Originally Posted by
deburn
You have a right to loathe Walmart and there are many Americans feel the same. Unfortunately, most of these are people who dont shop at Walmart and dont need to (I'm not saying you fall into this either of these categories).
I would like to highlight a couple of things about Walmart that invariably gets lost in the media frenzy: they have played a key role in drastically improving the quality of life for Americans who need it the most, those with low incomes, as well as a large chunk of others who are not "poor" but like to stretch their dollar as much as they can. btw this is the way a market economy (as ours is) works: if you can get away with charging a high price, you do. If you choose to attract business by charging low prices, that's your choice as a business owner - but no business can force consumers to buy from them. Consumers buy because they see value, perceived or not.
Ok, I guess I'm going to get this sent to P&R....
1) No, I don't "need" to shop at wal-mart. Honestly though, I'm having trouble understanding why anyone does. Most of what I buy comes from ebay, craigslist, or some etailer -- all of which arrive at my door at a lower price and probably higher quality than what I could get at Wal-Mart.
2) Wal-Mart isn't truly selling at a "lower price". For me, that would imply they're selling the same item for less money. What they're typically doing instead, is manufacturing a lower quality item and then selling that at a lower price. Not the same thing.
I'm simply not buying that they're improving anyone's quality of life. They're systematically eliminating HUGE numbers of working class jobs in this country. They're eliminating full-time retail jobs with benefits, by not making them available to their own employees, and by running retailers who were providing it out of business. They're eliminating tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs by offshoring all production.
No, they're not the only ones, but they're a very major contributor. Imagine how many manufacturing jobs Wal-Mart creates in countries around the world. These are all jobs that aren't available in our country. These are jobs needed by the very people who now "need" low quality, low price goods.
When we eliminated the farming jobs, some moved to the factories. When we eliminated the factory jobs, some moved to knowledge jobs. The problem is, not all people are cut out for these jobs, for one reason or another. They might not have any other options. Of course, globalization is removing the knowledge jobs now as well, so everyone better hope they either have a service job, or are REALLY good at what they do. In the end, it's the people at the bottom, without the mobility and flexibility that get screwed every time.