with the global economy so inter-twinned and co-mingled, it's not all that simple. I recently bought a Chevy Impala, and it was nice to see the label about the percentage of components made in the USA, though I don't know that my purchase was of any better effect on the US economy than had I bought a Toyota assembled here. I bought that particular car because I got a decent deal on it and liked the salesman....how's that for a great reason to drop a few thousand dollars?

I suppose most of us would express a belief in a free market economy as the best possible model. I suspect this is a fine example of "Be careful what you wish for."

Chuck

 

[MossRoad]

<font color="blue">Found this article very interesting.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

What do you think? </font>

I think the main problem is volume discounting. How can any small retailer be competative if they can't get product to sell at the same wholesale price as the big guys? It is fairly obvious that all small retailers are doomed to extinction as long as this goes on. Eventually, there will be just one big retailer. Same thing is happening to small farms, small banks, small pharmacies, small newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, lawn tractor companies, etc...

I have to watch my family's dollars and cents. I usually try to get the best deal on the best products. I have to. I don't care to shop at Walmart for various reasons, but what are my alternatives? Meijer, Sam's Club(same as Walmart), Kmart(slowly vanishing), Lowes, Menards, Home Depot? There just aren't many small retailers left. We are lucky to have a locally owned grocery store chain here. I like their prices and selection as well as the service, but even they are growing all the time. They have bought out some of the smaller local stores. They're giving the big guys a run for their money, but they are getting bigger in the process.

It's the economics of scale. It stinks, I don't like it, but that is the reality of it. Someone has to make the products that we need. With a global economy, the hungriest, most ambitious people are going to do whatever it takes to get the jobs making those products. America use to be the hungriest, most ambitious country. It isn't anymore. I figure that until the whole world gets involved and the pay scale evens out across the world we will see declining wages in America, Japan and Western Europe and rising wages in the rest of the world. That's my outlook for the traditional working class people in this country. If they want to maintain their standard of living, they will have to adapt by either getting higher paying jobs in non-manufacturing/non-labor jobs, partner up with a spouse to get two incomes or lower their expenses(less luxuries). My wife and I have chosen a combination of all three. I just wonder how hard it will be for my children when they hit the job market.

As for buying American, it is nice to be able to buy a good, quality product that is made in America. If I need something and I find it in both American and foreign models, if all other things are equal, I'll buy the American product. Why not support the home team, right? But if the foreign product is superior, it's coming home with me. That's common sense and I have no problem with that.